WAG can still recall one of its most interesting visits to the Garrison Art Center, for an October 2015 story on well-done exhibitions that spotlighted local notables Aileen Osborn Webb, Mary Einstein Wright and Russel Wright.
Now, we’ve heard of a leadership change at the art center, as announced in a recent press release:
“Katie Schmidt Feder, whose career has been devoted to the visual and performing arts, has been named the new executive director of the Garrison Art Center.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in musical theater and dance with a technical emphasis in costume design and fine art coursework at the University of Northern Colorado. Her post-undergraduate work took her to various regional theaters as well as New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab. Feder also holds a master of arts degree in arts administration from an innovative limited-residency program at Goucher College, just outside Baltimore. Her thesis on Outsider Art focused on how to support the work of self-taught, visionary and intuitive artists.
Feder moved from Brooklyn to Peekskill in 2003 and served as director, designer and teaching artist in many studios and schools throughout the Hudson Valley.
For the past five years, she served as executive director of EMBARK Peekskill, a performing and literary arts organization of which she is also the co-founder. The mission of EMBARK is to provide space for artists and writers to teach, collaborate, create and perform. Through her work with EMBARK, Feder has become involved with many other local organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce, Youth Bureau, Rotary Club, the libraries and the school district.
Currently, Feder lives in a historical home in Yorktown Heights with her husband, Michael, and her two children, Max, age 13, and Mimi, age 11.”
We at WAG wish Feder all the best in this new role.
For more, visit garrisonartcenter.org.
– Mary Shustack
