Join us on Zoom for a panel discussion exploring the intersections of public art and preservation. We'll hear from practitioners who will explore how public art initiatives can be used to directly support preservation efforts by drawing attention to historic sites and engaging with their communities in interesting ways. Click here to register.
Featured speakers:
Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, AICP, Co-Founder & Board Member of No Longer Empty | Founder of Department of Small Interventions
Emma Boast, Program Associate in the Office of the President at the Mellon Foundation
Meredith Sorin-Horsford, Executive Director at Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
Moderated by Carol Ward, Executive Director of Lexington Historical Society
Recognizing the power of incremental change, Dept of Small Interventions (DoSI) launches place-based projects to amplify cultural assets, galvanize collaborations, and build social infrastructure. Projects include the 150th Anniversary of Frederick Douglass visiting Newburgh, Building Shells:Building Community historic preservation project, Urban Archive in Newburgh app and launching the city's first arts and cultural study. Before moving to Newburgh, Naomi Hersson-Ringskog co-founded No Longer Empty, a New York City non-profit that revives underutilized properties and sites with large, community-responsive art exhibitions, cultural collaborations, and educational programming. In seven years, NLE staged 25 exhibitions, commissioned 250+ artists, engaged 500,000 visitors, and received international acclaim. Naomi earned a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University. She currently serves on the board of No Longer Empty, Awesome Newburgh Foundation, The Fullerton Center, Storm King Art Center's Young Council. She is a fellow at the Urban Design Forum, Coro Neighborhood Leadership program, and co-chairs the City of Newburgh's Transportation Advisory Committee
Emma Boast is a curator, public historian, and cultural planner leveraging the power of public art and history to advance social justice and equitable community development. She is currently a Program Associate in the Office of the President at the Mellon Foundation, where she works to advance the Monuments Project, a $250 million initiative to transform the nation’s commemorative landscape.
Prior to joining Mellon, Emma was a member of the arts and culture team at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, where she facilitated cultural planning projects on behalf of local governments throughout Greater Boston and spearheaded social justice-oriented initiatives in community engagement, partnerships, and research.
Her experience includes curatorial work with the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago, as well as cultural policy development with the Department of Art, Culture + Tourism in Providence, RI. She also spent five years as the founding director of exhibitions and programming at the Museum of Food and Drink, where she curated groundbreaking exhibitions and programs at the intersection of history, culture, and science. She earned a BA in art history at the University of Chicago and an MA in public humanities at Brown University, where she was a curatorial fellow.
Meredith Sorin Horsford has served as the Executive Director of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum since 2015, where she leads her team toward creative and inclusive programming and interpretation with a community focused perspective. In 2019, she spearheaded an extensive research project on the enslaved and free Black men and women that were instrumental in the prosperity of the Dyckman Farm. Her goal at the museum is to connect the past with the present through programs such as a reoccurring race lecture series, contemporary art installations highlighting the Black experience in America and urban agricultural programs.
Horsford has worked as a museum and nonprofit professional for 16 years, working previously as the Executive Director of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, the official mayoral residence, and prior to that, Deputy Director of the Historic House Trust of New York City.
She holds a Master of Arts in Geography from the University of Delaware, a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the State University of New York College at Geneseo and a certificate in Grantmaking and Foundations from New York University. Horsford also serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the Greater Hudson Heritage Network.
Carol S. Ward has 20 years of collaborative leadership in for profit and nonprofit management, financial oversight, fundraising, strategic planning, Board relationships and grant-winning cultural program development.
Ms. Ward is an art historian with her BA from Mary Washington College, and two Masters Degrees, her first in Museum Education from the College of New Rochelle, and her second in Art History from Hunter College.
She has presented the keynote address at Connecticut League of Historic Organizations on connecting an historic site to the community, both the annual American Alliance of Museums and New York City Museum Educators Roundtable conferences on bringing contemporary art into an historic house museum, at Mary Washington College about the future of careers in art history and the museum field and the New-York Historical Society on Alexander Hamilton (the man and the musical).
Articles she has written have been published in The Magazine Antiques, The Historic House Trust journal, the American Alliance of Museums Magazine, Antiques Weekly and catalogs for the Bruce Museum, Morris-Jumel Mansion and Keno Auctions.
Her book Visions of America: The Morris-Jumel Mansion was published in 2015 and she has recently appeared in the documentary on the making of the hit musical "Hamilton."
The Future of Preservation webinar series is sponsored by the Peggy N. & Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust.