Board of Directors

2023 Board of Directors

President

Hilde Weisert

Hilde Weisert has long experience in the high tech field, currently working at Dell Technologies. She has served on the board of several non-profit organizations, was a volunteer coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Bergen County, and has consulted with numerous nonprofit boards on ways to improve their operations. She is a published poet, winner of several national awards, who reads and gives workshops around the Berkshires. Her books include a poetry collection, The Scheme of Things (David Robert Books, 2015) and Animal Companions, Animal Doctors, Animal People which she co-edited with Dr. Elizabeth Stone (University of Guelph, 2012). Of The Scheme of Things, Ursula Le Guin wrote
“Hilde Weisert’s quiet, versatile poetic voice, fully at ease in narrative and lyric, is distinguished by vivid accuracy of thought and speech, modest but absolute courage in choice of subject, a dry, sweet humor, and a generosity of spirit that brings me back to her book again and again.”

Hilde has also hosted several literary and community-centred programs at the Arts Center.

Vice-president

Sheila Liberman

Sheila Liberman was the founder of Group 30, a marketing and PR agency that provided services in both the public and private sectors. Involved in education issues, she served as PTA president, co-chair of the city-wide PTA council, and the board of the Newton Schools Foundation. A member of the board of the Friends of the Newton Free Library, Sheila was chair of the library’s annual Book and Author Luncheon. As a member of the staff of the Mabel T. Riley Foundation (Boston, MA), she had a role in the founding of the Dudley Street (Roxbury, MA) Neighborhood Association. She has been a mentor for new mothers through Jewish  Family and Children’s Services (Waltham, MA). Sheila and her husband, Allen, have been part-time residents of Tolland since 1985.

Treasurer

Jean Atwater-Williams

Jean Atwater-Williams holds a Bachelor of Music (concentration in voice) from Boston Conservatory of Music.  She has performed in a wide array of venues across several genres (art song, operetta, sacred music, musical theater and straight drama and comedy) and is a core member of the Sandisfield Players. Jean is also a ukulele player and enthusiast.  She owns and operates BizTech Associates, a technology company specializing in helping small businesses and nonprofits utilize computer, Internet and telecommunications technology.  Jean has served as an officer and/or director for numerous professional, civic and arts organizations such as the American Heart Association, WiredWest, the Hillstead Museum, the Rotary Club of Farmington, the Sandisfield Times and the Sandisfield Arts Center (president, 2010-12).  Formerly of Farmington, Connecticut, Jean, her husband Ron, and their two furry Keeshonds reside in Sandisfield when they are not out on the open road sharing yet another RV adventure.

Secretary/Clerk

Thomas Christopher

Tom Christopher is a graduate of Brown University and the New York Botanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture. He worked for 10 years at Columbia University, restoring the landscape of an historic Hudson River estate and then went on to a career as a horticultural journalist, [publishing in a variety of newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, House and Garden and Martha Stewart Living. He is the author of more than a dozen books about gardening and currently divides his time between Sandisfield and Middletown, CT. his interests include vintage New England hard ciders (he and his wife Suzanne have 30 gallons fermenting in their basement), heirloom chicken breeds, and writing for the Sandisfield Times.

Board Members

Peter Baiamonte

Peter Baiamonte was born, raised, and still makes his primary home in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BA from Brooklyn College: his major was Art with a focus on photography and a minor in English. He has been working in the photographic industry in New York since graduating from college in 1996. He has held a variety of positions in various studios, from intern to full- time staff. He now owns his own small business- Peter Baiamonte Photography- with diverse clients that include ad agencies, magazines, small PR firms and more.

Peter started bicycle racing in the early 1990’s and raced on an amateur level for over 20 years. Cycling remains an active interest. Peter and his wife Midori Nakamura purchased a house at 3 New Hartford Road about three years ago and divide their time between Brooklyn and Sandisfield.

Jessica Cofrin

Bio TBD

Susie Crofut

An active volunteer since the inception of the Sandisfield Arts Center, Susie is an artist working in watercolors and acrylics. She is on the board of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, is a member of the Steering Committee of the Highlands Community Initiative and is actively involved with the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Susie has served two terms as Arts Center co-president and has led many committees. For her service, she was honored with the 2023 Board Leadership award from the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires.

Adam Manacher

Adam Manacher lives in Cambridge and here on Silverbrook Road where his family has had a home for 42 years. Adam is a trained Chef with an impressive resume that includes stints in France, New York, Hartford and Boston. Adam is our Guest Chef for various fund raising dinners throughout the year, and offers food prep workshops at the Arts Center from time to time. Adam is now out of the professional kitchen.  Adam is also well known for his occasional column in the Sandisfield Times (Edible Sandisfield) and is active on boards and organizations in Cambridge.

Linda Mironti

Bio TBD

Jaye Alison Moscariello

I began painting when I was pretty young, and gratefully acquired a few skills at Paier College of Art in Hamden, Connecticut. In the 80s I moved to New York City. .After a few years I began showing my work regionally and internationally by way of friends and associations.

West Coast warmth and the possibilities of new experiences motivated a move to Hollywood, where in my tiny art studio on Fairfax I painted a lot about loss and isolation.in response to the AIDS epidemic which stole the lives of many of my friends and associates. I also grieved the untimely deaths of my sister Leslie, and both my parents. I continued to exhibit wherever I felt most called or invited. Eventually I found my dream studio and gallery in Santa Monica where I lived and worked for eight years during which time I worked on series’ that addressed such topics as climate change, genetically engineered foods, and 9/11.

After nearly 21 years in Los Angeles, a  body of work, a series of paintings in gouache, watercolor, and pen and ink on arches paper entitled “Chase the Monkey” informed me that it was time to leave the city and to reconnect with nature. I did just that in May of 2009, after meeting my future husband farmer/composer Bill Taylor, moving first to Anderson Valley, then to Elk and finally to Redwood Valley where we managed our farm, Floodgate Farm on Heart Mountain, where Just outside my door existed an abundance of wildlife and natural beauty. In 2016 I published a not just for children’s picture storybook of the adventure entitled “Capture the Moon”.

The move to Northern California spurred my desire to paint the landscape – motivated in part by the fear that I would wake up one day and it would all be gone! I had some kind of doomsday concern, tantamount to extreme climate change or bombs going off like Hiroshima —something drastic.

The Wildfires of 2017 were traumatic, we experienced three on our land that year.

In processing the fire experiences and living with the constant awareness that what happened then can happen again.  I produced  a short film entitled:: From the Ashes – Fire, Survival. and Renewal, our community’s responses to the Redwood Complex Fire 2017.

In 2020,  I executed a series of painting entitled “Smoke ’N Fire”, and largely due to the sudden death of my youngest sibling and ensuing California wildfires, we chose to sell our 195 acre place and move back to the East Coast, where our families live and where we are creating a new life and farm and maintaining close relations with those we left behind.  I am still witnessing and interpreting the landscape among other things; such as exhibiting, curating and assisting with exhibitions!

Suzanne OConnell

Suzanne OConnell grew up in Monterey, MA and is a graduate of Mt. Everett Regional High School. Now she splits her time between Middletown, CT where is a Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Wesleyan University, and Sandisfield. She is a marine geologist, studying past climate as recorded in deep ocean sediments. She has authored and co-authored over eighty peer-reviewed articles. Outside of Sandisfield, her favorite place to be is onboard the  JOIDES Resolution, the flagship vessel of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). This ship has taken her to the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic. Informing the public about science and how science is done is a new passion and she has published articles in The Conversation, the Washington Post, Slate, the Hartford Courant and the Houston Chronicle.

She has been an active member of the SArC Community for over twenty years, painting the stairway during the initial days, organizing programs (e.g. Mushrooms and The Bill of Rights), presenting and volunteering. 

John Skrip

John has held several leadership positions in Sandisfield including school board member and chairperson, cultural council member and chairperson, town moderator and most recently town Selectman.

In addition to his past service as Treasurer, as a member of the Board of Directors he acts as a conduit to local residents to encourage their participation. John is also chair of the Rentals Committee.

After 34 years of teaching and school administration, John retired in 2002, and is currently a member of the adjunct faculty at 2 community colleges where he teaches chemistry.

Linda Storms

After 35 years as a Certified Financial Planner, Linda retired in 2018 and subsequently moved from Connecticut to Sandisfield with her husband Craig. Her recent experiences performing at the Majestic Theater in West Springfield, as well as years of staged improvisation and storytelling performances, provide great experience for Linda to both support the board in its event planning and contribute to the Sandisfield Players. Her goals for volunteering at the Sandisfield Arts Center include fostering community and bringing arts and education to our little town.

Past Presidents

1985-1997 Leonard Dryansky (founding President)

1997-1998 Erica Fay

1998-2001 Dr. Ron Myers

2001-2002 Liana Toscanini

2002-2003 Irene Conley

2003-2006 Tina Sotis

2005-2008 Rita Kasky

2008-2010 Barbara Elton

2010-2012 Jean Atwater-Williams

2013-2014 Susie Crofut and Alice Boyd

2015-2016 Marcella Smith

2016-2017 Susie Crofut and Sandy Parisky

2018-2019 Sheila Liberman, Barbara Penn, Rosanne Skrip, Hilde Weisert, co-presidents

2020-2023 Hilde Weisert