Dianne B. Bernhard
Member Since 1994
Dianne B. Bernhard began her career as an artist in Houston, Texas. Her early years were spent studying with renowned painters Fernie Parker Taite, Elsie Andrews and William Henry Earle. Later, as a teacher herself, Ms. Bernhard became one of the leading pioneers of paint-along workshops. She pursued additional studies in art history and business at the University of Houston and Yale University and subsequently studied at the New York School of Interior Design.
After almost twenty years of painting and teaching in oil, Ms. Bernhard developed a passion for the pastel media and has become an accomplished practitioner and collector. Ms. Bernhard actively contributes to many art organizations including the Pastel Society of America, the National Arts Club, the Salmagundi Club and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She has received many prestigious awards including the President's Award for Excellence at the National Arts Club. She has served on numerous boards and as President of the Connecticut Classic Artists Association. She currently serves both as Chair of the Visual Arts Program and President on the Board of Governors at the National Arts Club.
Her success as an artist, teacher and mentor has brought her full circle from painter to patron, as evinced by her most recent endeavor, the creation of the Art Spirit Foundation. Through Art Spirit's programs, publishing, and films she continues to advocate the arts, nurture the renaissance of pastel, as well as create awareness that the rewards of great art should be attained during the life of the artist.
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Tara Cortes, PhD, RN, FAAN
Member since 2008
Dr. Tara Cortes is currently the Executive Director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatrics, and a Professor in Geriatric Nursing at the New York University College of Nursing. She has developed collaborative models with advanced practice nurses and physicians in traditional as well as nontraditional settings to enhance the care of the American elderly population.
Prior to joining the NYU College of Nursing, Dr. Cortes was President and CEO of Lighthouse International. Dr. Cortes spent the initial phase of her career in nursing education at Hunter College, and then as the Head of Nursing Research and Information Systems at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. She was the Chief Nursing Officer at Rockefeller University Hospital and continued her career in nursing and hospital administration at Mount Sinai Medical Center and at Bridgeport Hospital, before assuming the senior leadership role at Lighthouse International.
Dr. Cortes is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. She completed her PhD and Masters degrees at New York University and BSN at Villanova University, where she served on the Board of Trustees. Dr. Cortes also serves on the boards of several medical institutions, including the Visiting Nurse Regional, the National Accreditation Council for Blindness, Low Vision, and the US Army Regional Advisory Board.
Dr. Cortes has been a Governor of the National Arts Club for one year.
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Helaine Fendelman
Member since 2000
Helaine Fendelman is a generalist fine and decorative arts appraiser specializing in estate, divorce and donation work and a certified member and past President of the Appraisers Association of America, Inc. In addition to being a longtime contributor to Hearst’s Country Living Magazine with her column, “What is it? What Is it Worth?” she co-authors a weekly syndicated column “Treasures in Your Attic” for Scripps Howard Media Service and is the co-host of “Treasures in Your Attic,” a television show seen on PBS stations. She has extensive non-profit board experience and has worked as a consultant for numerous museums and historical societies throughout the US.
Additionally, Ms. Fendelman has served as a curator for exhibits at the American Folk Art Museum, and has written over 14 books on antiques and collecting including All About Appraising: The Definitive Appraisal Handbook; Price it Yourself, Treasures In Your Attic; Tramp Art A Folk Art Phenomenon; Silent Companions; Dummy Board Figures of the 17th Through 19th Centuries, and The Official Identification and Price Guides to American Folk Art and Holiday Collectibles.
Ms. Fendelman is also an instructor at New York University’s Appraisal Institute.
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Stephen Fredericks
Member since 1999
Stephen Fredericks is a professional artist and entrepreneur working and living with his family on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. His primary focus is as a printmaker specializing in etching, and related graphic arts. He is an artist member of numerous organizations including the Art Students League of New York, the Salmagundi Club, and the American Print Alliance. In 1998 he founded The New York Society of Etchers, Inc., a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, of which he is president. Mr. Fredericks is also the owner of the New York Etchers Press – a publisher of limited edition portfolios of fine art prints.
Stephen has also worked in New York City’s real estate industry since 1980. Today he is a senior executive at the privately held Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation where his responsibilities place him in the heart of the design world managing the leasing of four renowned design centers including New York’s D&D Building, and the Pacific Design Center.
Mr. Fredericks graduated from Boston University’s College of Liberal Arts in 1976 with a degree in Geography and minor in economics. Later he attended The American Graduate School of International Management and earned a Masters degree in International Management in 1978.
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Ira Goldberg
Member since 2005
Ira Goldberg is the Executive Director of the Art Students League of New York. His 32-year commitment to the institution began in 1979 when he became a student of the renowned anatomist and lecturer Robert Beverly Hale. In 1982, he joined the League staff as an administrator and continued his art studies with painting instructors David Leffel, Knox Martin, and Frank O’Cain.
For the next fourteen years, he worked closely with Executive Director Rosina Florio, and served as Administrative Manager beginning in 1996. In August of 2001, he was appointed Executive Director. Mr. Goldberg’s years with the League as a student and an administrator, his deep rapport with the artists who make up the League’s world-renowned faculty and his in-depth knowledge of the art world have made him uniquely qualified to serve as a guardian of the League’s rich history and a leader with a clear vision of the League’s future. In that time new programs have been launched that include an Artist in Residence program at the League’s Vytlacil Campus in Rockland County, Model to Monument, in which 7 selected students are trained in the process of public sculpture and have their work displayed in Riverside Park South in Manhattan and Exhibition Outreach where the work of League artists is shown in venues throughout the city.
Since the mid-1980s, Mr. Goldberg’s work has been shown in galleries, exhibited in juried shows, and included in numerous private collections across the United States.
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Robert Harley
Member since 2009
Rob Harley has spent the last 16 years in the financial services industry in sales and fundraising positions in New York and San Francisco. He currently holds the position of Director of Business Development for Criterion Capital Management, a San Francisco based technology hedge fund with $1.6bln in assets under management. Based in New York, Mr. Harley has primary responsibility for client relations and fund raising globally.
Prior to Criterion, Mr Harley spent 13 years working for investment banks in various institutional equity sales roles. Most recently, Mr. Harley was with Credit Suisse, joining the San Francisco office in 2000, and moving to New York City with the firm in 2005. He started his Wall Street career with Kleinwort Benson in New York in 1996, after earning his MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business that same year.
Mr. Harley has dedicated much of his personal time to supporting the arts. In 2005 he helped found Monte Azul, an artist residency program in the mountains of southern Costa Rica. Mr. Harley met his future wife, Ms. Christina Casey, at The National Arts Club in 2009.
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Elissa Lumley
Member since 2005
Elissa Lumley manages corporate communications for J. Christopher Capital, a worldwide operational and financial firm founded by CEO J. Christopher Burch, an active investor and entrepreneur across a wide range of industries from apparel, retail and home furnishings to hospitality and technology. Ms. Lumley is responsible for the external media efforts around the firm’s expansion, it’s development of nine new brands, and communications support for Mr. Burch’s outside investments.
Prior to J. Christopher Capital, Ms. Lumley spent over nine years in magazine publishing where she oversaw the publicity for preeminent titles such as Architectural Digest, Vogue and W. She was named Vogue Marketer of the Year for 2006 after having secured several high-profile media stories to promote the magazine’s internal ad agency, Vogue Studio, and the brand repositioning of several Vogue clients including, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Associated Press.
Ms. Lumley has worked with reporters and producers from a wide range of media organizations from Fox News Channel to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Additionally, she spent six years in the PR agency environment and began her media career in public relations at CNN in Washington, D.C.
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 Mary Melikian (Haynes)
Member Since 1992
Mary Melikian Haynes is a Former Trustee of the Rhode Island School of Design, Director of Public Relations, Grand Central Art Galleries, Assistant Director, Grand Central Moderns, N.Y., Assistant Stylist for Modern Masters Series, Fuller Fabrics., N.Y. and Art instructor in educational system of N.J. and N.Y.
Ms. Haynes is listed in Who's Who in American Art and various international biographies. Radio broadcasts in U.S. and abroad through Voice of America. Her work has been reviewed in N.Y. Herald-Tribune, Journal-American, Arts, Art News, Pictures on Exhibit, Christian Science Monitor, Villager, Providence Journal and others. At the UN, the painting Exodus at the Centre for Human Rights.
She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design and received Graduate Courses at Columbia University Teachers College.
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John Morisano
Member since 2006
John Morisano has spent his professional life helping to build and run entertainment, media and art inspired companies. A CPA and graduate of Pace University, Mr. Morisano started his career in 1986 at the independent film company, Vista Organization, Ltd. He then joined Pricewaterhouse Coopers in its entertainment and media practice. In 1993, he moved to Paris to take over the European operations of Activision, the World’s leading video game publisher and then relocated to the company’s L.A.-based
headquarters.
In 1996, he joined the Sunshine Companies where they focused on media, art and technology start-ups and turnarounds. While at Sunshine, and through its investments which included the Sunshine Theater, Pickerel Pie Entertainment, Cumulus Studios and SaysMe.TV, John has overseen a wide variety of film, television and Internet content, helped to manage significant modern/contemporary art portfolios and been involved in a wide variety of corporate transactions. Currently John is the founder and CEO of PRG Media, Inc., a global social media and social commerce space for women aged 35 to 50 with offices in New York and London.
Mr. Morisano has been a Governor and First Vice President of the National Arts Club for one year.
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Peter Norton
Member since 2001
Peter Norton is best known as a computer software publisher, creating the Norton Utilities and Anti-Virus products for personal computers, as well as extensive technical writing about computers. A graduate of Reed College in Portland Oregon, in a self-described “varied and wandering career” he worked as a computer programmer in both business and aerospace, studied for five years in a Zen monastery, back-packed around the world, founded his software business, which was sold to Symantec Corporation, and became prominent as a collector of contemporary art.
In later life he has devoted himself to philanthropy and board service on arts and educational institutions. In the arts, he serves on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (also known as LACMA), and in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Signature Theatre Company. In education, he serves on the boards of Reed College, California Institute of Technology (CalTech), California Institute of the Arts and Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences. In business, he is the lead investor and Board chair of Acorn Technology.
Mr. Norton lives in New York City with his wife, Gwen, and Schrödinger’s cat.
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Candice Peltz
Member Since 2010
Candice Peltz received her BA in Accounting and Economics at Queens College of The City of New York . Peltz career included administration and management of her family's investment portfolios. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, specifically Germany, while assisting in PhD programs.
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Robert Pickus
Member since 2005
Robert Pickus, Esq. is a Managing Director of GCA, Holdings, LLC and the Chief Executive Officer of GCA Leisure, LLC. He has more than 30 years of executive experience in the casino entertainment industry and broad expertise in strategic corporate planning, administration of legal affairs, and governmental compliance. While an officer of Trump Entertainment Resorts (TER) for over 25 years, he held positions of increasing responsibility including chief administrative officer, general counsel and corporate secretary. He was responsible for the legal, human resources, risk management, development and governmental affairs of the $1bln in annual revenue
company.
Prior to his responsibilities at TER, Mr. Pickus was an adjunct professor at Rutgers School of Law teaching casino law and a lecturer at the Cornell University, School of Hotel Administration, Casino Management Seminars. He has been active in the initiation of various responsible gaming programs and was recognized for those efforts by commendation of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey.
Admitted to practice law in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Mr. Pickus received his law degree from Rutgers School of Law in 1979 and his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Rutgers College in 1976.
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Chris Poe
Member since 2006
Chris Poe was most recently a Managing Director and Head of Global Brand Management & Advertising for BlackRock, the asset manager, responsible for managing the Firm’s portfolio of brands and coordinating advertising activities of the business globally. He was a member of the Firm’s Human Capital and Global Philanthropy Committees and executive sponsor of the Firm’s people & culture initiatives.
Prior to assuming these responsibilities, Mr. Poe was Head of Retail Marketing. In this role, he developed a variety of programs for intermediary distribution of the Firm’s mutual funds. Additionally, he managed communications planning for BlackRock’s mergers with State Street Research & Management, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Barclays Global Investors.
Before joining BlackRock, Mr. Poe was an independent marketing and brand consultant to firms in a variety of categories including healthcare, large pharmaceuticals, retail and financial services. Previously, he spent 12 years at JPMorgan Chase and its predecessor organizations managing marketing planning, direct response marketing, sales promotion and merchandising of that firm’s then 600+ branch network.
A resident of New York City, he volunteers for a number of not-for-profit organizations in support of education and culture.
Mr. Poe has been a Governor and Second Vice President of the National Arts Club for one year.
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Franck Raharinosy
Member since 2007
Franck Raharinosy is a New York based entrepreneur, philanthropist, and filmmaker whose career began with a position at MTV news in the 90’s. In early 2000 Franck co-founded Ridiculous LLC, a film production studio that produced many wellreceived films, documentaries, web sites and music videos, forming collaborations with many notable artists, musicians and filmmakers including Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Gary Clark Jr., 50 Cent, Charlie Siem, The Beastie Boys, and many others. In 2009, Mr. Raharinosy founded with Jonathan Bricklin, Andrew Gordon and academy award winning actress Susan Sarandon, SPiN Galactic and SPiN Social, a chain of ping-pong social clubs and a ping-pong social network.
Since opening SPiN, Franck has organized many successful fundraisers for charity organizations and has made giving back to the world at large a fundamental part of SPiN’s business. Franck received degrees in business and law from the Ecole de Gestion et de Commerce de la Reunion on the French Island of La Reunion. After an internship in Southern California, Franck moved to New York, where he has lived for over a decade. He is on the Young Members Commitee for The National Arts Club in New York City, as well as MADA, a not for profit organization providing help to the east coast of Madagascar.
Mr. Raharinosy has been a Governor of the National Arts Club for one year.
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Alex Rosenberg, Sc.D., A.A.A./A.S.A.
Member since 1984
Dr. Alex Rosenberg is a certified and accredited Senior Appraiser of Personal Property/Fine Arts by the Appraisers Association of America (AAA) and the American Society of Appraisers (ASA). He is a former President of AAA and member of the Personal Property Committee and Board of Examiners of ASA, co-chair of AAA Education Committee and Chairman of the Salvador Dali Research Center. With over 35 years of experience as an appraiser and expert witness, Dr. Rosenberg is recognized as a leader in dealing with problems related to the Internal Revenue Service regarding estates and gifts.
Dr. Rosenberg holds a number of academic distinctions including being a Visiting Professor of Fine Art at the Instituto de Arte in Havana, Cuba and being Adjunct Professor of Appraising at New York University. He received his Doctor of Science from I.S.A., an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Hofstra University, Honorary Fellow from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the 2005 President’s Award from the Appraiser’s Assoc. of America and various other citations for his work as an appraiser.
In addition, Dr. Rosenberg has authored a number of important writings, including most recently, Advanced Problems in Appraising, Curriculum for Masters of Art degree course in Appraising at ISA and The Art, Science and Business of Appraising.
Dr. Rosenberg has been a Governor of the National Arts Club for one year and is a recipient of its Lifetime Achievement award.
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James Vincent
Member since 2005
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Eugene Weise, M.D.
Member from 1982 to 2005 and 2011 to present
Dr. Eugene Weise is an ophthalmologist with an active practice on Manhattan’s upper east side. He is currently an Attending Surgeon at Manhattan Eye & Ear Hospital and the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary. He received his M.D. from New York University School of
Medicine and served in the United States Army Medical Corp.
Additionally, Dr. Weise has considerable experience in administration having been on the Board of the New York County Medical Society for ten years. During that time he held the offices of Treasurer and President and now serves as a Trustee. He has been a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal Society of Medicine (England) and a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and New York Society for Clinical Ophthalmology.
In his 24 years of being a member of the National Arts Club, Dr. Weise has volunteered much time at 15 Gramercy Park South. He worked on the House Committee for many years, becoming very familiar with the Club’s infrastructure. He has been the Board President of his residential cooperative for a number of years and Vice President of Doctor’s Owning Corporation, where his office is located.
Dr. Weise has most recently been a Governor of the National Arts Club for approximately six months. He previously served on the Board from 1985 to 2000.
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Hillary Jane Weldon
Member Since 2004
Hillary Weldon established the Weldon FOP Research Fund at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Weldon has extensive experience in fundraising specifically in support to forward Dr. Frederick Kaplan's research to help find the cure for FOP. Whitney, Weldon's daughter is one of 700 patients around the globe diagnosed with FOP. Weldon Co-founded The Rare Bone Disease Patient Network, a coalition of rare bone disease organizations, established under the auspices of the USBJD, with the mission to share information, expertise and resources, in a collaborative effort to increase awareness, understanding and research of rare bone disorders. Ms. Weldon organized the 1st Advances in Rare Bone Diseases Scientific Global Conference at the NIH in Washington, DC. This position has taken her advocacy to Africa, Canada, India, and states through out the USA .
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Roger Wight
Member since 2009
Roger Wight currently serves as Director of Artistic Planning for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He oversees the organization’s artistic and curatorial profile and is responsible for identifying repertoire and creative collaborators as well as connecting all artistic initiatives to institutional mission.
An arts professional with diverse non-profit management experience, Mr. Wight came to the New Jersey Symphony from a variety of positions in public broadcasting. Most recently, he spent seven years as a producer for National Public Radio, including four years as a senior producer leading a team of editors, technicians and talent in the production of Performance Today, a classical music program heard daily on 250 NPR stations nationally.
After serving as a member of the National Arts Club Music Committee, Mr. Wight was appointed its Chairman in January of 2012. He lives in New York City with his wife, Jane Cho, a pianist and the Director of Administration at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
Mr. Wight has been a Governor of the National Arts Club for approximately two months.
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Linda Zagaria
Member since 1990
Linda Zagaria is the Executive Director of the Beaux Arts Alliance. An educator by profession, Linda has always had an interest in architecture and historic preservation. Her passion for the Art Deco period led her to assume the role of Vice President of the Art Deco
Society of New York for over a decade.
Additionally, Mrs. Zagaria is on the Board of Directors of the Omega Ensemble, a chamber music group which features up-and-coming talent; and she has been a long-time supporter – and fan – of the New York Youth Symphony, the esteemed orchestra comprised of young virtuosi aged 12 to 22, which launched the careers of many of today’s musical legends.
As educator and school administrator, Mrs. Zagaria has been responsible for curriculum development and implementation, grant writing, and organizing and conducting professional development workshops and conferences. An ardent Francophile, she came out of retirement to accept a temporary position teaching French at the Professional Children’s School.
Mrs. Zagaria is co-chair of the National Arts Club Roundtable, founding co-chair of Le Cocktail Français, and serves on the Music Committee. A native New Yorker, she resides in New York City with her husband Ralph.
Mrs. Zagaria has twice been the recipient of the National Arts Club President’s Medal.
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Ross Znavor
Member since 2010
Ross Znavor is a Director and member of the Account Management Group at BlackRock, the asset management firm. He is focused on the US Institutional Defined Contribution (DC) business and responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with institutional investors, including pension plans, consultants and defined contribution recordkeepers, serving as the Head of Institutional DC distribution in the Eastern United States. Mr. Znavor also serves as a Fixed Income and Stable Value investment strategist and is the Chairman of BlackRock’s New York People and Culture Committee.
Mr. Znavor joined BlackRock following the Firm’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) in 2006. At MLIM, he was responsible for business strategy, marketing, investment and product positioning within MLIM Institutional. Previously he held positions as a fixed income product strategist focusing primarily on the non-investment grade sector and also served as an equity analyst. Mr. Znavor began his investment career in 1999 within Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client Group holding various business strategy, investment, operational and relationship management positions.
Mr. Znavor earned a BS degree in finance from the University of Central Florida. He and his wife live in the New York City area where they volunteer for several civic organizations.
Mr. Znavor has been a Governor of the National Arts Club for approximately six months. |