September 17, 2019
AVA Board Members paid tribute to departing Board Member Paulette Werger at the annual meeting on September 17, 2019, and also welcomed the following members:
Casey Carpenter completed his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and enlisted in the United States Air Force where he unearthed a love for the arts: literature, painting, and storytelling in particular. A graduate program at Dartmouth College brought him to the Upper Valley, and storytelling brought him to AVA Gallery, where he has served on The Mudroom committee before becoming a board member.
Christine Cook is a relative newcomer to the Upper Valley, having come to Hanover in 2016 to serve as the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer for the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. While not an artist herself, she comes from a creative family where her children still participate in performance and fine art. Her mother in law was a water color artist, and she hopes to honor her through her work on AVA’s board.
Alan DiStasio is Chief Operating Officer of Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty in Hanover and has experienced the arts through many years of drumming and local courses such as Japanese brushwork, photography and modern art interpretation. He has been a supporter of AVA since moving to the Upper Valley in 2011, and his office in Hanover has served as a gallery for community members to display the work of AVA artists.
Barbara Johnson, Ed.M. is a consultant who has had a life-long exposure to the visual arts through the influence of many talented family members. Throughout her professional career in higher education administration, she had promoted sustainable organizational practices as well as environmentally friendly campus facilities and was pleased to know of AVA’s commitment in these areas. Most recently, she has helped facilitate AVA’s search for a new Executive Director.
Eunice Lee moved to the Upper Valley in 2015 and joined the law firm of Stebbins Bradley as an attorney specializing in estate planning and probate administration. She also holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in psychology, and prior to her work in the legal sector, she worked in the field of psychology, specializing in child development and behavioral disorders. Her love of the arts was ignited during her early childhood when she began taking classes in visual and performance arts at local community centers.
Helen Shulman has an MA in mathematics, but the bulk of her pre-art career was in mental health. For the last 15 years she has been working as a professional, practicing artist. She is a 30-year member of AVA and has had a studio here for the last two. Throughout her life, the arts have remained an organizing principle. She has always taken art courses, and also worked as a potter and a weaver. She exhibits her abstract paintings in oil and cold wax nationally and has taught workshops in the medium at AVA.
George Sykes has lived in Lebanon with his wife, Jayne Buckley, for more than 30 years. He is a retired Deputy Chief of the Lebanon Fire Department who was in the department when AVA acquired the former H.W. Carter factory in 2003. He is also a Fourth-term NH State Representative and Chair of the Transportation Committee and Grafton County Delegation. He was recently appointed to the Lebanon City Council and is a longtime supporter of AVA.
