5 Photos
Last week, the Parrish Art Museum Board of Trustees Chairman Frederic M. Seegal and President H. Peter Haveles, Jr., announced the appointment of four new board members. Philanthropist Veronica Atkins, former arts executive and Hamptons real estate agent Cee Scott Brown, financial services consultant James L. Freeman, and former filmmaker Sandy Perlbinder were elected to the board this spring.
“It is with great enthusiasm that I welcome these new Trustees,” said Mr. Seegal. “Each has unique expertise that will contribute immensely to the success of the Museum.”
“I would like to congratulate not only the trustees, but also the nominating committee for its hard work and judgment in enlisting these extraordinary candidates who each make the Parrish a stronger institution,” said Mr. Haveles.
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Veronica Atkins.[/caption]
“I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with these accomplished individuals,” said Parrish Art Museum Director Terrie Sultan. “Their passion for the Museum will have a profound impact on our overall mission.”
Ms. Atkins, a current managing director of The Metropolitan Opera, has been recognized as one of America’s most dedicated philanthropists. She is the chair of the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, devoted to the prevention of disease through nutrition and lifestyle, and founded with her late husband, cardiologist Dr. Robert C. Atkins, who created the Atkins Lifestyle. As a member of the Parrish Art Museum Board of Trustees, Ms. Atkins is interested in encouraging creative collaborations among the visual and performing arts, and supporting the Museum’s continued development as the center for cultural engagement for the East End.
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Cee Scott Brown.[/caption]
Mr. Brown, a Sag Harbor resident built a 20-year career as an arts executive in New York, beginning in 1977 at The Museum of Modern Art Projects Program. Three years later, Mr.Brown was appointed director of the Holly Solomon Gallery, where he worked with leading non-traditional artists of the time. He was then named director of Creative Time, the pioneering organization that presented art in public venues, and later ran the Art Matters Foundation, spearheading the Art Matters Catalog.
Mr. Brown relocated to the East End in 1996, working in the real estate industry. He was appointed to the Sag Harbor Historical Preservation and Architectural Review Board in 2003 and served as the chairman from 2006 through June 2015. A Parrish Art Museum Member since 1997, Mr. Brown served on the committees for Landscape Pleasures (2003-2007) and Parrish Presents holiday benefit (2007-2012). As a Parrish Trustee, he will act as a liaison to the program advisory committee, and is eager to lend his experience in the art world and knowledge of the East End to support the Museum’s efforts to reach a broader audience.
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Jim Freeman. Photo by Patrick McMullen.[/caption]
Mr. Freeman is the founder and chairman of the board of Freeman & Co., which has provided strategic advisory and management consulting to the financial services sector since 1991. Mr. Freeman is a devoted and knowledgeable collector of American decorative arts and late 19th Century American paintings, which he has partially or fully gifted, or loaned to museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia. He has developed an interest in contemporary art, particularly drawings and prints. Mr. Freeman and his wife Laura Lofaro, a long-standing member of the board of trustees for the Museum of the City of New York, live in New York City, with a second home on the South Fork.
Ms. Perlbinder’s extensive board experience includes Planned Parenthood of Suffolk County (now PPHP) where she successfully co-chaired a $3.5 million capital campaign, and was instrumental in starting the art committee’s successful “Art for Choice” auctions.
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Sandy Perlbinder. Patrick McMullan photo.[/caption]
She is currently a trustee of the LearningSpring School in New York, having joined the board in 2001. Ms. Perlbinder is vice chair of the Women’s Leadership Council of Stony Brook University, a mentoring program for outstanding female students, and serves on the advisory board of the Pollock-Krasner House in Springs. As a member of the Parrish Board of Trustees, Sandy Perlbinder will act as a liaison to the program advisory committee and help to re-establish the Education Committee.
