Board of Directors
Officers:
Angela Tripi-Weiss, Executive Director, is an award winning artist, teacher, curriculum/program developer and administrator. She has always focused on the development of children’s voices through the arts. Her Arts in Action Visual Art Program teaches students an age appropriate visual arts language that is sequentially skilled. Children are exposed to the arts through various media form and are led to discover, explore, enjoy and express their individual visions. This is all accomplished in a highly supportive setting that fosters creative thinking. In addition to her work with children, she has also developed and implemented a creative process known as "Abstract Visualization". This mental health process was recently incorporated into the treatment of rescue workers and survivors of 9/11. Mental health professionals at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in downtown Manhattan were trained to utilize this technique.
Ms. Tripi-Weiss was the artist in residence and art program coordinator for P.S. 87 and the Special Music School in NYC. She created the "Healing Arts" exhibit, a body of 40 works created by the rescuers and survivors of 9/11, shown in 2004 and 2005 at the West Park Presbyterian and Jan Hus Churches in New York City. She was the program director and art educator at Day Camp in the Park in Bear Mountain, NY. She is a per diem workshop developer and classroom art teacher at the American Museum of Natural History. She has exhibited at the West Side Artists Coalition juried exhibit at the Ansonia and Cork Galleries.
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS:
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD, Benjamin Verdery, has been the Guitar Professor of the Yale School of Music for 40 years. Both of his children became fine artists due to the training they received in the Arts in Action program.
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, TREASURER, Rie Schmidt, Flutist, member of American Symphony Orchestra, Westchester Philharmonic and Flute Force, teacher at Bloomingdale School of Music, the 92nd Street Y School of Music, and the Allen-Stevenson School
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, Peter Salwen, (www.salwen.com) is a Manhattan-based artist and writer, a licensed NYC tour guide and a freelance publicist for companies in the environmental science, consulting and engineering fields. He has been proudly associated with Arts in Action since the mid-1990s, when his children were students (and his wife Peggy was the school Librarian) at P.S. 87.
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, Sandra Klihr-Beall, I am delighted to be on the Arts in Action, Visual Art Program’s Board. As a retired Nurse Specialist (RN MA), I am committed to the role of the arts as a healing force. I worked with a variety of patients at both Mount Sinai and then Columbia Presbyterian over the years. As the mother of three artists raised in New York City, we feel very fortunate to have all the arts at our doorstep. When our youngest started at PS 87, she came home with the Backpack News. We knew she had an artistic gift and wanted to have her participate in formal art classes. There in the Backpack News was information about Arts in Action, VAP. We signed her up for classes, and she worked with Angela for her entire school career and beyond! We have been so blessed to see her grow as an artist as a part of this wonderful program. As a young adult she incorporates her art into her life at so many levels. So, I am honored to be on the board for AIAVAP, as I know from firsthand experience the importance of this program for their students.
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, CO-SECRETARY Iona Lutey, is a freelancer. She has spent years in sales and marketing in the corporate world and now does community organizing, event planning and communications for environmental groups and non-profit groups.
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, CO-SECRETARY, Marsha Andrews, I moved to New York City to pursue my career as an opera singer, and was drawn to the vibrant artistic UWS community. For twelve years I sang at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as performed concerts throughout the United States and Europe. I worked at Avventura, one of the Upper West Side’s most artistic and beloved boutiques.
One of the great gifts of living in this community was that my daughter was able to attend PS 87 during a time when the school deeply supported the arts. It was a privilege to volunteer alongside fellow PS 87 parents under the masterful and sensitive tutelage of Angela Tripi-Weiss, artist in residence and founder of the arts organization AIA. AIA volunteers met weekly to learn new art lessons to bring into PS 87 classrooms. Being invited to actively participate in the AIA art programs alongside our children was a profound joy.
When I was given the opportunity to rejoin Angela in her lifelong devotion to “gifting” young children the magic of learning fine art skills—thereby giving them another powerful voice with which to communicate—I was deeply honored to be asked to serve on her AIAVAP board.
I presently have a thriving career as a real estate broker, however the arts and their transformative power will always have my unwavering devotion. They shaped my life, my community, and the way I see the world.
ADVISORY MEMBER, Rena Shapiro, was born and raised on the upper west side in Manhattan. Shapiro is the curator of her family owned gallery in Sherman, CT. She has been VP of fundraising at her children's school for 7 years and hopes that her art and fundraising experience will be of assistance on the board of AIAVAP. 2 out of Shapiro's 3 children are past/present students at Arts in Action VAP.
ADVISORY MEMBER, Ann Miller, is a former Assistant Director at the Stephen Gaynor School of Learning Disabilities in Manhattan, and is now an educational evaluator for children with disabilities, and a professional photographer with an honorable mention in The Who's Who in Photography.
ADVISORY MEMBER, Anne Murney, is the Assistant Director of after school programming at the William T. Sherman Elementary school in Manhattan.
ADVISORY MEMBER, Eric Proshansky ESQ, is an Attorney
ADVISORY MEMBER, Kathryn Amira, a retired lawyer, has been a dedicated Arts-In-Action volunteer for 30 years. She is impressed with the progressive, skill-oriented fine arts curriculum that overcomes fear and restraint and builds confidence in art students of any age and skill level. She further appreciates how the program encourages the development of language and expressive skills through art instruction. As a parent of two AIA graduates, Kathyn values the program’s lasting impact on her adult children’s creativity and expression. Arts-In-Action VAP is truly the program that provides returns for a lifetime.