Opus 40 Staff
Jennifer Y. Chi is the Interim Executive Director of Opus 40 and a seasoned arts and cultural leader with more than two decades of experience in museum leadership, strategic planning, and organizational development.
She has held senior leadership and curatorial roles at some of the nation’s leading cultural institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jennifer has also served as a senior consultant and interim leader to arts and cultural organizations, guiding institutions through periods of transition and growth. Her work encompasses strategic planning, fundraising and development, board engagement, financial oversight, and institutional strategy.
Highly creative, fluid, and forward thinking, yet pragmatic and discerning, Kristen Thorne is a versatile addition to the Opus 40 team. Kristen cultivates a culture of possibility and is ignited by the question, "What if...?" She enjoys the process of manifesting ideas into form and loves collaboratively creating programs and initiatives that place the creativity of the human spirit at the center.
Kristen is an aspiring novelist and has an active photography practice, where she specializes in capturing the joy of the human spirit through portraiture and celebrations.
Kristen joins Opus with over 2o years of leadership experience in Corporate and NonProfit Media, and was most recently the Director of Operations at Radio Kingston.
Lisa Ven Vertloh sees beauty and meaning in places that are often overlooked. As a mother, artist, and cook living in the Hudson Valley, she finds inspiration in her surroundings, extracting every flavor, texture, and view that nature has to offer. Born in Rochester New York, Lisa attended the Rhode Island School of Design. She has spent many years as a designer in the gift, home decor, and surface design world. She is happiest hiking with her dog and discovering the delicate environment surrounding us here in the Hudson Valley.
Emanuel Siegel lives in the Kingston area with his family and has called the Hudson Valley home for over 30 years. Originally from Switzerland, he graduated from SUNY Purchase with a History degree. Having over a decade of experience with non-profit organizations, he has also worked landscaping, stone masonry, and construction and is excited to bring a diverse set of skills to the Opus 40 team.
Sean Kelly of Habilis Stoneworks is our gifted resident stonemason at Opus 40. He leads all of the regular maintenance of the sculpture, including the repair of paving and retaining walls, and has made a considerable impact in the conservation efforts.
Board of Directors
Brigid Walsh founded 100 Miles North in late 2023 to address climate issues though ecological design. She is certified in Sustainable Design from The Pratt Institute and in Permaculture Design from The Center for BioRegional Living. After nearly ten years as an Executive at Vogue magazine, Brigid segued into Environmental Design while working on several personal and governmental land use projects in upstate New York. With an instinctual passion for problem-solving, Brigid is working as a “solutionary” to use revolutionary and solution-oriented techniques to tackle each project, whether on a household-scale or a global-scale. Brigid has nurtured a deep commitment to community and the arts. She serves as Chair of the Saugerties Town Ethics Committee, Co-Chair of the Board of Opus 40 Sculpture Park & Museum, on the Board of Directors of Permaculture Living Lands Trust, on the Board of the Ulster County Ethic Committee, and formerly as Chair of the Saugerties Area Chamber of Commerce.
Rob Ross is a highly accomplished entrepreneur renowned for his expertise as a lighting designer and the proud owner of lighting design firm; Studio RRD as well as hospitality company Glasco. Rob’s passion for both lighting and hospitality stems from his upbringing in Woodstock, New York, where he developed a profound appreciation for the arts and nature. Growing up in a thriving creative community surrounded by musicians, artists, and other creatives, Rob was inspired to explore his artistic side from a young age. Rob founded Studio RRD, which rapidly grew into a highly successful business that specializes in high-end event lighting. His exceptional talent, creativity, and attention to detail have earned him a reputation as one of the most innovative and sought-after lighting designers in the industry. In 2020, Rob expanded his business ventures by starting Glasco, a collection of design-forward, luxury rental homes. Rob is committed to tying his hospitality concept into the local community, supporting local initiatives while showcasing the area’s beauty for travelers. Rob’s upbringing in Woodstock has profoundly influenced his career and approach to both lighting design and hospitality. He credits his love of nature and his appreciation for the arts to his childhood experiences in the area, constantly inspired by its natural beauty and creative energy. Rob met his partner of 12 years, Jeremy, upstate, and in 2016, they were married on the site of the renowned natural sculpture by Harvey Fite, Opus 40.
For over 40 years Alan Wanzenberg has maintained an architectural practice with a decided focus on residential designs. Based in New York City until recently and now running his practice out of a studio in Taghkanic, New York, he has produced diverse designs invigorating historical and vernacular building types with new rigor and originality. Private commissions dominate his output however several projects in particular are in the public sector. Most notably Cylar House In the East Village which was built in the late 90s for Housing Works and representative at the time of a new paradigm for a multifunction building addressing the needs of individuals both homelessness and HIV/AIDS. Also critical to his early practice was his long and fruitful professional and personal association with the late designer, Jed Johnson. He has been on the board of trustees of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture since 2009 and served as president from 2017—2023. He lives in Ancram, New York.
Jennifer Brown is the Controller, Risk Manager and Adjunct Faculty at Bard College. Her passion is teaching and sharing her love for Accounting with students. She graduated from Marist College with a B.S. in Business Administration and continued her MBA with a concentration in Accounting from Fitchburg State University. She resides in Red Hook with her family.
India Jessup Richards is the granddaughter of Barbara and Harvey Fite and growing up, Opus 40 was her own magical Land of Oz. Born in NYC, she was raised in Santa Fe, NM and is a graduate of Bard College with a degree in Art History. As the family genealogist and historian, she thrives on digging through moldy letters, old newspapers and out-of-print publications to find obscure facts to give more depth to the names she finds on the branches of her ancestral tree. Currently elbow-deep in the Opus 40 archives, she hopes to catalog and digitize everythng for posterity. She is also currently working on a book about the history of her family.
John Cederquist is a graphic artist who grew up in Manhattan, Byrdcliffe and High Woods near Opus 40, and currently lives in Woodstock. A longstanding supporter and Board member for Opus 40, his artwork has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris and Sao Paulo.
Lara Davis is an architect and mason with 25 years of experience in masonry design and construction – a specialist in earthen building and vaulted masonry. Her work has crossed over the cultures of architectural and structural design, heritage preservation, historic and vernacular materials research, building craftsmanship, and integrated land management. She is the founding partner of Limaçon Design and a member of CRAterre and ICOMOS ISCEAH. She previously served for ten years as co-director of the Auroville Earth Institute, India and representative for the UNESCO Chair of Earthen Architecture. She has taught structural theory of masonry at the ETH Zürich, led hands-on training programs on several continents, and is a lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture at RISD. Notable professional projects include the Martin Puryear sculpture ‘Lookout’ at Storm King Art Center, the Sharanam Center for Rural Development in Pondicherry, India, and the Kaza Eco-Community Center in Spiti Valley, India.
Amarah Sedreddine is a founding partner of Sedreddine & Whoriskey, LLP. Amarah represents and counsels a wide variety of organizations, including both public charities and private foundations, as well as mission-driven for-profit businesses, at all stages of development and operation. Prior to her work at Sedreddine & Whoriskey, Amarah served as outside corporate counsel to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a philanthropic organization that administers over $200 million annually in grantmaking, worldwide, as special counsel and assistant general counsel at the Vera Institute of Justice, and as associate general counsel at The New York Community Trust. She commenced her legal career in private practice at Morrison & Foerster, LLP and Mann Legal Group, LLC, where she focused her work on tax-exempt organizations.
Native New Yorker Isabel Soffer has been at the forefront of cultural arts programming in the USA for over three decades and has been instrumental in shaping, developing and cultivating the American global music and dance scene. She is co-founder and co-director of the leading cultural non-profit globalFEST, co-founder of The Generators, an arts and entertainment company and founder of Live Sounds – all of whose programs catalyze creative and artistic networks to foster a sustainable ecosystem for the arts by producing and curating concerts, public programs, festivals, educational programs and multimedia projects. Isabel has produced four Grammy nominated recordings, works with cultural institutions worldwide and travels extensively to music markets, expos and festival around the world and participates in cultural forums, panel discussions and workshops. Her work is founded on the belief that art has the power to activate change and that a healthy society includes the free flow of cultural exchange, ideas and information. Based in Saugerties, Isabel is chair of the Saugerties Arts Commission. Home to a diverse array of artists, arts organizations and supporters of the arts, the SAC promotes opportunities for residents and visitors to experience the rich cultural life of the town through visual, performing, media, decorative, applied, and literary arts.
Jonathan Becker is Executive Vice President, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Director, Center for Civic Engagement, and Associate Professor of Political Studies at Bard College, and Vice Chancellor of the Open Society University Network. At Bard since 1997, Becker has also taught at Central European University, University of Kiev Mohyla Academy, Wesleyan University, and Yale University. He is the author of Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States (1999; new edition, 2002) as well as many scholarly articles.