Our Board
OFFICERS
Rick Cowan
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Rick Cowan (chair)
Rick Cowan has enjoyed minor roles in various MSA theatrical productions over the years. Most of his career has been devoted to independent schools. He held teaching and administrative positions at Choate Rosemary Hall, Pingree, and St. Paul's Schools and served as executive director of The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) in Boston and Washington, D.C. Locally, he was head of The Grammar School (TGS), Director of Admission at The Putney School and Compass School before retiring in 2016. Rick lives in Cambridgeport and has two grown daughters. He serves on the Rockingham selectboard and the TGS board of directors. |
AT LARGE
Kathleen Bryar
Catherine Despont
Amy Harlow
Maryann McArdle
Charles Norris-Brown
Susan Still
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Kathleen Bryar Kathleen and her family have been involved with Main Street Arts for nearly 30 years. They have participated in classes, theater productions, and community events; and have volunteered in many capacities to help strengthen the organization. Kathleen has served on the board multiple times over the years as a member and board chair, and led the capital campaign to expand Main Street Arts’ building and footprint in Saxtons River. She has worked in development for 35 years, lives in Grafton, and is currently Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations for Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Catherine Despont Catherine Despont is a newcomer to Saxtons River. She grew up in New York City where she was a founding program director at Pioneer Works, an art center in Brooklyn. She is passionate about the intersection between arts and education and has organized several conferences including a Summit on Pedagogy, and The Alternative Art School Fair. More recently she lived in rural England, producing events and doing research in the archives of the art colony at Dartington Hall. She has an MFA from Columbia University and is working on her first book. She loves learning with others and is excited to join the conversation at MSA. Amy Harlow Amy Harlow has been a member of the Saxtons River community as a longtime teacher in the elementary school, a parent at Vermont Academy, and a member of the Saxtons River Playhouse. Amy also worked for The River Valley Performing Arts Center and the Whetstone Theater Company in their box offices. Amy's love of world music has given her opportunity to travel and sing in Europe and the United Kingdom. Offering creative and educational opportunities for all ages has been an important part of Amy’s life and career. A school principal in Londonderry, VT, Amy brings a lifetime of experience with children and families to Main Street Arts. She is thrilled to be a part of this new artistic adventure! Maryann McArdle A charter member of Main Street Arts, Maryann has been involved with the organization since its inception, previously serving as a member of the board in the 1990s. She performed regularly in MSA’s annual Christmas Revels, portrayed The Other Woman in MSA’s production of Trial By Jury, and was co-musical director with founder Mary Hepburn for MSA’s first production of Kiss Me Kate. Maryann has worked at Vermont Academy for over 30 years, serving in their advancement and communications offices, and currently as a college counselor. She lives with her husband artist Mark Ragonese in Bellows Falls. She is an avid gardener and plays jazz piano with The Little Big Band and the Interlude Trio. Charles Norris-Brown Charles Norris-Brown, PhD (Sociology and Anthropology, Lund University, Sweden, 1984), hails from north central Pennsylvania. He started as an artist, he thinks, in second grade, and over the years dabbled in self-taught and classes in various places including Art and Architecture at Penn State, watercolor in Shelburne Falls, MA and other venues large and small. In 2016, his children’s book Did Tiger Take the Rain? was published in Brattleboro, VT. It is now an open source book with Pratham Books in India, and has been rewritten in a second version as a play plus animated film with children in Nepal. Charles brings a long list of varied experience to Main Street Arts, from art and academia to union organizing and community development. Susan Still Susan comes to MSA’s board after enjoying its classes, gallery shows, special events, and performances—especially those involving her grandkids. Retiring to Saxtons River to be close to those grandkids, she and her husband, Peter Bergstrom, have loved the sense of community and creativity in this village with an arts center at its core. After a career as an organizational development consultant (Johns Hopkins M.S. in Applied Behavioral Science and Fielding Graduate University M.A. in Human Development) Susan aims to bring best practices in governance to the MSA board. Her skills include strategic planning, group facilitation, creative problem-solving, and conflict resolution. For fun, she works in her garden, bakes, and makes costumes. As a young drama student at Carnegie-Mellon, she recorded the voice of the first talking computer. |