Kimberley McCoy

Kimberley McCoy, originally from Boston, Massachusetts, moved to Syracuse, NY, to earn her BFA in Art History from Syracuse University’s School of Visual and Performing Arts. While studying art, she became involved in several campus-based activist groups, such as the Student Environmental Action Coalition and the Student Coalition on Organized Labor, and so began her passion for art and activism. During college and after, she was an active member of Syracuse’s radical cheerleading squad, the Syracuse System Shakers. 

After college, she became a member of the Syracuse Peace Council and the Bread and Roses Collective House. She served for two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer in Syracuse, working at a youth development after-school program as the Community Arts and Culture Organizer.  She then returned to Boston to attend Boston University, where she earned a master’s degree in Arts Administration. While in Boston, she continued working with youth by teaching art classes at several community art centers. Excited about ArtRage Gallery’s mission to combine arts and activism, she returned to Syracuse in 2009 to complete her degree as an intern for ArtRage. 

In 2010, she was hired as ArtRage’s second staff member. She also works part-time at the Syracuse Cultural Workers and is a board member of the Westcott Area Cultural Coalition, helping to organize their community arts grant program.  She is also a board member of the Westcott Neighborhood Association, where she has been organizing the annual Westcott Halloween Dog Parade since 2022. 

Ellis Clay

Ellis brings a deep passion for social justice, equity, and the transformative power of art. Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, Ellis graduated from Pace University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Peace and Justice Studies and Political Science with a Minor in Creative Writing. He has worked at Pace University Art Gallery as a Co-Curator since January 2025 and as the Edinburgh Art Festival’s Associate Civic Curator in the summer of 2024. In curation and community engagement, he continually keeps accessibility and inclusivity in mind through his public programming work. Additionally, Ellis has engaged in international advocacy work at the United Nations regarding nuclear weapons. He has also worked in queer advocacy by founding We Demand More, a group of 100+ alumni who pushed back against the Diocese of Lafayette’s Sexual Identity Policy.

Photo Credit: Davey Chen

The CORA Foundation

The Community Outreach & Resources for the Arts (CORA) Foundation is an all volunteer organization with members of the community serving on its Board of Directors with no financial compensation. It began in 2008 and achieved federal non-profit 501(c) (3) status in June 2009. Dik Cool and Rose Viviano co-founded the ArtRage Gallery (which became the first project of the CORA Foundation) as a space devoted to exhibiting activist art and offering programming on the social issues related to each exhibition.

The mission statement of the CORA Foundation is as follows:
To support and encourage educational cultural activities and events in the greater Syracuse Community.
To support and encourage artists within a wide range of disciplines.
To work with Central New York arts organizations to enhance the availability and quality of cultural presentations for the diverse communities of greater Syracuse.
To bring to diverse audiences exhibits of works from outside Central New York that otherwise might not be available to Syracuse area people.

CORA Foundation Board of Directors

Our dynamic Board of Directors is comprised of professional artists, longtime social activists, educators, and community planners with diverse experience, ages, and ethnicities. All are committed individuals who share our desire to bring this unique gallery experience to Syracuse, joining the handful of progressive art galleries that currently exist nationwide.

Terry Eckert, President

Terry Eckert is currently a Management Analyst for the City of Syracuse, Bureau of Research. 
She worked for the Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign in 2013, organizing events and camping sites, logistics, provided the financial accounting support and paddled the entire journey.  She also teaches Water Fitness, Swim Lessons and Lifeguards at the Downtown YMCA. Terry has participated in many ArtRage events including Films, Book Clubs, Speaker Presentations and the Fiber Art Workshop. She gains insight and inspiration from ArtRage and is zealous about social change through art.

Sharon Moran (she/her), Vice President

Sharon Moran is a nature lover, animal friend, educator, and mother. In her work as a professor at SUNY-ESF (Environmental Science and Forestry), she explores the human aspects of connections with the environment, and her work has been supported by funders including the National Science Foundation and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. Sharon discovered the power of community organizations as a teen, when she visited the Institute for Local Self Reliance in Washington, D.C. She’s helped work for environmental justice, and she’s served on boards of organizations including nature centers, science museums, a puppet theatre, and Syracuse’s cooperative community development credit union. Sharon is pleased to help Art Rage in its role as site for artful exploration of activism and social expression, dialogue, and repair.

Walter Putter, Treasurer

Walter Putter is the son of our namesake Norton Putter, and our founding donor Ruth Putter. As a “red diaper baby” social justice has always been at his core. A father and son of artists, art is in his blood. His background is in law and property management (retired), and he’s an avid DIYer who can fix just about anything. As an avid cyclist, he has raised over $50,000, for a number of causes, including ArtRage.

Pam Voitik, Secretary

Pam Voitik is a former facility manager for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as an alumna of the University’s College of Engineering. Like so many, retirement has made it possible to more actively pursue the things she holds dear – art, community outreach, printmaking, cultural exchange, mixed media art, and activism. Since retirement, she has served on the board of the Evanston Art Center and has been an active member of the Dayton Society of Artists and the Dayton Printmakers Cooperative, where she recently participated in the biennial Kyoto Printmaking Exchange with member prints exhibited at the Dayton Art Institute.

Gemma Cooper-Novack is a playwright, writer, writing coach, and literacies scholar. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in more than fifty journals, and she is the author of the poetry collection We Might As Well Be Underwater (Unsolicited Press, 2017), whose book launch took place at ArtRage, and the chapbook “Bedside Manner” (The Head & the Hand, 2020). Her plays have been produced across the United States, including the commissioned works Come Like Shadows (Breadcrumbs Productions, 2022-2023), Reporting Live from Under the Rainbow, and Through the Glory Hole and What We Found There (The Theatre Offensive’s Creative Action Crew, 2015-2016). She has a doctorate in Literacy Education from Syracuse University, where she received the 2023 All University Doctoral Prize for her hybrid poetic dissertation exploring the writing lives of LGBTQ+ teenagers. Gemma is a founding member of Syracuse Artists for Gaza. She teaches at SUNY – Empire State and at the Downtown Writers Center of the YMCA (including the teen program Young Authors Academy) and runs a private coaching practice for writers of all ages, abilities, and persuasions. 

Chris Flynn worked in Onondaga County government, primarily in youth development and budgeting fields for over 29 years.  She retired in 2015 as Director of the Syracuse/Onondaga County Youth Bureau. Chris has a long-term interest in art and architecture.  While no longer participating in formal education in these areas, she continues informal studies and remains an avid consumer of many art forms.  Since retirement, Chris has been focusing her volunteer efforts on working with children/youth and in the arts. Chris looks forward to working with the ArtRage board to develop ways to encourage young people to become actively engaged in social justice and art.

Founded in 2016, S’Marie Photography was created to merge creativity with purpose and storytelling. Through the business and its youth internship initiatives, Shaneika has mentored young people – many of whom have gone on to launch their own photography businesses or secure paid creative opportunities.

Today, Shaneika is a mother, photographer, gallery and creative hub owner, and creative entrepreneur, committed to building spaces that foster creativity, mentorship, collaboration, and opportunity. Her work centers on legacy-building, empowerment, and creating access ensuring that creativity is not only seen but sustained.

Laura K. Reeder PhD/MFA, is an artist, educator, and nonprofit leader whose work explores how people learn from one another and from the ecosystems they inhabit together. She currently serves as Curriculum Director for the U.S. Department of Education-supported PEACE Project (Partners in Education, Arts, & Community Empowerment), advancing creative, community-based approaches to learning and civic engagement.

Laura has held faculty appointments at institutions including Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston University, and Syracuse University. Her socially engaged “Cultivator” art practice uses walking, environmental engagement, and temporary land-based installations to examine relationships between place, memory, ecology, and community.

A longtime organizer and advocate for the arts, Laura has supported collaborations across education, environmental stewardship, anti-racism, and LGBTQIA+ inclusion. She presents, publishes, and serves in leadership roles regionally and nationally, bringing decades of experience in arts education, nonprofit development, and community-centered cultural work.

Miesha Shih is an independent curator, art consultant, and freelance writer.  Deeply empathetic to the various perspectives artists bring to their individual practice, Miesha enjoys working with art in all its dynamic forms, innovations and voices, with a focus on the space where artistic disciplines intersect cross-culturally and engage social meaning. She has conducted curatorial and collections work for Syracuse University’s Community Folk Art Center, Glass Curtain Gallery at Columbia College, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and, upon the invitation of the Obama Foundation, researched and addressed development strategies for the Obama Presidential Center Museum’s permanent art collection. She has authored essays for the Guggenheim Museum’s online collection and marketed the Chicago launch of The Other Art Fair|Saatchi Art, and has secured grants for the Everson Museum of Art, The Fieldwork Collaborative’s socially influenced residential design and art intervention project, and for WCNY-TV’s public programs. She has an M.A. in Art History from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and a B.A. in African American Studies and Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Miesha has also served on the Board for Esoteric Dance Project since 2019. 

Susan Wadley is a retired anthropology and South Asian Studies Professor at Syracuse University where she regularly focused on social injustice, whether in the U.S. or South Asia, or elsewhere. For some 20 years, she served on the board of Open Hand Theater, a Syracuse organization that use theater and puppets to advocate for social issues.

Robert Zaccaria is an Associate Real Estate Broker with Sotheby’s International Realty, and co-owner of Noble Cellar, an award-winning restaurant located in a restored historic church in downtown Syracuse. Across both ventures, his work has centered on building thoughtful, high-quality experiences that contribute to the cultural and economic fabric of the community.

Prior to his work in real estate and hospitality, Robert served as a Senior Analyst on GE Capital’s Market Intelligence team, where he worked in an internal consulting capacity supporting strategic planning, market analysis, and investment decisions across multiple business lines. He began his career in General Electric’s Financial Management Program, a competitive leadership development program that emphasized analytical rigor, operational insight, and cross-functional collaboration.

In Syracuse, Robert has been actively involved in projects that blend business, design, and community impact. Through Noble Cellar, he helped bring new life to a historic space, creating a destination that has been recognized for both its quality and atmosphere. His professional work reflects a broader interest in how spaces, experiences, and institutions shape the way people connect—with each other and with the places they inhabit.

Robert holds a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Marketing Management from Syracuse University’s Whitman School, and a professional certificate in Real Estate from NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. He has also been recognized by the Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors with the Shining Star Award for his professionalism, service, and community engagement.