About the Director, Rose Viviano.
Rose has a background in art and community work that began in the early 1970’s in Boston, Massachusetts. A native of Syracuse, New York, she received a Fine Arts diploma from the Art Institute of Boston with post-graduate courses in glass painting and structural stained glass from the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. During that time she also worked in various political and community organizations in Boston.
In 1987 Rose returned to Syracuse as a glass studio manager where she developed her restoration skills. In 1994 Rose opened her own studio, ROSE COLORED GLASS, specializing in painted restorations of damaged and aging church windows creating original designs for clients, architectural firms and gallery exhibition. In 1998 she was commissioned to create work for the Syracuse Stage theater season brochure. In 2001 Rose began volunteer work with the Syracuse Peace Council and presently serves on three active committees including the Steering Committee.
Rose is a recipient of the 1999 Cultural Resources Council’s Individual Artists’ grant; was invited to show her work at the 1999 Contemporary Crafts Exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany and received the Harley J. McKee Award in 2004 from the Preservation Society of Central New York. In 2010 Rose was honored by Peace Action of Central New York with their Peacemaker Award.
Her work with ArtRage is the culmination of years of passion for art and social change.
About the Community Engagement Organizer, Kimberley McCoy
Kimberley McCoy, originally from Boston, Massachusetts, earned her BFA in Art History from Syracuse University. During her time at SU she became involved in several campus-based activist groups 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 working in Syracuse at a youth development after-school program as the Community Arts and Culture Organizer. She then returned to Boston to attend Boston University and 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 and in 2010 was hired as the Community Engagement Organizer.
About 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, long time social activists, educators and community planners of 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 which currently exist nationwide.
Annemarie Deegan
Annemarie Deegan has been interested in creating art since childhood and believes every being has some degree of creativity. She has an affinity for social justice art and is excited to have a socially minded gallery on the Northside. Currently, her passion comes with her experiences, which she draws upon to create art through various media. She is involved in various activities and volunteers when she can. She currently works for the City of Syracuse.
Walter Putter, Vice-President
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.
Chris Flynn, Treasurer
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 is focusing her volunteer efforts working with children/youth and in the arts. Chris looks forward to working with the ArtRage board and to help create ways to encourage young people to become actively engaged in social justice and art.
Susan Wadley, Secretary
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.
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.
Mary Kuhn, President
Mary Kuhn is a returning Board member who is currently serving as a Representative in the Onondaga County Legislature. She is a retired clinical social worker, a wife, mother, feminist, friend and activist, a member of CNY Solidarity, the Syracuse Peace Council, the Dewitt Democratic Committee and the League of Women Voters, a progressive Roman Catholic and a fierce lover of ArtRage.
Nancy Keefe Rhodes is a freelance arts writer, editor, and curator who covers film, photo, and visual arts. She also teaches in Film and Media Arts in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, at the Downtown Writers Center, and developed the Artist Statement Clinic for Light Work. She is a member of the international Women Film Critics Circle and served for a decade on Syracuse’s Public Arts Commission. ArtRage has exhibited several of her curatorial projects.
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.
Carmen Rose Viviano-Crafts is the proud daughter of two lifelong activists and artists, and a mother to one aspiring rebel girl. Carmen is best known for her long career in local theater, and holds a BA in Theater from LeMoyne College. She is the recipient of five Syracuse Area Live Theater (SALT) Awards, including one for Best Leading Actress in a play. She is also a Licensed Master Social Worker, having graduated from Syracuse University in 2020, and currently works for PACE New York. She has been a supporter of and volunteer at ArtRage since its inception, and remains inspired by its social justice mission, and its ability to bridge art and activism. Carmen is aptly named as she was born with fire and passion in her blood, and she is thrilled to put it to good use serving on the board of such a creative and important organization.