RiverArts hits Coe’s high notes in virtual send-off
Friends, family, artists, and collaborators will celebrate the achievements of RiverArts’ former executive and artistic director during “Up Close & Virtual: Honoring Doug Coe,” on Saturday, April 24, at 7 p.m.
The program, a collection of pre-recorded performances and personal messages, will be streamed to a live audience. Registration is free, however donations to the newly created Doug Coe Fund for Artistic Excellence are welcome. To register, go to https://givebutter.com/zTO11t.
Vocalists and musicians paying tribute to Coe include Kat Gang and Phil Palombi, Ursula Hansberry, Tara Linhardt and Scott Giambusso, and Peter Seidenberg and Hui-Mei Lin.
“We wanted to give Doug a well-deserved send-off and we did our best to make it really great,” said Jill Garland of Dobbs Ferry, president of the board of RiverArts.
“I am pleased to say that there have already been many donations to the fund established in Doug’s honor,” Garland added. “We’ve been able to create a fabulous platform for the virtual event. And, the way it is done, we can accept registrations right up to the time of the event, and for those donating $250 or more, we can flash their names on the screen.”
“Up Close & Virtual: Honoring Doug Coe” is co-produced by Kristen Madden of Tarrytown and Lauren Orkus of Sleepy Hollow, both RiverArts board members. Madden, who is vice president of Bowen & Company, a full-service event marketing and production firm located in Dobbs Ferry, will take over as RiverArts’ board president in July.
“Even though we can’t be all together in one place, having a virtual event for Doug does away with geographic barriers, and people can participate and attend from far and wide,” Madden said. “It is a wonderful chance to honor Doug and all the things he helped to create, and the ways in which he connected artists with the community.”
Coe joined RiverArts as a board member in 2009 and in 2010 became director of music programs. He had been executive director since 2013. New initiatives created during his tenure include the annual RiverArts Music Tour, Salon Sundays, the Chamber Music Series. collaborative performances, and Bluegrass Camp.
In Sept. 2019, Coe advised the board that, with the expansion of RiverArts’ activities, there was too much responsibility for one person. In July 2020, he assumed the role of artistic director and Josh Suniewick was brought in as managing director. Wanting more time to pursue his own artistic endeavors. Coe decided to retire, effective Feb. 15, 2021. Kate Ashby assumed the role of artistic director. Both Suniewick and Ashby live in Hastings.
“I am thrilled that we have put together a tribute that will reflect the intersecting art world that Doug knitted together,” Suniewick said. “The artists from the different mediums, all from our own community, coming together to honor Doug is so appropriate.”
Ashby, who served as Coe’s assistant in 2013 and as director of music programs from 2014-2018, was pleased that “Up Close & Virtual” would highlight Coe’s dedication to the artists of the Rivertowns.
“Doug’s commitment to enriching our communities through the arts has provided inspiration to us all. His extraordinary artistic vision and leadership expanded and energized the RiverArts programs and brought together artists, art lovers, and audiences throughout our communities,” Ashby said.
Throughout the virtual salute, artists from the array of mediums that RiverArts has promoted during Coe’s leadership — visual arts, music of varying genres, and dance — will offer tributes and share memories of their interactions with him.
Maxine Sherman of Hastings, RiverArts’ dance producer for 20 years, introduced Coe to the organization.
“I recommended that they bring Doug on board to teach fiber arts at our summer camp. We have been personal and professional friends for a long time,” Sherman said. “As executive director Doug was fun to brainstorm with. He gets as excited and as passionate as you are about an idea. Then he will sit there and find realistic ways to make it work.”
Seidenberg, RiverArts’ chamber music producer and an accomplished cellist, also spoke of Coe’s ability to “take an idea and make it exponentially bigger than you ever thought possible.”
“Some six or seven years ago, Doug said, ‘Let’s do something,’ and we started to brainstorm and out of that came the Chamber Music Series, which is now presented at the Cropsey Foundation,” Seidenberg recalled. “Other things that we have collaborated on — and here Doug’s vision for mixing mediums can be seen — are ‘Braiding’ and ‘Decades.’”
“Braiding,” in 2018, combined multiple art forms: music, poetry, dance, fine art, and video art. In 2019, “Decades,” offered a musical selection, together with a poem, to represent each decade from 1910-2010.
Adam Hart of Hastings, producer with RiverArts of the Music Tour, remembers the day in 2014 when Coe called to say that RiverArts was going to find a way to have a music festival in many places to make up for the lack of large venues. In the beginning, Hart worked alongside Barbara Prisament, who co-produced the event with RiverArts.
“Doug has this amazing ability to be the conduit for people to express themselves,” Hart said. “He is open to ideas and suggestions. Then he will come up with a budget to make it realistic. I’m thrilled that I will have the opportunity to share a story about Doug, and to introduce Ursula Hansberry in tomorrow’s tribute.”
Jen Moore Smith, a painter from Hastings with a studio in Dobbs Ferry, is a former Studio Tour producer and RiverArts’ board member during six years of Coe’s tenure. She is also representative of the visual artists who have benefited from such undertakings as Salon Sundays, a program launched in 2019.
“I love the welcoming vibe at RiverArts. I feel this is Doug’s greatest gift, among so many hours and efforts and talents he has loaned to RiverArts. Doug can be deep into details or a meeting, and, unfailingly, Doug always generously stops to warmly and effusively say ‘Hello! So nice to see you,’” Smith said. “And doesn’t it reflect beautifully the efforts of RiverArts? To connect and welcome all in our community who create, who wish to create, and those, too, who wish to experience the process, the final performance, the conversations about… To welcome all with the same genuine and booming ‘Hello! So nice to see you!’”
Now that he is retired. Coe has returned to his lifelong passion of creating fiber art on a loom. He will continue to co-produce the Chamber Music Series with Seidenberg.
