2017 Luminaries & Hosts
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2017 LUMINARIES & HOSTS ELLIOTT DAVIS hosting EMILY BUCHANAN & BRENDAN O'CONNELL Elliott Davis has been a full time resident of Washington for 16 years. Formerly a venture capitalist in Europe, his latest undertaking has been to launch Mine Hill Distillery in Roxbury. Over the past two years, he has restored an 1860 cigar factory, the 1872 Roxbury Station and other buildings along the Shepaug River. This project just won the 2017 CT Historic Preservation Award and is a landmark destination. Library Luminaires will be the first public event held at the distillery. Emily Buchanan is a landscape artist who began painting as a child on the North Shore of Boston with her grandmother, Eloise Gardner. She studied at Lyme Academy, The National Academy of Art, and with the Boston School painter Paul Ingbretson. Weather permitting, she works in various locales in her native New England; in winter, she paints in Palm Beach, Malibu, and the Bahamas. Buchanan did the painting for the official 2014 White House Holiday card, which Architectural Digest called "exquisitely rendered.” In Main Street magazine she was declared “one of those rare breed of artists who truly speak in a visual language taken directly from life.” Quest magazine has notably written, “her paintings bring all of those wonderful places, and the emotions that they evoke, to those who can’t be there.” Emily’s work is held in numerous private and corporate collections, and she is represented by Mark Murray Fine Art in NYC, other East Coast galleries, and the Princess Street Gallery in the Bahamas. Brendan O’Connell is a contemporary painter examining American people and culture through retail, brands, and lately Airbnb and couch surfing. He has been profiled in the New Yorker, featured on Sunday Morning CBS and in Time Magazine, and has also been a guest on the Colbert Report. Returning to the U.S in the late 90’s after a decade in Europe, Brendan was struck by how much the country had changed. Inspired by Edward Hopper, he set out to paint “everyday” America as he found it. Through the lens of retail, as one representation of our society, and then Walmart as its most democratic iteration, he painted both shoppers and interior architecture, as well as our fetishistic relationship with brands. Over time, he went from being the camera-clicking guy who was kicked out of Walmarts to the guy who could set up an easel in any store in the world. Brendan has recently begun another series about America in transition, this time focusing on people in their homes. Travelling the country, staying at Airbnbs and painting the hosts from whom he rents, he plans to accompany each painting with a life narrative similar to the blog Humans of New York. MARY GRAHAM DAVIS hosting MARY LEE KENNEDY Mary Graham Davis has been a weekend resident of Washington Depot since 1996. She first came to the area as a parent of a Taft student, and so discovered the Litchfield Hills. She, her five children and many grandchildren now call Washington their holiday place! They enjoy Lake Waramaug, Steep Rock, tennis, and golf. Mary welcomes all to her Victorian house built in 1913 with lots of nooks and crannies! Mary Lee Kennedy’s passion is empowering people through information and technology in order to create and use knowledge to improve their lives as well as the lives of others. While digital technology has opened educational and economic development opportunities, there is vast untapped potential in how we connect and use information. Mary’s recent projects include working with an edtech company to help teachers teach and children learn science through active engagement in the outdoors; advising a foundation on plans to educate the poorest children in Medellin, Colombia; and assessing and building services and programs that benefit people living in “Smart Cities.” Previously Mary was the Chief Library Officer at the New York Public Library, Senior Associate Provost at Harvard, and Director of Knowledge Networks at the Microsoft Corporation. ERIKA KLAUER & COLLIN DE RHAM hosting MARIANNE BOESKY Erika Klauer grew up in New York City spending summers and weekends in Litchfield County. She began her career as a research assistant for the semiconductor industry and became the youngest managing director in the history of her firm. Rising through the ranks, she went on to direct global semiconductor research for Deutsche Bank, and in 2001 she joined her longtime client, Jennison Associates, as Managing Director, where she directs technology investments on behalf of the firm. Erika is a devoted and longtime supporter of education and the arts, serving both Georgetown, her alma mater, and the local community. In 2004 she launched Steep Rock Arts, a not-for-profit artist residency program in Washington, CT, where emerging artists come to live and work for eight week sessions. Many, including Wangechi Mutu, Barnaby Furnas, Keltie Ferris, Wyatt Kahn, and Nathalie Djurburg, have gone on to receive high critical acclaim. Erika has also served on the Boards of the Washington Citizens Scholarship Foundation and the Brooklyn Museum. Collin De Rham is a writer and film producer. He studied at USC and NYU before beginning his career as a writer at CBS News. He then moved on to be a writer and producer on the Emmy and Golden Globe winning series Mad Men, and most recently, he was executive producer of Whit Stillman’s hit film, Love & Friendship. Mr. De Rham lives between New York City and Washington, CT with Erika Klauer and their three children. The family can frequently be found exploring Steep Rock early on weekend mornings. Marianne Boesky established her first space in Soho in 1996 and since has become one of the most important gallerists on the international scene. She has launched the careers of many artists such as Lisa Yuskavage and Takashi Murukami, and was an early pioneer in Chelsea. Today her gallery represents artists from around the world, ranging from established heavyweights like Frank Stella and Pier Paolo Calzolari to younger visionaries such as Diana Al-Hadid and Barnaby Furnas. Boesky has now expanded her presence to Colorado, where she opened in downtown Aspen with a luminous show of Frank Stella and Larry Bell. Ms. Boesky has been recognized and awarded for both her altruism and deep commitment to the arts, most recently with the Arts in General Visionary Award. KAREN & HENRY GLANTERNIK hosting ROBERT LINN Karen Glanternik is a decorative painter and Master teaching at the Isabel O’Neil Studio in New York City, which is dedicated to preserving the art of the Painted Finish. Her work, which includes gilding, elaborate penwork, negoro nuri, as well as faux bois, marble, tortoise, ivory, etc., can be found in many notable homes around the world. Karen began her career as an interior designer with W&J Sloane, and she has used her fine eye to lovingly preserve, renovate and enhance their Roxbury property acquired from the Styron family, who for almost five decades lived, wrote, and famously entertained at that wonderful location. Henry Glanternik is the principal Partner of a company that owns and manages industrial and office real estate in several states, including acres of warehousing filled with old movie and TV props. These include the Oscar statues that grace the stage at the annual Academy Awards. Henry reports that they’ve never delivered the wrong statues…they all look the same! Robert Linn has served as Commissioner of Labor Relations for NYC mayors Koch and de Blasio. During Bob's first tenure he successfully negotiated contracts with such prominent union leaders as Albert Shanker (Teachers), Victor Gotbaum (DC 37), and Barry Feinstein (Teamsters), among others; all large personalities who could have shaken the City in the interest of their members. When de Blasio took office, all 142 labor contracts covering 350,000 City workers had been allowed to expire. Committed to demonstrating that vigorous and thoughtful collective bargaining could produce solutions that were both acceptable to union members and fiscally prudent for the NYC, de Blasio turned to Linn. Bob not only achieved a landmark $3.4 billion health savings agreement, but he also changed the labor management dialogue to feature collaboration and problem solving rather than confrontation and deadlock. Bob began his career in the labor practice of Skadden Arps. A graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the U. of Chicago law school, he had the pleasure of studying under Nobel Laureates at both institutions. JUDY JACKSON & BRUCE HAIMS hosting CLYDE HABERMAN Judy Jackson and Bruce Haims have lived in Roxbury as weekenders since 2001. Judy is a professional potter, working in both her New York and Roxbury studios. Selling only to the trade, she is represented in over 50 American craft galleries, home stores, garden shops, and on line, including Anthropologie and West Elm. Bruce is retired tax partner, now Of Counsel, at Debevoise & Plimpton. He is on the boards of Danbury Hospital, Bull's Bridge Golf Club, and ASAP. As much as Bruce would like to join the Luminaries celebration, he has a prior commitment - a week in England playing golf, and Judy has valiantly offered to host on her own. They share 4 grown children, 5 grandchildren, 2 English springer spaniels, and two Audis, some of whom you may have met or will meet. Clyde Haberman is a former columnist and foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He joined the Times in 1977 as an editor of the Week in Review and went on to become a Metro reporter, City Hall bureau chief, and from 1982 to 1995, a foreign correspondent based in Tokyo, Rome, and Jerusalem.