Katerina Barry is a video producer and currently heads up the internal video department at the global law firm White & Case. She received her B.A. in Art History and Painting from Columbia University and spent her early 20s as a portrait painter and running the expat nonprofit Kilometer Zero out of several art squats in Paris. She is British and initially fell in love with the Hudson Valley because it reminded her of the part of rural England where she spent her early childhood. She bought an old farmhouse outside Wallkill in 2016 and currently splits her time between there and Brooklyn. Katerina has served on the Development Committee of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild since 2021. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Woodstock Artist Cemetery.

Byron Bell has been an architect primarily for non-profit organizations for more than 50 years. He has served on the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild Exhibition Committee and on Facilities Committees of several other institutions. Throughout his extensive career, he has found the time to serve on several non-profit boards: Third Street Music School, New York Society Library, Van Alen Institute, St. Gaudens Memorial, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Grolier, Blue Hill Troupe, Clarion, and Music Society, among others. Byron and his wife Susan live in Woodstock three seasons out of the year and enjoy all the area’s cultural activities.

The Bells have been contributors to the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild for many years and have hosted numerous events including house tours and dinners, and have hosted many Artists-in-Residence. For 45 years the Bells have traveled throughout the world and created an extraordinary craft and material culture collection, all catalogued and documented. Pieces from the collection have been exhibited throughout the country. Byron enjoys creating watercolors, pottery, and playing the piano.

Joseph W. Belluck, Esq., graduated magna cum laude from the SUNY-Buffalo School of Law in 1994, where he served as Articles Editor of the Buffalo Law Review and where he is an adjunct lecturer on mass torts. He is the founder of the Manhattan law firm Belluck Law, which focuses on asbestos and serious injury litigation. Mr. Belluck previously served as counsel to the New York State Attorney General, representing the State of New York in its litigation against the tobacco industry, as a judicial law clerk for Justice Lloyd Doggett of the Texas Supreme Court, as staff attorney for Public Citizen in Washington, D.C., and as Director of Attorney Services for Trial Lawyers Care, an organization dedicated to providing free legal assistance to victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Mr. Belluck has lectured frequently on asbestos, product liability, tort law and tobacco control policy. He is an active member of several bar associations, including the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and was a recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s Legal Ethics Award. He is also a member of the SUNY Board of Trustees, Chair of the New York State Cannabis Advisory Board, Chair of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, and sits on the board of several not-for-profit organizations.

Program Committee Chair
Stephen Bergkamp has been an active member of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild Programs Committee and the Byrdcliffe Music Sub-Committee since 2018. He was born and raised in the bucolic Catskill Mountain hamlet of Lew Beach, NY, to a social worker father and artist mother.

A lifelong musician, Stephen has been performing and recording music in the Woodstock area for over a decade. He played Division I baseball at Pace University and holds a BA degree in Sociology. He lived abroad in Honduras and Italy where he taught English and traveled for several years prior to purchasing a home in Woodstock.

Locally, Stephen worked in the mental health field for Family of Woodstock, Inc. and Mental Health Association in Ulster County as a social worker for children with emotional disturbances. After 9 years of service in the mental health field, he spent 4 years working for the online marketplace, Etsy; a venue for artists and makers to buy and sell handmade or vintage items. Stephen is currently active in the real estate industry and is the owner of Catskill Mountain Home Inspections. He and his wife, Michelle are raising their two children at their home in Woodstock.

Director Emeritus

Kerrie Buitrago is Emerita Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.  She came to Woodstock in 1995 as a resident of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild and stayed at the Forge for 5 years.  She served on the Board of Directors of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild for over 10 years and co-curated the exhibition Drawing Sound with her son, Oscar, and artist Melinda Stickney-Gibson.  She was formerly on the Board of Directors of several art organizations, including the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the Sculpture Committee for Park Avenue.  She is currently on the board of The Guston Foundation and an advisor to the Brian Wall Foundation; she is a member of Art Table and the Century Club.  Kerrie is a graduate of Syracuse University and the Bologna Center in Italy and SAIS at Johns Hopkins. Now recently retired, Kerrie looks forward to continued involvement with the arts in Woodstock and the Hudson Valley and enjoys playing the piano, listening to a wide variety of music and taking classes in music studies at both Juilliard and Bard.

Oscar Buitrago is the US Head of Marketing at Linklaters LLP. He is the recipient of the 2024 Top 10 Global Marketer Award by OnCon Icon Awards and was previously named to the M&A Advisor’s list of 40 under 40 Emerging Leaders in Business Development and Marketing. He received his B.A. in Art History and B.A in Classics from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and was awarded the Donat Fellowship (for the advanced study of archaeology) and the Phi Kappa Fellowship (for advanced international studies). Oscar is the Vice President of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee. Oscar also serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the Woodstock Artist Cemetery; Secretary of The Board of Directors of The Maverick Concerts; and sits on The Board of Directors for Spiral House Park.

Nicole Cawley is a native New Yorker and co-owner of the Yum Yum Noodle Bar restaurants located in Woodstock, Kingston and Red Hook, NY. Prior to becoming a restaurateur, Nicole spent twenty years as a corporate banker, originating and structuring debt and equity transactions for the media, telecom and entertainment industry sectors. She subsequently spent several years as a wealth advisor to high net-worth individuals and experienced first-hand the upheaval of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. In the wake of the financial crisis, Nicole decided to leave the banking industry and move full-time to the Hudson Valley, where she had been a homeowner since 1998. An avid amateur cook, she had long cherished a dream of attending The Culinary Institute of America. She matriculated at The CIA in 2010 and graduated with an associate’s degree in 2011. Nicole holds a BA from Swarthmore College, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Brad Cronk is an architect, project management, and construction consulting professional with more than thirty years of experience. In 2019, he founded QRA, an architectural firm and consultancy, and joined Coconut Properties, a NYC–based developer focused on community-centered, affordable housing. Through QRA, Brad advises real estate owners, developers, and attorneys on all phases of planning, design, and construction. He currently serves as the owner’s representative for the new 65-kennel Saugerties Animal Shelter. Brad is widely known for combining design and deep technical knowledge with a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach. Previously, Brad served as a project manager and owner’s representative at LePatner, a construction law firm in NYC. There, he guided clients through complex construction projects, managing risk, budgets, schedules, and consultant teams. His completed projects included the New Four Seasons Restaurant, the Cary Leeds NYJTL tennis complex in the Bronx, the Tiffany & Co. flagship store in SoHo, APS headquarters on Long Island, and The Core Club in Manhattan. Brad is a registered architect and AIA member. He holds degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He lives in Saugerties with his wife, Michelle Mullineaux, and loves hiking with his parcours-loving Labradoodle, cycling throughout the Catskills, gardening, travel photography, and workshopping amaro cocktails.

Director Emeritus and Byrdcliffe Historian

Henry T. Ford, Director Emeritus and Byrdcliffe Historian, is a native New Yorker and Woodstock resident with multi-generational ties to the Catskills and the Hudson River Valley. He has served on the Board of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild for many years, during which he has held the positions of Chairman, President and Vice President; he was also Chair of the Property Committee and, in 2017, was Chair of the Advisory Committee. In addition, he has co-curated exhibitions at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, including Zulma Steele, Artist/Craftswoman and Arriving at Byrdcliffe. As Byrdcliffe Historian, Henry has given talks about Byrdcliffe history at numerous events and during tours of the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony for the Artists in Residence Program and the general public; he has also given presentations to the Ulster County Historical Society, the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farm and the Milwaukee Museum of Fine Arts. Henry’s passion for the region and the arts extends to his support of WAAM, the Historical Society of Woodstock and The Maverick. His mission is to expand Byrdcliffe’s legacy and its artistic influence to a greater audience.

in memoriam (1938 – 2025)

The Byrdcliffe community is deeply saddened by the passing of Douglas C. James, musician, collector, philanthropist and tireless supporter of the Woodstock creative community.

In addition to his own music, Doug was a champion of his creative colleagues, contributing to the jazz world as a drummer, producer and radio host. Doug’s creative contributions expanded beyond music to the fine arts. We are immeasurably grateful for his extensive support of Byrdcliffe through significant gifts to our permanent collection and founding support for our exhibition and performance space. He generously gave his time and expertise to our organization through senior leadership roles at Byrdcliffe, serving as Board Vice-President, President, and President Emeritus. He was granted a Whitehead Award in 2016 in recognition of his extensive contributions to our organization.  

We extend our condolences to all those who loved Doug and we offer our deep gratitude for his commitment to Byrdcliffe.  

President Emeritus
Doug James, a life-long jazz drummer, owned Woodstock Recording Studio and was the host of WDST’s Sunday ‘Sounds of Jazz’ for nine years during the 1980s and 1990s. He was the head of a public relations office in New York in the 1960s and early 1970s. He renovated and dedicated the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts and the James Gallery in 1996, and was instrumental in forming the Byrdcliffe Permanent Collection.

He has served on the Advisory Board of the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Acquisition Committee of the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, and the Woodstock Memorial Society board. A Wisconsin native, he received a degree in American Studies from Princeton University. Doug has lived in Woodstock since 1969, and became a member of the Byrdcliffe Board in 1980. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to Byrdcliffe, Doug has been voted a permanent board member.

Karl Kellner is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company. He has more than thirty years of consulting experience and his clients include CEOs, C-suite executives and Board directors. His client service spans multiple industries, though his greatest depth is within the health care sector. Karl is active in the NYC community where he and his wife, Suzannah, and two children have lived since the 1990’s. They also enjoy spending time in Woodstock, where they acquired a home in 2008. Suzannah works in the arts and his daughter, Cassandra, is an artist. He has served on the Board of New York Cares since 2020. He led an eight-year partnership with former President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation to create economic opportunity and assist small businesses in Harlem. He was also a multi-year member of the Clinton Global Initiative. Karl also served on the Board of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) from 2006-2019 and received the organization’s Patron of the Arts Award for Philanthropy. Karl holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Kaiser Family Foundation Scholarship, and a BA, magna cum laude, from Oberlin College, where he was both a musician and History major. At Oberlin, he was awarded the Carrie C. Life Prize for outstanding achievement.

Chairman Emeritus
Garry Kvistad is the founder and CEO of Woodstock Percussion, Inc., makers and distributors of Woodstock Chimes® and musical instruments for children sold worldwide. As a professional musician, Garry has been performing and recording with the ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians since 1980. Garry won a Grammy award for the 1998 recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians.

He tours and records as a member of NEXUS, the internationally-renown, Canadian-based chamber music ensemble. Garry served as Chairman of the Byrdcliffe Board of Directors (board member for 20 years) where a building was named in his honor in 2008 and holds the title of Chairman Emeritus.

Garry is also on the advisory board of the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice and is the creator/Executive Director of the Drum Boogie Festival, held in 2009 and 2011 in Kingston, and 2013, 2015 and 2017 in Woodstock.

Property Committee Chair
K.L. McKenna has a Masters Degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute. She started off her art career as a photographer, with her photographs of the 1970s reflecting an ongoing interest in portraits, street life, and landscape. Her sense of composition carries through the different mediums.

Her inspiration for western scenes comes from childhood summers spent in Wyoming and Colorado with her paleontologist father prospecting for fossils and dinosaurs. As a 13 year-old in 1969, Katherine ran the Grand Canyon Colorado River in wooden cataract boats where she was awed by red canyons, buttes, and the blue skies of Arizona.

In addition to being a painter, K.L. McKenna has worked on a wide variety of interesting design projects over the years. She is currently designing interactive color with custom printed fabric for quilts using a variation of the Amish traditional “Diamond in the Square” geometric design.

Catherine McNeal has extensive experience in strategic marketing and oversight of large corporate fashion retailers. She has held Executive Vice President/Senior Vice President/General Merchandise Manager positions in the fashion industry with many years of merchandising and design expertise.

She lives in Woodstock and in 2015 established her own business to serve the local area in home staging, interior design and home renovation. Additionally, Catherine has made a lifelong commitment to being involved with the community and has served on boards and volunteered for many non-profit organizations throughout her career. She joined the Board of Directors of the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in 2017 and during her tenure has served as President / Vice President and Treasurer, currently chairing the Development Committee and member of the Property Committee.

Karen K. Peters fell in love with Woodstock in the 1970’s, relocated from NYC to the Hudson Valley, engaged in the private practice of law and taught gender discrimination and the law, civil rights and civil liberties and criminal law at SUNY New Paltz. In 1983 Karen became the first woman elected to the Ulster County Family Court and in 1992 after another hotly contested election Judge Peters became the first woman Supreme Court Judge in the 28 counties of the Third Judicial Department.

In 1994 Governor Mario Cuomo appointed her to serve on the Appellate Division of the Third Department and in 2012 upon appointment by Governor Andrew Cuomo she became the first woman Presiding Justice of the department. Justice Peters retired from the bench in 2017. She is of counsel to the Litigation and Business Disputes Practice in the New York Office of Epstein, Becker Green and presently Chairs the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, The Commission on Parental Representation and the New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on Attorney Well-Being.

Justice Peters is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for her commitment to the advancement of Judicial Diversity, lawyer and judicial wellness and the legal needs of parents and children. An avid supporter of the arts and a passionate potter, Karen returns to the Board of Byrdcliffe with a renewed commitment to ensuring the vibrancy of the arts in the Hudson Valley.

Edward Sanders is a poet, historian and composer with a degree in ancient Greek from New York University. His recently published book, illustrated by Rick Veitch, is “Broken Glory, the Final Years of Robert F. Kennedy,” published by Arcade Publishers. A paperback edition, with an update chapter, will be published in 2021.

His Glyphic History, “A Life of Charles Olson in Text and Glyphs,” has very recently been published by Dispatches/Spuyten Duyvil. His manifesto, “Investigative Poetry,” has inspired several book-length biographies in verse, including Chekhov, a Biography in Verse, and The Poetry & Life of Allen Ginsberg. He has received a Guggenheim fellowship in poetry, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in verse, an American Book Award for his collected poems, a 2012 PEN-Oakland Josephine Miles Prize, and other awards for his writing.

He is completing a biography of Alf Evers, and is a volunteer assistant at the Alf Evers Archive. Sanders was the founder of the satiric folk/rock group, The Fugs, which has released many albums and CDs during its 55-year history. He has lived in Woodstock with his wife, the essayist and painter Miriam Sanders, for over 40 years, and both are active in environmental and other social issues.

Abigail Sturges grew up in NYC and summered in Woodstock on the Byrdcliffe Colony at Carniola, Bolton Brown’s former house. Sturges and her husband, architect Daniel Perry, still live at Byrdcliffe where they restored an Arts & Crafts era home adjacent to the Colony. She majored in Classics at Vassar before studying in Italy for a year. She worked in NYC collaborating with graphic designer Massimo Vignelli for over twenty years on architectural publications. She has owned her own design firm for forty-five years and is a well-respected designer of major art and architecture publications. She was the Art Director for Architecture magazine; designed illustrated books for major publishers such as Rizzoli and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; designed exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art, the Research Institute for the Study of Man, and the Dvorak Society; and developed graphics for architectural firms and non-profit organizations. Her volunteer work includes graphic design for private foundations and colleges as well as event planning. She previously served on the Byrdcliffe Board for twelve years, the New York State Council of the Arts’ Architecture, Design and Exhibition panel and the Goddard Riverside for Social Services Board. Abigail is committed to public service, and feels “It is a privilege to be part of the Byrdcliffe community.”

Jess Walker is a lifelong resident of Woodstock, with a sixteen year period in NYC working as a senior designer for the international architectural firm of Aldo Rossi. Jess has over thirty years of experience in the planning, design, presentation and construction of projects of varying scale and complexity. In the fall of 2012, he joined his father, architect Les Walker, to create Walker Architecture. This office has completed many acclaimed projects and now has several exciting commercial and residential projects in construction. After graduation from Yale University in 1996 with a Master of Architecture, Jess joined the legendary architect Aldo Rossi in his New York office, Studio Di Architettura. He participated in the design and construction management of landmark buildings nationwide. When Aldo Rossi passed away in 1997, the office was renamed after his partner, Morris Adjmi. Jess was promoted to be Studio Director of Morris Adjmi Architects. He managed and assumed responsibility for the design and development of both exteriors and interiors of dozens of publicly prominent commercial, residential and institutional buildings. Much of this work done with both Morris and Aldo was published extensively and widely regarded as both forward thinking and respectful of history and context.

Director Emeritus, Historical Preservation
Les Walker is an architect with an office in Woodstock, and is the author of eight books related to architecture, including Tiny Houses and American Shelter. He received a B.A. in Architecture from Pennsylvania State University, and a M.A. in Architecture from Yale University. He was an adjunct professor of Architecture at the City College of New York for 20 years. His primary interest in Byrdcliffe is the preservation of the historic Byrdcliffe Art Colony buildings. Les moved to Woodstock in 1970, and has served on the Byrdcliffe board for many years, first joining in 1983.

Sylvia Leonard Wolf, a native New Yorker, now full-time Bearsville, NY resident, has been immersed in music and art her entire life. Since 1978, Sylvia has been an independent, certified art appraiser for individuals, corporations, museums, and the IRS. She served on the Appraisers Association of America’s Board of Directors for 25 years, and of those years as Board president from 1990 to 1992. She actively participates in Woodstock’s arts organizations and has served on the Board of Directors at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild since 2014. Sylvia was the Exhibition Committee chair and co-curator of a landmark exhibition, “Byrdcliffe’s Legacy.” At the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, she was a trustee/board member from 2004 to 2014 and is currently a member of the Permanent Collection committee. At SUNY New Paltz’s Dorsky Museum, she serves on the program and advisory committees. She is also a member of ArtTable and the Dali Authentication Committee and teaches Fine Art Appraising at NYU. Sylvia is passionate about following the art market, gardening, tennis, and playing with Nelly, her rescued dog.