I took the picture above during a weekend this past June at my friend’s home on the North Fork of Long Island. It was the first time I had spent any time away from my house since March and I was reflecting on how this beautiful moment was in such…

For the last six months, our lives have been so interrupted that it has been impossible to appreciate in real time how much we miss the basic things that we love and perhaps took for granted. But, as an arts educator and passionate consumer and collector of visual art, I…

Eighteen months ago, I took a four-day class to learn how to practice Transcendental Meditation. The experience changed me. The truth is, I have no way of knowing how I would have coped with Covid without having this tool in my toolkit. The noise of the world combined with an…

When I think of the word “pod”, it takes me back to my childhood and watching the Jetsons fly around in a little capsule. Now I hear the word every day and never before in my lifetime has a pod or “self contained unit” become a more practical and comforting…

For the last ten years, I have immersed myself into understanding Contemporary Art from a number of different vantage points. As the operator of a network of art schools and a patron and supporter of artists, I have had a first hand look at people in “the process of doing”…

It has been profoundly interesting to me to view the human experience through the lens of a pandemic.  Notwithstanding all the variables we have to consider, one of the most profound remains: “how do small businesses survive and hopefully thrive going forward?” One of the earliest lessons I learned in…

While great uncertainty remains as a result of Covid 19, there is one basic fact that is grounded in complete certainty.  We have some of the most spirited, thoughtful and caring professionals working here at One River and I am honored to manage a company that has assembled such a…

I sat down to write today and I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the last 12 weeks. It has been that long since we had to close our doors on March 14th to respond to the pandemic that was about to sweep through and attack our communities. During this…

Every day, I think about how we could provide a great educational experience AND also allow our students to use their creative capacity to send a message to the world. Right now we are doing something really special that meets this challenge that I want to share with you. The…

2,500 years ago, Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher said, “Change is the only constant in life.” I love this saying and never before in modern America have we been tested to adapt to such radical change so quickly. As humans, we thrive on predictability and safety and when massive change is…