Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center’s annual Spring Benefit Garden Party supports, advances, and preserves the Edward Hopper House and our exploration of the legacy of this iconic artist and his Nyack years. 

Sunday June 5, 2022 at 82 North Broadway, Nyack, NY
Pictures kindly contributed by Chris Carroll and Kathie Bennewitz. 
delicious light fare and festive beverages by The Grape D'Vine, Food Truck Refinery Latin Lover Taco Truck, The Ice Mother & Sons
This year we honored two individuals who, through their ardent advocacy, generous volunteerism and exceptional talents, are instrumental in supporting Edward Hopper House. 
Elliott Forrest is a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, director, designer, and producer. He currently serves as the afternoon host on New York’s Classical Radio Station 105.9FM, WQXR, host of the national radio concerts of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has hosted more than sixty concerts on-stage at Carnegie Hall. 

Forrest is the founding Executive Artistic Director of ArtsRock.org in Rockland County, New York. Through ArtsRock, He worked with Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center to bring support for its 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2021. Forrest was a featured host and interviewer for the Museum’s four virtual 50th Anniversary talks which he also helped to produce and direct. 

For twenty years he has brought professional concerts, theater, and conversations to his upstate community. He was Co-Creator and Producer of the national tour of An Evening With Itzhak Perlman and Michael Feinstein Celebrates Judy Garland, as well as Co-Director and Projection Designer of the live national tour and PBS TV Special of Considering Matthew Shepard, by Craig Hella Johnson. Forrest was Executive Producer of The Public Theater’s 2020 Shakespeare in the Park on the Radio of Richard II. 
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Forrest serves on the Boards of the NY Youth Symphony and The Little Orchestra Society. He regularly produces, directs, and designs symphony concerts: LA Philharmonic, The NY Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, New Haven Symphony Pasadena Pops, and the Little Orchestra Society in venues including the Kennedy Center, the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center. He has also served as the orchestra narrator for shows such as Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, Peter and the Wolf, Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale, and Britten’s Young Person’s Guide. For 12 years, Forrest has hosted A&E Television's Breakfast with the Arts.

Originally from Midland, TX, Forrest lives in Nyack, NY with his wife, Kara Sheridan, a former trustee and Board President of the Edward Hopper House Museum, and has two children, Michael and Tyler.
Arthur H. Gunther of Blauvelt, New York., is a retired newspaperman with the former Rockland Journal-News, where he served for forty-two years. He began as a copy boy in 1964 at the Nyack office on Hudson Avenue. His career quickly progressed to staff photographer, copy editor, layout editor, night city editor, assistant editorial page editor, and editorial page editor, a position he held from 1987 to retirement in 2006.  For the newspaper, Gunther took more than 8,000 pictures and wrote more than 6,000 articles for the newspaper, including about 2,500 weekly columns. In 2006, a collection of those essays was published by the Historical Society of Rockland under the title, “The Column Rule,” which was his weekly column from 1981 to 2006. 

Gunther is a former trustee of Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, and for over fifteen years has served as a volunteer with the Museum, continuing the tradition of historian Win Perry and others. Rockland Journal-News’ reporting,  along with Gunther's writings and editing, aided the rescue of the then dilapidated "Hopper House" in 1971.

Today, the historic preservation of the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center remains paramount to Gunther. He appreciates the value of local historic structures and the utter necessity to protect them. At the Museum, Gunther keeps an eye out for and advises on everyday repairs and annual maintenance but also identifies major needs and prioritized projects. In 2020 he was featured on Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center's storybank, Myths & Legends, documenting shared histories, memories, and fascinations of community members about Edward Hopper and their shared hometown of Nyack.

In his retirement, Gunther continues his writing online at TheColumnRule.com. He is also a painter and exhibits his work at various regional galleries and art centers.  Gunther was named literary and visual artist of the year in Rockland County in 2005 and 2010, respectively, and was honored again for his literary contributions in 2021. Since 2002, he can also be found every week working as the Tuesday cook at a soup kitchen in his native Spring Valley.

Art is a third-generation Rocklander, married to Lillian, a retired teacher, with whom he has two sons: Arthur Gunther IV, a teacher; and Andrew, an archivist; and four grandchildren.
Silent Auction; Live “Cause” Auction; ​Live Music by the "Old No. 7 Combo": Tanya Garzia, Bernie Garzia, Frankie Hernandez, Len Hunt, James Kimak, Howard Sperling, J.D. Zeik
Karon Shovers, co-chair
Nancy Low-Hogan, co-chair
Kristina Burns 
Lisa D’Amico 
Mary Ingrassia Fiore 
Marjorie Galen 
Mary Mathwich
Aviva Sokolsky
Kathleen Bennewitz, Executive Director
Carole Perry, Artistic Director & Curator
Alex Davies, Office & Services Manager

Nancy Low-Hogan, Katherine BradlEY

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