Meet Our Team

meet manitoga’s public programs team

 

Connie

Connie is a creator, performer, and producer of new work in New York and abroad. From 2006-2018, Connie ran a pop-up supper club/ensemble theater company called Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant (2012 NY Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Ensemble and Performance Art Production), performing and cooking for thousands in Cleveland, Cambridge, Louisville, Nashville, and New York City. She is a repeat performer at Shakespeare in Stonington (ME), and she has enjoyed longtime collaborations as a contributing performer with Aya Ogawa, Jeanette Yew, Jeffrey Frace, Paul Bargetto/ the undergroundzero festival, and International WOW Company. Connie is the Literary Services Manager at New Dramatists, and she has served on the staffs of Theatre Development Fund and Theatre Communications Group. Connie lives in Beacon on the mountain where she likes to host artists and hikers alike. She is a site educator at Manitoga, and is an associate producer of the Soon is Now annual climate change theater action in Long Dock Park in Beacon.  She holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. 

Robert (Bob)

Bob is a federal appeals attorney, avid gardener, and longtime resident of the Hudson River Valley. He loves the region's history, art and nature so poignantly on display at Manitoga.

Paula

Growing up in the Hudson Valley, Paula gained a great appreciation for the breathtaking natural world around her. From an early age, she loved hiking and exploring with family and friends and still gets out in nature at every opportunity.

When not outside, Paula is the Creative Director at her own design company — for 20+ years — working closely with client marketing teams on a wide range of creative projects. Paula loves photographing nature from unique perspectives, cooking plant-based meals for anyone who will eat them, going on fun new adventures with friends, and witnessing first time visitors in awe when touring Dragon Rock at Manitoga!

Judith

Judith is an international award winning storyteller, producer, Chicago Moth winner, and NSN Oracle award recipient for Leadership in the mid-west region. She introduced Tellabration! to Chicago where she produced it for 20 years as well as simultaneously running the Chicago Storytelling Guild. She loves telling The Grimmest of the Grimm tales as well as personal narratives gathered from her families’ exploits. When not crafting earrings, a hobby resurrected during Covid, Judith also leads tours at the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House in Chicago, IL, and at Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center in Garrison, NY (no relation). She teaches a memoir/storytelling class in Westchester, NY where she spends most of her time these days.

Madeline

Madeline is originally from Lagrangeville, New York and is a recent graduate of Fordham University. She loves anything related to history, architecture, and culture and is always traveling to new places and looking to learn new things! When not at Manitoga, Madeline works as a teaching assistant at a local elementary school. In the future, she plans to move to London to pursue a teaching degree. 

Dante

Dante has led tours at Manitoga since 2019. He is an artist and educator in the Hudson Valley. The wooded garden paths and unique mid-century home continues to inform his sensibilities, both in art and life. Arriving each week to the historic site still sparks his curiosity, and encourages mindful experiences, which he hopes to impart to visitors. 

Eve

Eve is a photographer and documentary filmmaker who received her BA in Art History from Vassar College and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her film and photographic projects have received many grants and awards and have screened and exhibited in the US, Europe and Asia. She has also been awarded artist residencies at MacDowell and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace. In 2021, Eve founded Soon is Now, a climate and eco-themed festival of art and live performance held in Scenic Hudson's Long Dock Park in Beacon and co-produced with Manitoga guide Connie Hall. She lives with her daughter and rescue pup in Beacon, NY and volunteers for Climate Reality and Beacon Climate Action Now. 

Alan

Alan is beginning his sixth year as a site educator at Manitoga.  Since he retired from the world of publishing, he has been able to indulge his interest in 20th century design and architecture by working at Manitoga and sharing his knowledge with guests. Alan is also President of The Field Library (Peekskill) Board of Trustees. He and his wife, Ellen, have lived in northern Westchester for 35 years.

Stephen Motika (Diana Nguyen / Marfa Public Radio)

Stephen

Stephen is the author of the book of poems, Western Practice, and the chapbooks Arrival and at Mono, In the Madrones, and Private Archive. He is the editor of Tiresias: The Collected Poems of Leland Hickman and coeditor of Dear Kathleen: On the Occasion of Kathleen Fraser’s 80th Birthday. His articles and poems have appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, At Length, BOMB, the Brooklyn Review, the Constant Critic, Eleven Eleven, Maggy, the Poetry Project Newsletter, Poets & Writers, Poets.org, and Vanitas, among other publications. He has held residencies at the Lannan Foundation, Marfa, TX; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace; Millay Colony for the Arts; and ZK/U in Berlin, and taught at the Indiana University Writers Conference, Lehman College of the City University of New York, Naropa University, and the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. He is the director and publisher of Nightboat Books.

Rhiannon

Rhiannon started working with Manitoga in September of 2020, and quickly fell in love with the property. Beginning as a Site Educator, she then transitioned to become a Visitor Services and Engagement Assistant. Rhiannon also graduated with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 2022 and aspires to work for the National Parks Service. She has a love for conservation and exploration of the natural world. Helping the organization and team develop at Manitoga has been one of Rhiannon’s great passions, and she enjoys educating all those who come to visit the home and surrounding woodlands.

Rachel

A vet tech and nature-lover by day, Rachel joined the tour program of Manitoga as a site educator in 2021 and has truly enjoyed sharing the House, Studio and Woodland Garden with visitors ever since. 

When not giving tours, Rachel can be found riding horses and hiking the beautiful Hudson Valley with her two littles.

Allison

Allison is a mom, technology librarian, horse enthusiast, enjoyer of art, and hiker. Relatively new to the Hudson Valley, she has enjoyed getting to know all the area has to offer, including Manitoga. With an interest in art history, Allison enjoys sharing Manitoga with guests and learning about the various lenses though which visitors take in the landscape and modernist home.

Janice

Janice studied and taught philosophy for years before having her children and has spent the last two decades working as a museum guide at a number of different historic sites, including Van Cortlandt Manor. Manitoga is her favorite, and like most of her colleagues, she loves her job.