The Council is comprised of up to 21 individuals who are appointed by the Governor and approved by the State Senate. Council members are appointed to five-year terms. The Council is currently made up of the following members.

Danny Simmons, Interim Chair

Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Vice-Chair

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel is an author, television interviewer and producer, preservationist, and civic activist. In 1966, Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel became the first Director of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, initiating the first public art exhibition by Tony Smith at Bryant Park and the first public performance in Central Park of the Metropolitan Opera. She also served as a Commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1972 to 1987 and was Chair of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Foundation from 1987 to 1995. She served as a Member of the New York City Cultural Commission and a Member of the New York City Art Commission.

Since 1995, Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel has been the Chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center (HLPC), creating a Cultural Medallion program documenting notable occurrences, distinguished individuals and other important aspects of New York City’s cultural, economic, political and social history. Among other programs, the HLPC initiated, created, designed and financed all of the terra cotta street signs in each of New York City’s Historic Districts. Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel was appointed by President Reagan to the Board of the United States Holocaust Museum in 1987 where she served as Chair of the subcommittee that commissioned all of the original art created for the museum. She was appointed to the United States Commission of Fine Arts in 1992 by President Clinton. In 2002, Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel became the first woman elected Vice Chair of the Commission.

Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel is the author of 19 books and the curator of seven international museum exhibitions, each based on one of her books. A current exhibit based on “The Landmarks of New York,” is being circulated by the U.S. Department of State to 62 countries on each of the five continents. Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Fresh Air Fund, Friends of the High Line, and the New York State Historic Archives Trust, among others. Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel earned her doctorate from New York University, and has received honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Longwood University in Virginia. She was also elected an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects.

Jeff Soref, Vice-Chair

Jeff Soref is the President of Soref Associates, Inc., a private consulting firm located in New York City that specializes in public relations management. Mr. Soref is currently a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and also serves as a Member of the Museum's Visiting Committee for the Department of Asian Art. He has served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and was Co-Chair of the Board’s Government Affairs Committee (2003-2006). Mr. Soref organized Lincoln Center's first salute to Gay Pride benefit as part of New York City's celebration of Gay Pride Week and he is a past Co-Chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Empire State Pride Agenda. He was also President of the Board of Directors of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (1991-1994). Mr Soref is a former member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of the Lenox Hill Neighborhood Association. Mr. Soref received his A.B. from Brandeis University and his Master of Science with distinction in Russian Government from the London School of Economics.

Laura L. Aswad

Laura L. Aswad is the Executive Director of Real Arts and Culture, a New York based company specializing in the performing and visual arts. Previously, she was producer of the Lincoln Center Festival, the international summer performing arts festival, where she produced numerous productions in all genres of the performing arts (1996-2004). Ms. Aswad has also served as associate producer of Lincoln Center’s Serious Fun! Festival (1993-1995), as the tour manager for numerous international and domestic productions, and as the senior associate at International Production Associates where she coordinated domestic and international tours for such artists as Sankai Juku and Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble (1989-1993). She is originally from Binghamton, New York and she received her B.A. in Theater from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Laura L. Ballori

Laura L. Ballori is the Executive Vice-President of Ballori Farre, a New York City based advertising and communications firm.  She is also the New York Correspondent for IMAGEN Magazine, Puerto Rico's leading monthly, where she writes about the arts, as well as cultural and lifestyle issues. Ms. Ballori also serves as both a member of the board and artistic director of The Children Foundation, which helps children with learning disabilities and whose Annual Autumn Gala – a classical music fundraising event – she has produced since 1998. She is also an operatic soprano who has trained at Juilliard, Strasberg and Stella Adler. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Arts in Performance Studies from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Debra R. Black

Debra R. Black serves on the Boards of Lincoln Center Theatre, The Public Theatre and The Trinity School. On Broadway, she has produced The History Boys, The Pillowman, Butley, The Vertical Hour, The Year of Magical Thinking, Frost/Nixon and Coram Boy, among others.  She earned her B.A. from Barnard College.

Henry Eltinge Breed III

Henry E. Breed III is a Political Advisor in the United Nations General Assembly and former professional pianist. Breed is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts in London and has also regularly served on the National Endowment for the Arts’ expert panels on Music and on International Exchange as well as on its International Leadership Subcommittee. With his mother, the late Dr. Helen Illick Breed, he created the Illick Music Fund at the Crouse College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. He has taught as Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at Duke University’s Leadership in the Arts Program, worked as a Consulting Editor for UNESCO, and served as the Director of International Programs for the American Council for the Arts. Mr. Breed earned undergraduate degrees in music and fine arts from Indiana University in Bloomington, an M.A. in international affairs from Columbia University, an M.A. in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a diploma from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva as a Fulbright Scholar.

Betty Levin

Betty Levin is the president and founder of Corporate Art Directions. She is co-chair of the board of The Jewish Museum, chair of its Development Committee and a sitting member of its Acquisitions and Exhibitions Committees. She is also a board member at the Lincoln Center Institute.  Ms. Levin earned her Bachelor’s degree from Wells College.

Jeffrey H. Lynford

Jeffrey H. Lynford is the Chairman of Reis, Inc. (NASDAQ: REIS), an internet-based business information firm which provides real estate data and analytics to the nation’s largest commercial and investment banks and other leading financial institutions. Mr. Lynford has over 20 years of executive corporate experience as co-founder of the Wellsford group of publicly-traded real estate corporations and private equity partnerships. Also, he has served as an independent director on the boards of Equity Residential Properties Trust (NYSE: EQR), and numerous open and closed end real estate mutual funds sponsored by the investment management firm of Cohen & Steers, Inc. (NYSE: CNS). Mr. Lynford currently serves as a trustee of New York University, the Vice Chair of the Global Heritage Fund and has been appointed by the Governor to the New York State Council on the Arts. He is an emeritus trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Citizens Budget Commission and the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Inc. The Lynford Family Charitable Trust supports numerous eleemosynary organizations with both domestic and international missions, including endowment of fellowship programs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University and Weill Cornell Medical School and formation of the Institute for Mathematics and Advanced Super-computing. He holds three university degrees, including a law degree from Fordham University and Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. He is married to Tondra Lynford who is a psychotherapist and co-founder of Resources for Children with Special needs, Inc. They are the parents of four children.

Natalie Merchant

Natalie Merchant is an award winning singer and songwriter as well as a public advocate. She has worked with organizations such as Scenic Hudson and Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Riverkeeper, The Center for Constitutional Rights, Doctors Without Borders, Tibet House, Greenpeace, and The Southern Center for Human Rights. She contributes support to several children’s organizations including The Association to Benefit Children in Manhattan. In her hometown of Jamestown, the Boys & Girls Club, and the YMCA and YWCA continue to benefit from her annual gifts. She is best known for her work as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs. Ms. Merchant released six albums with the 10,000 Maniacs between 1981 and 1993 (The Wishing Chair, In My Tribe, Blind Man's Zoo, Hope Chest, Our Time in Eden & MTV Unplugged). Ms. Merchant has also released a number of solo albums including Motherland (2001), Ophelia (1998), and 1995’s critically acclaimed Tigerlily.

Linda Mondello

Linda Mondello is the former director of Education Resources in the Development Office at Hofstra University. She is a member of the Diane Lindner-Goldberg Child Care Institute, the Hofstra Advisory Board and the University Fine Arts Museum. Ms. Mondello is also a member of New York State Committee of Women, the Nassau County Federation of Republican Women, and the Syosette Garden Club.  She is a former member of the Rock Hall Museum. She has also served as a Council member for the Goodwill Games. Ms. Mondello earned an A.A. in Fine Art from Stratford Jr. College, a B.S. in Fine Art from Hofstra University and is pursuing an M.S. degree in Art Education at Hofstra University.

Amy Newman

Amy Newman is an art historian, consultant and writer specializing in 19th and 20th Century American art.  She co-edited the writings of the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, Defining Modern Art: Selected Writings of Alfred H. Barr, Jr. (Harry N. Abrams, 1986); is the author of Challenging Art: Artforum 1962-1974 (Soho Press, 2003), and is currently preparing a biography of  the abstract expressionist, Barnett Newman (no relation to her). She is the curator of the New York and London collections of Cravath, Swaine and Moore, Ltd., for which she has written a catalogue, and the curator of the New York collection of Davis Wright Tremaine, Ltd. Ms. Newman is the editor of numerous catalogues, and has written for the Arts and Leisure section of The New York Times. In the 1970s and 1980s she was managing editor at Artnews magazine. She has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Graduate School of Journalism. She is a member of the boards of Landmark West!, a historical preservation organization, and Exit Art, which was founded as a visual arts alternative space in the 1982, but which has evolved into a multidisciplinary cultural space concerned with aesthetic, social, political and environmental issues. Ms. Newman has an A.B. from Barnard College and an M.A. in art history from Columbia University Graduate Faculties. 

Dennis M. Penman

Dennis M. Penman is Executive Vice President of M.J. Peterson Real Estate Corp. in Amherst, New York and is Chairman of the Board of Western New York Public Broadcasting. Penman has served on the Executive Committee of Shea’s Buffalo Theater and as Vice President of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also received an Emmy Award (2004-2005) for his contribution to Reading Rainbow. His past work includes playing key roles in Housing and Urban Development’s Section 8 and Elderly Housing programs, and service as President of the New York State Builders Association, President of the Buffalo Niagara Builders Association, Vice President of the National Association of Home Builders, and head of the US Congress Millennial Housing Commission.

David A.A. Ridings

David A.A. Ridings is the vice-chairman and former Chairman of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and is the Chair of the Syracuse Symphony Foundation. He has acted as director and treasurer for WCNY, Central New York Public Broadcasting and as a trustee of the Everson Museum and the Central New York Community Foundation. Mr. Ridings has also served as Chairman, President and CEO of Pass & Seymour. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Deborah  Ronnen

Deborah Ronnen is an attorney and owner of Deborah Ronnen Fine Art in Rochester, NY, specializing in modern and contemporary art.   As an independent curator, Ms. Ronnen has organized exhibitions in conjunction with the Collector's Gallery at The Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, at The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester,and at The Nazareth College Arts Center, all in Rochester, NY. Currently, she serves on the board of The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. She is  a community activist and a longtime advocate for the upstate cultural community.

She holds an LL.B. ( JD equivalent) from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she was admitted to the Bar and was the Director of The Jerusalem Mediation Center. She also holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Boston University.

Daryl Roth

Daryl Roth is the producer of five Pulitzer Prize winning plays: Proof (2001 Tony, Best Play); Wit; How I Learned to Drive; Three Tall Women; and Anna in the Tropics. Her other productions include Curtains; A Catered Affair; Is He Dead?; August: Osage County; Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Year of Magical Thinking; Deuce; Inherit the Wind; Coram Boy; Caroline or Change; Salome; Medea; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia (2002 Tony, Best Play); The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife; Twilight: Los Angeles; Bea Arthur on Broadway; Beckett/Albee; Old Wicked Songs; The Play About the Baby; Camping with Henry & Tom; Talking Heads; The Baby Dance; Thom Pain; Closer Than Ever; and De La Guarda. Roth serves on the Board of Directors of Lincoln Center Theatre, and the Sundance Institute. She is the sponsor of The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award for exceptional artists.

Judith O. Rubin

Judith O. Rubin is Chair of Playwrights Horizons and a member of the Tony Awards Administration Committee. She serves on the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of New York City, the University’s Council Committee on Theater at Yale, and the Board of Overseers of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Ms. Rubin is also a Trustee of Mount Sinai Medical Center and a former Trustee of Public Radio International and the Center for Arts and Culture. She has previously served on the NEA’s National Council on the Arts, on the board of Theatre Communications Group, as Manhattan representative on the Board of Regents of New York State, and as President of the 92^nd Street Y. Ms. Rubin has also served as Commissioner for Protocol under Mayor David Dinkins (1984-1988). She is a graduate of Wellesley College and is listed in Who’s Who of American Women. Judith Rubin was appointed to the council by Governor Mario Cuomo in 1989.

Dr. Marta Moreno Vega