Usdan Names New Executive Director

Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, the renowned summer arts day camp, announces that Lauren Brandt Schloss will become Usdan¹s third Executive Director this fall. She will be Usdan¹s first female Executive and the first whose background is in the visual arts. Ms. Schloss will join the staff in June following her tenure as Executive Vice President at New York¹s Studio in a School and her previous position as Director of Education at the Queens Museum. She will succeed Dale Lewis, who following 36 years at Usdan will be leaving in September to direct the new Arts Reach Fund at Long Island Community Foundation.

Ms. Schloss has worked in arts education for 20 years. At Studio in a School, New York City¹s largest visual arts education organization, she oversaw the fundraising, marketing, public relations, finance, human resources and information technology for programs annually serving more than 30,000 children at more than 200 sites. In her previous position, as Director of Education at the Queens Museum, she created the largest education program in the country for adult immigrants, serving communities in more than 10 languages, as well as designing, managing and assessing programs in museums as well as libraries and schools for K-12 schoolchildren, educators, youth, families, seniors and people with special needs.

Ms. Schloss has amassed a distinguished record of accomplishment during her years at the Queens Museum and Studio in a School. These include the creation of the highest quality artistic experiences for an enormous variety of communities ­ diverse in ability, nationality, race, economics and age. She has implemented these by short and long term educational and awareness projects with more than 100 living, practicing artists, ranging from emerging international artists to some of the most famous living artists of our time; by an approach to arts learning involving collaboration and partnerships, with more than 100 schools, public libraries, universities and cultural organizations in all arts disciplines; and by a commitment to consistently being on the forefront of educational and artistic practices.

Complementing her career in the visual arts is Ms. Schloss¹s love for the performing arts as she studied in-school, out-of-school and at summer camp the disciplines of dance, musical theater, theater production, violin and piano. A native of Cherry Hill NJ, she earned a B.A. in Art History from Princeton University, an M.A. in Arts Administration from Columbia University, and has completed further graduate work in Art History at the City University of New York. Before joining the Queens Museum, Ms. Schloss worked in education with the Museum of Modern Art and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy. In addition, since 2003 she has participated in major visual arts education conferences.

Ms. Schloss lives in Manhattan with her husband, architect Jonathan Schloss, and their 11 year-old daughter ­ who plays cello, sews and is passionate about photography - and 8 year-old son, who plays piano and violin and loves to sculpt and draw.

Dale Lewis said: ³I am delighted to welcome Lauren Brandt Schloss to this great Center. Her superb background as a programmatic innovator and visionary administrator will serve Usdan long into the future. Lauren has a track record of winning the affection and admiration of her colleagues and the Faculty and Staff join me in happy anticipation of her leadership at Usdan.²

The incoming Executive Director said ³I am honored to have been chosen to cultivate innovation and creativity with over 1,500 artistic youth and 300 creative adults on a 200-acre wooded playground for the arts. Dale Lewis has established an uncommon level of artistic excellence and a culture of warmth and kindness at Usdan, which I am dedicated to preserving in the years ahead.²

Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts opens its 48th season on June 29th. Featuring more than 40 programs, it is annually attended by students from Long Island, New York City and additional neighborhoods throughout the Tri-State Area. Usdan has introduced the arts to more than 60,000 young people since its inaugural season in 1968. The Center is situated on a magnificent 200-acre woodland campus in the Town of Huntington, Long Island, and is open to all young people from ages 5 to 18. A hallmark of Usdan¹s mission is its tradition of welcoming all students based solely on their expression of interest in the arts as no audition is required for most courses. The Center offers programs in music, dance, theater, visual arts, creative writing, nature and ecology, and chess, in flexible 3, 4 and 7-week sessions. Although the mission of the Center is for every child to establish a relationship with the arts, the unique stimulation of the Center has caused many to go on to arts careers. Alumni include Natalie Portman, Mariah Carey, jazz star Jane Monheit, Seth Rudetsky, Jackie Hoffman, Olivia Thirlby, Taylor Dane and members of Broadway shows and major music, theater, and dance ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New York City Ballet. Usdan Center is an agency of the UJA Federation of New York. For more information, write to info@usdan.com, Call (631) 643-7900, or visit www.usdan.com.