Anita Durst has been a star, a muse, and a patron of the avant-garde performing arts and emerging arts scene in New York City, since she was 18. She founded chashama in 1995 following the death of her mentor and artistic professor Reza Abdoh. While performing and working in his company, Dar A Luz, she learned the value of unbridled expression and how to value art objectively. In the wake of Reza’s absence she was driven to create a place for artists free of financial and subjective constraints. Anita has worked tirelessly for over 20 years to secure over one million square feet of space in New York City for artists.

She believes programs like Chashama are the vital building blocks to ensuring cultural capital in New York City. Anita was born in New York City and was the flower child to hippy parents living in New Foundland Canada, Ibiza Spain, and the suburbs of New York City. As a precocious teenager she resisted conventional schooling. Shortly after graduating high school she moved back to New York City to help care for her grandfather.

She is a proud mother who ensures her entire family eats healthy, practices mindful movement, and lives in the moment. True to her ability to be in the moment and greatest strength of objective thinking, she believes all art to be valuable.

William (Bill) Abramson is a real estate executive and community leader with more than 20 years of experience working at the forefront of economic development and public space renewal in New York City. Bronx born, Abramson’s commitment to NYC is as impressive as his professional credentials. Abramson is currently the Director of Brokerage Services at Buchbinder and Warren, a 60-year-old real estate brokerage firm, where he oversees all residential, commercial, and office leasing and sales. He presently serves as the Co-Chairperson of the Union Square Partnership, and is the treasurer of several other NYC BIDs. He also served as Chairperson of Community Board #8 in the Bronx, President and Chairperson of the Board of the Riverdale YM-YWHA. Bill was also a past President of the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club and was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to serve of the Workforce Investment Board, and was a David Rockefeller Fellow.

Alberte Bernier is a visual artist who lives in New York City. She is an artist in residence at ChaShaMa. Over the years her artistic expressions have been inspired by a landscape of cultures and traditions. She is a member of ProArts and Ceres Gallery. Her work has been exhibited at the New York State Museum, Albany, The Herb & Milly Iris Gallery, SOPAC, Pleiades Gallery, and more recently at ChaShaMa Gallery & Studio, Drawing Room, Jersey City Hall Rotunda Gallery and Ceres Gallery. In the last few years she has produced three individual art books and collaborated with numerous group art book projects, the latest in 2021.

Marc has worked with and for Chashama since its inception in 1995 as a performance art company, segueing from performance to field assistant, manager and administrator. He took a sabbatical in 2010, returning in 2014, and most recently assists Chashama on a volunteer basis while the Covid-19 protocols are in effect.

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., he is a graduate of Bard College with a degree in music.

Michael J. Hirschhorn is founder & CEO of mebl | Transforming Furniture, a social enterprise passionate about expanding the marketplace for beautiful furniture handcrafted from reclaimed wood and metal. mebl’s big vision is to mainstream environmental sustainability in furniture production . From 2008-14, Michael served as Executive Director of the International Human Rights Funders Group. Previously, he served as Executive Director of Coro New York Leadership Center; as Executive Director of the Literacy Assistance Center; and as Deputy Executive Director of Educators for Social Responsibility Metro. Michael was an Assistant to the Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools and, from 1998-2003, served as the “Visiting Non-Profit Executive” at the Yale School of Management, where he advised MBA students interested in non-profit, public, and non-traditional private sector management. Michael serves on the boards of a number local, national and international human rights, activist media and education-focused non-profits and philanthropies. He holds a BA in American Studies from Yale University (1981) and an MBA and MSW from Columbia University (1989). Michael lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Jimena Martinez and their pesky, amazing 16-year-old twins.

Amber Kraus has been a Sustainability Associate at Tishman Speyer since 2015. On any given day she can be found tracking and reducing the energy, water, and waste of commercial properties, and assisting in the installation of beehives wherever possible. While she spends her days working in real estate, she dedicates her off time to her balcony garden, neighborhood clean-up efforts, and her arts practices. Having grown up in Mid-Town Manhattan, and now living in Brooklyn, she has a particular fondness for the city and a passionate desire to see both its natural environments, many neighborhoods and residents flourish and succeed. Despite growing up in the city, Amber spent her college years in small town Ohio and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Kenyon College. Most recently, Amber has delved further into painting and mixed-media works on canvas, while still holding a fondness for film photography and found object sculpture. In particular, she loves the process of gathering found objects from which to compose sculptures, a practice to which the New York City streets but not its small apartments lends itself. Amber discovered Chashama when she herself was looking for studio space in which to create, and is thrilled to be able to actively work with and support them today.

Leah Lane, a multi-media artist, is currently studying Drama at NYU Tisch School of Arts. Leah has been honored to perform as part of the Children’s Chorus at The Metropolitan Opera, the Dicapo Opera Theatre at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, The Tilles Center, and Carnegie Hall among others. Leah originated the role of The Stoner in Carmen High at The 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has been a frequent performance artist at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. When she is not performing, Leah is a photographer; mixed media collage artist, and writer. Leah has had several academic photography series exhibitions, and was included in the 2017 Guild Hall Clothesline Art Sale. As an author, her children’s book, “This Never Happens in the City” was a successful fundraiser for The CDCH and she wrote the book for the musical “Moey’s Fairy Tale Adventure” which played a sold out run at The Dix Hills Performing Arts Center in 2013.

For more information on Leah Lane visit: www.LeahLane.com

Amber was raised on 60 acres in Northern California, between the Pacific Ocean and the redwoods. Raised with no electricity or TV in a small town of 250 people, who are still her family to this day. Amber was one of the few black kids in the entire county.

At 17 she moved South from her sheltered, bucolic life, to Santa Cruz, Ca. with her mother and younger brother, attending Santa Cruz High School (with a little more diversity) and later attending UCSC and Cabrillo College. She sadly did not learn to surf.

NY called. At 21, Amber packed a car with a dear friend and headed East to NYC, reuniting with the Brooklyn Jewish side of the family, to pursue her interest in film and theater. Taking classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the New School, Amber began her internship at the world-renowned Wooster Group, where she later performed with Nancey Reilly. For the next several years she worked in the downtown theater scene, where she first met and performed with the great Anita Durst. Amber worked with Maryanne Weems’s The Builder’s Association, The Blue Man Group and Annie-B Parsons to name a few. Simultaneously, she also began work in the film and commercial world, casting commercials and international ad-campaigns with the well-known casting agent Leslie Simitch.

Amber met Jonathan Demme in the downtown theater scene, purchased her first professional camera and started working as an assistant editor for Jonathan Demme’s film company, Clinica Estetico. Later working and shooting on his documentaries about Haitian life and then later his blockbusters such as Philadelphia Story, Beloved, with Oprah Winfrey and the Truth About Charlie, in Paris. Therein started amber’s career, where she shot and produced documentaries and TV for the next 15 years. Amber was blessed to work with many of the greats, such as; Sam Shepard, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, The Roots, Jay-Z and Beyonce, Rambin’ Jack Elliot and spent 10 years working closely with the late rapper DMX.

Amber loved the film world, but had a deep desire to be part of a larger solution. She temporarily put the film and TV world aside to create her beloved company Redu. Inspired by her profound connection to mother earth from her early years in Northern California, she decided to turn her focus on the environment. With landfills at capacity in NYC, she saw an innovative way to keep usable materials out of landfill. Redu is a design/ build company that makes sustainable furniture and builds commercial and residential interiors from 99% re-use materials. Redu “rescues” scraps and so-called “waste” materials from the surrounding local businesses and dry-construction waste from the myriad construction sites around the

city. Building Redu and being part of the solution, has been the happiest days of her life.

Amber is thrilled to be uniting forces with her dear friend Anita and to serve on the board for Chashama, an undeniable solution and ode to creativity and the arts, that helps keeps the heart and soul of NYC intact.

Since discovering Chashama in 2010, Lydia has held a range of roles at the organization, from Executive Assistant to Development & Finance Associate to General Manager – providing her with a deep understanding of Chashama’s mission, capacity, and potential for growth. As General Manager, Lydia oversaw Chashama’s office, human resources, finances, and internal and external policies, and provided supervision and support in development, event and project management.

In 2016, Lydia left Chashama to join The Durst Organization, where she currently manages corporate operations, business logistics, and office procurement as their Asst. Manager of Office Operations, while continuing to support Chashama as a member of the Board of Directors. A creative problem solver who excels at ‘wearing many hats’ while balancing budgets, time, and space with an unusual delight in data and analytics, Lydia holds a dual-BA in Art History and Business Management from SUNY Stony Brook, an Associate’s Degree in Merchandising and Management from the Fashion Institute of Technology, a Certificate of Data Visualization from the University of Washington, speaks ein bisschen Deutsch, and has also served as Treasurer on the Coney Island USA Board of Directors.

Bridget Murphy has over twenty years of experience working in the art world. Bridget is a practicing Art Advisor based in New York City with a focus on supporting emerging, established and under-recognized artists, she works closely with both private and corporate clients. Additionally, she is the Director of Art+Culture Projects which produces limited editions to support non-profit partners and museums. Bridget has both institutional and non-profit experience having worked at: Artadia, Longhouse Projects, MoMA, the List Visual Arts Center at MIT and the ICA Boston. Bridget received an MFA and Museum Studies Certificate from Tufts University/SMFA, and an undergraduate degree in Fine Art and Art History from Boston University. She serves on the benefit and advising committees of Smack Mellon, Sanctuary for Families, and Blue School NYC.

Richard P. Rubinstein is currently chief cook and bottle washer at New Amsterdam Entertainment. He has been profitably blending art and commerce as a NYC based producer of Feature Films, Miniseries and Syndicated TV Series since 1973. Along the way he took his prior production company public and at various times was a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment, Blockbuster and Viacom. Mr. Rubinstein holds an MBA from Columbia University and is known for his willingness to give new directors, writers and actors a chance to prove themselves.

Cynthia Wang has extensive experience in real estate and finance, serving as Executive Vice President at Apple Bank for over 27 years. Prior to joining Apple Bank in 1994, Cynthia held positions as President of Foray Capital Group and Vice President at Chemical Bank in both the Real Estate and the Asia Middle East Africa Divisions. While Cynthia’s career has been in Finance and Real Estate, she received an MA in Art History from Columbia University and remains an active admirer and patron of contemporary art.

Roger Wu is the co-founder of travel influencer marketplace, Cooperatize, which he recently sold to Famecast. Prior to this he had co-founded Giftfinder and Klickable.tv which he sold to HipHopShopping TV. Before that, he was on the founding team of Bloomberg Law. He started his career on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

He is a member of SAG / AFTRA, an avid curler (and on the board of Brooklyn Lakeside Curling), and completed the NYC marathon 3 times. In his spare time, he is working on an NFT project, a novel, and an art exhibition.  He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in finance and computer science while competing in rowing and bodybuilding.

See here for our Board of Directors Application.