The Arts Committee
The Arts Committee of the Nevelson Legacy Council provides guidance and counsel for conservation, curation, and programming related to Nevelson Chapel. The committee brings together individuals with significant professional experience in conservation, collections management, historic preservation, and art history, to advise on the Chapel’s care and maintenance, as well as preserving and exploring the Chapel’s spiritual, aesthetic, and cultural qualities. The Arts Committee seeks to foster the long-term well-being of the Chapel as a New York City treasure for generations to come.
Jim Boorstein, CEO of Traditional Line Ltd.
David Hottenroth, Founding Principal Architect of Hottenroth + Joseph Architects
Kate Lewis, Agnes Gund Chief Conservator of the Museum of Modern Art’s David Booth Conservation Center and Department
The Rev. Jared R. Stahler, Senior Pastor, Saint Peter’s Church
Anne Umland, The Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA
Karen Zukowski, Chair, Historian
Martha Singer and Jean Dommeruth: Chapel conservators
Sarah Nunberg: Initial Chapel conservator
Martha Singer is the Director of the Material Whisperer, a private art conservation firm in the New York City area that specializes in modern and contemporary sculpture and objects. Martha received her BA in anthropology from Bard College and her MA in art history and diploma in conservation from New York University. Martha was trained in modern and contemporary conservation first as a fellow at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and then continuing through contracts at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. Martha has researched and published on modern artists, their intention and working techniques, including Jean Arp's bronzes as well as Enrico Donati and Marcel Duchamp's Prière de toucher (for more information, see publications).
Martha is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation, and has been involved in many aspects of this organization, presently serving as editor to a new publication, Contemporary Art Review, from the American Institute of Conservation's Contemporary Art Network.
Jean Dommermuth is a paintings conservator based in New York City. She earned her B.A. in Art History from the University of Illinois, her M.A. in Art History and Diploma in Art Conservation from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and completed a two-year internship focusing on the treatment of old master paintings at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge University. Her ongoing involvement with the Acton Collection at Villa La Pietra, New York University, Florence, began in 1996 when she spent two years in residence there as a post-graduate fellow.
She joined ArtCare Conservation in 1999. There she treats paintings – including modern and contemporary works as well as old masters – for smaller museums and other organizations, artists and their estates, and for private collectors.
In 2001, she was appointed as an Institute Lecturer for the Conservation Center where teaches conservation techniques and ethics, and the history of Western painting technique. She has continued to act as a conservation consultant for the paintings collection at La Pietra, returning twice a year and supervising students on treatment projects. Jean has published on the painting techniques of artists including Sebastiano del Piombo, Bronzino and Giacomo Ceruti. Her research emphasizes close visual analysis rather than sophisticated analytical techniques.