A New Beginning

Choose Cohoes for Art – A New Beginning

More than eight years ago some business owners on Remsen Street in Cohoes formed a group to promote and improve the business climate in Cohoes. Wisely, in my opinion, they opted to include non-profit community organizations. Since the group was somewhat informal they were organized as part of the Cohoes Local Development Corporation. John Oberlander of the Oberlander Group came up with the name “Choose Cohoes.”

Choose Cohoes developed several committees. Choose Cohoes for Art was one of those committees. Lise Toch spearheaded the effort to recruit and organize committee members.

Fred Neudoerffer was an early member and has worked tirelessly as the driving force behind our annual “Cohoes Artist Showcase.” We are now in the planning stages of our 8th annual showcase.

During these last eight years most of the parts of our parent, Choose Cohoes, have moved in different directions and Choose Cohoes as an organization is defunct. We in the art committee have continued and are preparing to move on, separating ourselves from Choose Cohoes and the CLDC.

We chose to retain the name Choose Cohoes for Art. Last night at our regular monthly meeting we took the first official steps to becoming and independent 501(c)(3) corporation. We approved the bylaws and have started the paperwork to incorporate. Once that step is finished we can file with the IRS for 501(c)(3) status. We also elected board members and officers.

Let me take this space to introduce our initial board members and officers.

Shirley Clarke                          Secretary
Pauline Daighneault
Kathy Klompas
Dave Koschnick                       President
Barbara LaMarche
Michael Lattanzio
Fred Neudoerffer                    Vice President
Karen Rigney
Sarah C. Stevens                      Treasurer
Ed Tremblay
Nancy VanDerVoort

Our mission continues:

“The mission of Choose Cohoes for Art (CCfA) is to support art and artists in Cohoes, to create community awareness of the arts, and to foster cultural vitality by hosting or promoting art related events in the greater Cohoes area.”

We continue to strive to meet the goals of that mission and to grow our organization. We hope that you cand and will join us in that effort.

Dave Koschnick 20 March 2018


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