Conversations in the Arts- The Arts and Propaganda

Barbara Applegate serves as the Director of Steinberg Museum of Art, LIU Post and recently oversaw a major renovation and relocation of the Museum. Just steps away from Northern Boulevard, Steinberg Museum of Art features newly renovated galleries and a visible storage suite that gives students, faculty, staff, and scholars unprecedented access to more than 4,000 objects from the Permanent Collection   www.liu.edu/museum.

During her 20 year tenure at the Museum, she has worked on projects with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, organized professional development opportunities, developed and presented exhibitions, and overseen the development of special websites based on the Museum’s Collection. Ms. Applegate is also interested in current museum issues surrounding interpretation, the public dimension, ethics, and the role of college museums.

Interested in building visual learners, Ms. Applegate regularly teaches courses in the . History of Art and Arts Management at LIU Post.

Leonard J. Lehrman is the composer of 240 works plus 18 adaptations and 64 translations that have been heard all over the world and posted on over 3,300 YouTube videos with over 660,000 views. The first President of The Long Island Composers Alliance, 1991-98, he was LICA’s first Archivist and served as Archivist Emeritus, 1999-2018. He was also the first recipient of a Meet The Composer grant obtained by the Long Island Arts Council at Freeport, and the Winner of the first Brookhaven Choral Festival Composition Competition. Formerly Assistant Chorus Master of the Metropolitan Opera and Chief Coach/Conductor at Theater des Westens in Berlin, where he founded the Jüdischer Musiktheaterverein Berlin, he is also Founder/Director of the Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus, Reference Librarian at Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library, Music Director/Composer-in-Residence at Christ Lutheran Church in Rosedale, and Co-Founder/Co-Director of Court Street Music in Valley Stream. He has degrees from Harvard (B.A. cum laude), Cornell (M.F.A., D.M.A.), and Long Island University (M.S.L.S.), and taught at Cornell, Empire State College, and the first course ever in Jewish Opera at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
 

John Torres is a life-long theater devotee who has performed across Long Island and New York City. With a degree in theater from SUNY Oneonta, he has also directed various productions and taught acting to both teens and adults. John currently handles grants and development for EastLine Theatre in Wantagh, who have been a multiple Creative Communities NYSCA re-grant recipient through the Huntington Arts Council. If it has anything to do with cultivating quality theater on Long Island, please count him in.

Marc Courtade is an experienced arts professional with over 30 years in the field. He is currently Executive Director of Huntington Arts Council (HAC), a position he assumed in 2015. Prior to joining HAC, Marc was Business Manager at LIU Post/Tilles Center for the Performing Arts for 17 years. Marc also held administrative positions at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. and New York City Opera. He was a speaker for the New York Council for the Humanities for 8 years, lecturing on The Rodgers and Hammerstein Era: Reinventing Musical Theater and The Ethnic Musicals: Assimilation and Integration. He received a MS in Management and Urban Policy from the New School for Social Research, with a specialization in Nonprofit Management. He holds a BPS from Empire State College in Music, and a BA in English from SUNY Buffalo.