Advisory Board

Dick Goldman

Richard J. Goldman is an attorney who practiced for more than forty years in the Hudson Valley as a partner in the law firm of Ricken, Goldman, Sussman and Blythe. In addition to a litigation practice, he has been active in and supportive of organizations as diverse as the Woodstock Rescue Squad and Family of Woodstock and has represented numerous individual artists and musicians. In 1972, he was instrumental in the creation of Upstate Films Ltd. His wife, Susan, was a co-founding director. Since then, Woodstock being home to varied arts organizations, Richard has served as attorney and counselor over the years to many including the Woodstock Tattoo and Body Art Festival, the Woodstock Film Festival and the Wall Street Jazz Festival. Richard held key leadership positions with the 1994 and 1999 Woodstock Music and Art Festivals, managing the extensive permitting processes and overseeing the complex network of health, medical and human services involved in presenting these large public events. Recently, he was founder and counsel to the Woodstock Farm Festival, a weekly event incorporating a Farm Market, community gathering and musical entertainment. Presently retired from the law firm, he has dedicated his skills and business acumen to supporting burgeoning community and individual endeavors on a pro-bono basis.

Susan Rosen

Susan Rosen is the founder and director of Miriam’s Well, a spiritual sanctuary and center for transformational experiences located in the mid-Hudson Valley in NY, which has brought philosophers, poets, spiritual leaders, and teachers in many traditions to thousands of people for the past 14 years. Miriam’s Well has been intimately involved in the nexus between the arts and human consciousness and the realization that we are a unique species that can consciously evolve through our relationship to life as it unfolds. She is co-producer, with writer/director Carol Fox Prescott, of “In the Voice of our Mothers”, a theatrical event currently being performed at synagogues, churches, universities and prisons and various venues nationwide. Her business experience includes owning and operating retail stores and serving as Executive VP of a computer consulting firm. She raised five extraordinary children (now grown, married and with children of their own) of whom she is exceedingly proud.

Every Mann

Evry Mann is a percussionist, composer, and writer based in Stone Ridge, N.Y. Ev is the founder and director of POOK, the Percussion Orchestra of Kingston, a youth performance ensemble that has given hundreds of concerts since its inception in 1997. In addition to his work as a musician, Ev is the founder and executive director of the Center for Creative Education in Kingston, N.Y., a non-profit that provides arts education to low-income children and youth (www.cce-kingston.org) and Marbletown Multi-Arts, a cultural and community center in Stone Ridge, N.Y. (www.ComeToMama.org). Ev holds master’s degrees in religious studies from McGill University and in music composition from Mills College.

Michael Lang

As the founder of Woodstock Ventures, Michael Lang is best known as the producer and promoter of the Woodstock Music & Arts Festival (1969, 1994, and 1999). In addition to his core business of event production and music management he is currently working on the production of a film based on the novel The Master and Margarita by Mikeal Bulgakov. Other film credits include Bottle Rocket, the debut film of director Wes Anderson and actors Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson. His autobiographical book The Road to Woodstockwas published in 2009. In 2009, Michael was executive producer of the TV documentary Woodstock: Now & Then.

Gary Schuster

Gary Schuster is Senior Counsel at Jacobowitz & Gubits in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Gary received his B.A. in Government and Journalism from Lehigh University in 1979, and his J.D. from Fordham School of Law in 1988. He is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and was admitted to the Florida bar in 2002.

Gary’s varied practice includes formation, transactions, and counseling for corporations, LLCs, partnerships, and many kinds of not-for-profits; purchases and sales of businesses; commercial and residential real estate transactions and leasing; franchising; estate planning, administration, and litigation; guardianship proceedings; and media, copyright, and trademark.

Gary has extensive experience in music and art, which includes past employment with ASCAP, The Songwriters Guild of America, Dunvagen Music Publishers (owned by the composer Philip Glass), and Knoedler Publishing (publishers of the artist LeRoy Neiman). He has represented clients in art, music, film, video, dance, theater, photography, fashion modeling, publishing, the internet, museums, and arts centers. He is a founding Board member, past President, and now General Counsel of the Orange County Arts Council. He has represented or advised KingsTheatre Co., Cornerstone Arts Alliance, Trestle, Inc., Newburgh Institute for Arts and Ideas, Newburgh Arts and Culture Commission, and others.

Gary has served on the board of directors of several nonprofit organizations and now serves on the New York Council of Nonprofits (NYCON) and ReThink Local. He served for many years on the steering committee of the Sullivan County Nonprofit Leadership Summit. He is general counsel for and represents numerous nonprofits.