The Caumsett Foundation

ABOUT ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM

David Almeida, Seascape #016, 2020,
Found balloons, 16” X 20”

MISSION

The Caumsett Foundation’s Artist in Residence Program (Caumsett AIR) was instituted in 2023 with the aim of connecting artists of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to our park and community. Participants are required to hold an open studio, give a public talk, or create an installation while at Caumsett. These presentations play an important role in the Foundation’s annual programming. The Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve’s historic, environmental and ecological significance create a rich experience for our artists.

2026 Application opening January 1, 2026


Caumsett AIR Committee

Stephanie Fiumara Perry

Stephanie Fiumara PerryPerry lives and works as a ceramicist and painter in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. Perry was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA. She began her ceramic work in 2014 at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia where she was an associate artist. Stephanie participated in several individual and group exhibitions (Portland, Oregon, Philadelphia, PA, Long Island, NY, etc.). She sells her work under the name CABINE in boutiques in California, New York and on 1st Dibs.

Perry is an avid explorer of Caumsett, interested in our collective relationship with the natural world. Also, a former Caumsett AIR program alum (September/October 2023), she focuses on the rhythm and narration between her artwork and the environment.

Susan Van Scoy, Ph.D

Susan Van Scoy, Ph.DVan Scoy is an Associate Professor of Art History at St. Joseph’s University, New York, where she has taught since 2015. She earned her B.A. at Tulane University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Stony Brook University.

Susan’s research interests include female photographers of the 1980’s, the history of photography, and public art and architecture. She is the author of The Big Duck and Eastern Long Island’s Duck Farming Industry and has contributed to Landscape Painting Now. Her current research projects include the photo-documentation of Fire Island and Kenji Nakahashi’s drawings, paintings, and photo-conceptual work.

Van Scoy is currently curating a permanent installation of photographs taken by Neil Scholl, which will be on view in the Caumsett classrooms.


Karli Wurzelbacher

Karli WurzelbacherWurzelbacher is the Chief Curator of The Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, where she has organized exhibitions on modern and contemporary American artists including Connie Fox, Wood Gaylor, Courtney M. Leonard, Richard Mayhew, Helen Torr, and Amanda Valdez.

She has worked at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Hunter College Art Galleries, and the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio. She has contributed to recent museum exhibition catalogues including Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963-2017 (2018), Joan Mitchell (2020), Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature (2022), The World Outside: Louise Nevelson at Midcentury (2023), and George Grosz: The Stick Men (2023). She holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Delaware.

CJ Escobar Rodgers

CJ Escobar RodgersRodgers is a multidisciplinary figurative sculptor based in NYC and Long Island. He received a B.B.A, a B.A. in Psychology, and a B.A. Honors from the University of Notre Dame. Rodgers is a Caumsett AIR program alumnus (October 2024) with research interests in sensation, perception, and animist ways of knowing and is experienced in a wide breadth of media including ceramics, metalworking, woodworking, foundry, fibers, and robotics.

Rodgers’s work has been exhibited at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science; Anderson Museum of Art, Swope Art Museum, Muskegon Museum of Art, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and has earned places in the collections of the Midwest Museum of American Art and South Bend Museum of Art. He will also be featured in the January/February 2025 issue of Sculpture Magazine.

He has taught at Ox-Bow School of Art and has worked at the Snite Research Center in the Visual Arts, Raclin-Murphy Museum of Art, and South Bend Museum of Art in textile research and art handling capacities. Rodgers will begin a new role at Sotheby’s in January 2025.