Colby Museum of Art Welcomes New Members to the Board of Governors
The new governors will advance the museum as a leading academic institution with a strong community focus
The Colby Museum of Art has recently introduced five new members to its Board of Governors and welcomed back another who has served previously and is returning for another term. Members of the Board of Governors act as advocates for the museum and as strategic advisors, extending and strengthening its networks while providing crucial support.
The newest governors are: Katherine Bishop ’87, founder of global consulting agency Campfire; Matthew Rubin, senior director of digital pathways at Marriott International; Nicole A. Vanasse, president of the board of directors of the Ossorio Foundation; Andres Azucena Verzosa, executive director and curator of the Stanley-Whitman House in Farmington, Conn.; and William Whitney ’16, associate director at David Lewis Gallery in New York. Returning to the board is Bree Jeppson ’93, founder and co-manager of the Rolex Mentors & Protégé Arts Initiative.
Jacqueline Terrassa, the Carolyn Muzzy Director of the Colby College Museum of Art, said the new and returning governors will help the museum continue to grow and meet its goals in new and innovative ways.
“In just a few years, the Colby College Museum of Art has become a dynamic and multi-site academic art museum with a strong community orientation. We are committed to amplifying the creative lives of Colby students and of neighbors in our immediate community of Waterville while shaping the contours of American art through collaborative and experimental exhibition-making, teaching, scholarship, programming, and artistic practice,” Terrassa said. “Through their advice, connections, and support, the remarkable group of governors who have recently joined our board will help us realize our vision for the museum at a time of expanded arts opportunities in our city and state. I am excited to work with such innovative and people-centered volunteer leaders.”
The new and returning governors will bring a diverse array of skills and qualities to their work at the Colby Museum of Art.
Katherine Bishop ’87, who was known as Todd Bishop as a student at Colby, founded Campfire, a global consulting agency focusing on partnerships, brand building, cultural strategy, and fundraising, in 2021. Prior to that, Bishop spent 24 years at the Museum of Modern Art, most recently as senior deputy director of external affairs.
She has also directed Artkammer Gallery in Boston and has served on the boards of Blood Mountain Foundation, Boffo, and CEC Artslink. She currently serves on the board of directors of Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art and as the president of the board of directors of Performa.
She double majored in art history and German at Colby, holds an M.A. in arts administration from Columbia University, and studied at the University of Salzburg. She lives between Miami and New York.
Matthew Rubin is the senior director of digital pathways at Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel company. In his role, he develops unique customer experiences for Marriott’s brand categories across the company’s web and app channels. Prior to his role at Marriott, Rubin served as a senior director at Choice Hotels International, overseeing all elements of the Choice Privileges rewards program. He also spent several years in a variety of roles at Hilton.
He is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, and he lives in Washington, D.C.
Nicole A. Vanasse has served as president of the board of directors of the Ossorio Foundation since 2012, overseeing the maintenance of a collection of more than 750 works of art by the artist Alfonso Ossorio. Among her accomplishments at the foundation was a collaboration with Harvard University to establish the Ossorio Dragon Papers for educational research. She has accelerated gifts and sales of Ossorio’s art and helped arrange new shows, venues, and exhibitions. She also helps create opportunities to promote emerging artists, such as the Ossorio Creative Development Grant at Colby.
She spent more than 40 years in creative roles in education, filmmaking, fundraising, promotion, and corporate-identity campaigns. An artist herself, she has created work for the Library of Congress, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and others. She and her husband live in Charleston, S.C., and East Hampton, N.Y.
Andres Azucena Verzosa has served as executive director and curator of the Stanley-Whitman House, a historic house, museum, and living history center in Farmington, Conn., since 2018. Before that, he was the interim executive director and curator of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art and director of Aucocisco Galleries in Portland, Maine. He serves on the board of the Abbe Museum, and he previously served on the boards of the Maine Historical Society, Tides Institute & Museum of Art, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine College of Art, the Quimby Family Foundation, and Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance. He cofounded Portland’s First Friday Art Walk.
Verzosa studied art history and studio art at the University of Maine and earned his B.F.A. from the Maine College of Art. He and his partner reside in New Britain, Conn., and have a summer home in Downeast Maine.
William Whitney ’16 will serve the board by providing a voice for recent Colby graduates. He is the associate director at David Lewis Gallery in New York City, where he has worked since 2020 and served in a variety of roles, including as gallery assistant and sales assistant. Prior to that, Whitney worked at the Studio Museum in Harlem, as a press and exhibitions/publications intern at Gagosian Gallery, and as a curatorial assistant intern at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
He worked for nearly three years at the Brooklyn Rail, first as an editorial associate and then as a contributor to the Artseen section.
Whitney double majored in government and Italian studies at Colby and holds an M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in art writing and criticism.
Bree Jeppson ’93 is returning as a member of the Museum Board of Governors, having previously served through 2021. She is founder of the Rolex Mentors & Protégé Arts Initiative for Rolex SA, and she currently co-manages the effort and serves as its U.S. representative. The international philanthropic program began in 2002 and pairs established artists in seven artistic disciplines with emerging young professionals. She helps develop the program, recruits and liaises with an advisory board, and mentors both the nominators tasked with finding protégé candidates and the protégés themselves. She plans and co-chairs advisory board meetings and mentor gatherings, and she conceives of public programming for the Arts Initiative.
Prior to joining the Arts Initiative, she rose from the role of associate to partner at the Kreisberg Group, a strategic planning and public relations firm specializing in nonprofit work. Jeppson began her career designing and implementing special event programming for the Contemporary Arts Council of the Museum of Modern Art, followed by Independent Curators International.
As a student at Colby in 1992, she curated an exhibition of contemporary German drawings for the Colby Museum of Art.
