MEET A MEMBER
William T. Obeid
Member since 2003
William T. Obeid is the President and founder of Gemini Real Estate Advisors, LLC, a private company specializing in the acquisition, development, and re-development of commercial real estate. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1993 with a degree in economics, worked for several years in New York at investment banks and also worked abroad with a private equity group in southeast Asia. Will was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan in 1971 and became a Dahesh Museum Member in 2003.
Q. When did you first become interested in art?
A. While pursuing economics at U of M in Ann Arbor, I took several art history classes and then joined Kaleidoscope, a student art history club that was one of the University’s best-kept secrets. For absolutely no cost, students traveled all over the country—Chicago, Cleveland, Boston—to visit art exhibitions.
Q. How do you explain your interest in academic art?
Having absolutely no artistic skill of my own, I decided a few years ago to start taking a drawing class at the New School, across the street from where I live. I really enjoyed drawing from life, and to my pleasant surprise I developed some skills as a beginner. Drawing from life helped me appreciate the skills of academically trained artists, whose work is now more interesting to me than that of most other artists. The ability of an artist to accentuate the natural beauty that is around us and that we all innately have has become a very meaningful concept for me in my appreciation of art. My favorite exhibition was “Charles Bargue’s Drawing Course.” I bought a few of the [duplicate] prints from the show, which I absolutely love. I also have a couple of drawings by Foujita, a Japanese artist who lived in France in the early 1900s, as well as several Muybridge photographs that are really great.
Q. Is this why you became a Museum Member?
A. When I first visited the Museum at its old space, I was impressed by what I saw, and returned several times. Later, I was pleased to see the Museum had grown and could make a move to such a prominent location, with heightened visibility and access to so many more people. What I really love about the Museum is the salon-like atmosphere, and how easy it is to participate in discussions and workshops, all of which I really enjoy. The Museum’s focused approached allows one to absorb what’s on view without “museum fatigue”—you can see a great exhibition, visit old favorites in the permanent collection, and then go and have a really good meal in the café. It’s all very manageable and makes for a nice experience. As a Lebanese-American, I am also drawn by fact that the Museum’s namesake was Lebanese.
Q. Are there things you would like to see the Museum doing?
A. More courses, including classes in drawing, art appreciation, art history, and connoisseurship. Of course, like most New Yorkers, I would love to have more time to attend these and other wonderful programs. I’m working on that.
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Beverly and Laurie Cumbo
Members since 2004
Over the last few months, especially during the Charles Cordier and First Seen exhibitions, the
Museum has had the pleasure of co-hosting several events with such prestigious African-American
organizations as The Links (Manhattan and Brooklyn Chapters), Jack and Jill, African Film Festival,
and MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporian Arts). Our ability to share the Museum
with such a notable crowd was due in large part to the efforts of two Members.
Laurie Cumbo received a MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University and a BA
in Art History from Spelman College, and has worked at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum,
Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Grey Art Gallery. She was recently featured
in a New York magazine article about the burgeoning art scene in Brooklyn, and is an active
member of ArtTable, the national organization for women working in the visual arts. MoCADA,
which she founded in 1999, will reopen this autumn in the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
Cultural District.
Laurie’s mother Beverly, an official New York City tour guide, was introduced to art by her own
mother in Detroit at the fine art gallery of Hudson’s, the city’s largest department store. She studied
music at Juilliard, toured Europe as a singer in a choral group, worked as a tour guide at Lincoln
Center, and continues to enjoy exhibition hopping in her spare time.
Q. Beverly, when did you first discover the Dahesh?
A. Last spring you did a show about opera, Staging the Orient: Visions of the East at La Scala and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and being a singer who loves opera, naturally I had to see it. I stayed
the whole day, going out to lunch and coming back, watching the movie about La Scala’s history,
and then returning to the galleries. I was bowled over! I knew I wanted to be more involved. When
I heard that the Director was giving a walking tour, I met Peter and felt so welcomed by him.
When you take people out of their comfort zone, be it their borough or their usual haunts, it is
important to let them know they are welcome. Other, larger museums are less friendly, but at the
Dahesh I am always made to feel welcome and accepted. Also, I loved that one could tour with a
group or wander through the galleries on your own, which I prefer, asking questions of lecturers
who were stationed around the objects ready to answer questions. This suits my own style of
looking and learning.
Q. Laurie, how did you become involved with the Dahesh?
A. I brought my students here from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to meet with Peter, whom I once
worked for at the Brooklyn Museum, to hear first-hand how a museum re-launches in a new
space. I was thrilled to learn that the Dahesh was going to introduce New Yorkers to the amazing
work of Charles Cordier, who is probably more familiar to African-Americans since he depicted
Africans in such a gorgeous manner. But what I discovered that day was something really rare. The Dahesh Museum of Art’s permanent collection reflected the full reality of the 19th-century world, which included peoples of all cultures, most specifically people of color. When people of African, Middle Eastern, Eastern European, or Mediterranean descent come to the Dahesh, they see themselves depicted by 19th-century artists. This says a lot about Dr. Dahesh and his collecting, and for people of color, this Museum is a breakthrough.
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Lee MacCormick Edwards, Ph.D.
Member since 1995
Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards, a longtime supporter of the Dahesh Museum of Art, was raised in Sydney, Australia, where she was first introduced to academic art in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. At Columbia University, she studied with several great scholars of the 19th century--Allen Staley, Theodore Reff, and Barbara Novak. Lee's publications include Domestic Bliss: Family Life in American Painting, 1840-1910, and Herkomer: A Victorian Artist, as well as numerous articles and catalogue essays. She is currently finalizing a study of the oft cited but little understood Victorian painter, Fred Walker. Lee teaches courses in art history at Sarah Lawrence College and is president of the American Friends of the Salzburg Festival.
Q. When and why did you first become a Member?
A. I first joined the Museum as a member around 1995, and was a frequent visitor to its original home at 601 Fifth Avenue. When it moved into the fantastic new space on Madison, I upgraded my Membership immediately so that I would be able to experience all of the exhibitions. As a scholar and a professor of 19th-century art, I am so pleased to see that the Museum has stretched the field's boundaries by showing not only French works.
Q. What do you see as the most important contribution the Museum makes to art history as it is taught today?
A. The Dahesh has become a reliable source of information about the "other 19th century." For example, it is important to understand that there was an alternative to Impressionism; that art and beauty from other historical movements are just as fascinating as what we already know. Also, I love the way the Dahesh's shows have demonstrated the interrelationships between all the arts, including social and cultural history. The La Scala show, for example, perfectly integrated costumes, set designs, and models. The scholarly level of all of the exhibitions (and accompanying catalogues) is very high; indeed, there has not been one "off" show so far.
Q. What do you make of commentators who dismiss academic art as "bad"?
A. What is "good" and what is "bad?" Everybody has their own taste. Popular culture today embraces film and television programs that, for me, are often appalling to watch! It depends on who you read, what the fashion of the moment is, and what market values are. Much art appreciation today is market-driven. These things go in waves, and if we do not look at history we don't know what people liked and how taste is shaped.
Q. What do you see as the biggest challenge the Dahesh faces?
A. If the Museum can continue to mount great exhibitions, the audience will follow. There have been very supportive notices in the press and the Dahesh curators and director convey their enthusiasm and commitment in what they are doing with their fine programs and lectures. Continuing to reach out to a wider audience is important, and I think the Dahesh is off to a great start.
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