Elizabeth Eveillard, Chair of the Frick’s Board of Trustees, announces the election of four new trustees, Dr. Tai-Heng Cheng, Kathleen Feldstein, Christian Keesee, and Victoria Lea Smith. She comments, “2018 was a remarkable year for The Frick Collection, having hosted acclaimed exhibitions in the fields of fine and decorative arts including critically acclaimed shows on Francisco de Zurbarán, Antonio Canova, and Luigi Valadier. Last year we also unveiled the design for a proposed renovation and enhancement to our buildings by Selldorf Architects, which was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in June. In the fall, we jointly announced with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art that it may be possible during our projected period of construction (pending public approvals), for the Frick to maintain access to its holdings by temporarily relocating collections and staff to the Breuer building on Madison Avenue. We are excited by the range of exhibitions planned for 2019 as well as our ongoing educational programs and partnerships. Innovative initiatives at the Frick Art Reference Library, likewise, are deeply rewarding, placing our staff at the forefront of global developments within their fields. Within that context, we welcome our new Trustees, whose proven dedication to the institution, as well as their wide-ranging non-profit leadership experience, will further strengthen the Board.” Director Ian Wardropper adds, “The Frick will greatly benefit from the strong professional and philanthropic experiences of our new Trustees, all of whom are generous supporters and active members of the institution. I look forward to working with them more closely through what promises to be a critical and rewarding time for us.”
Dr. Tai-Heng Cheng is a Partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, serving as chair of the New York international arbitration practice. He was formerly a tenured Professor of Law at New York Law School serving as co-director of the Institute for Global Law, Justice, and Policy. Cheng holds a BA and MA from Oxford University, earning first class honors in law, and earned his LLM and JSD at Yale Law School. He has extensive leadership experience, serving on boards of several professional and civic associations. He is currently Vice President and member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law and a fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, the American Law Institute, and the Foreign Policy Association. Additionally, Cheng is a member of the City University of New York LGBTQI Advisory Board and a member of the Oxford University Press–Editorial Advisory Board for Investment Claims. As Director’s Circle Members of the Frick, he and his husband Cole Harrell have supported several programs and initiatives, most particularly First Fridays, the series of free public evenings that has been a successful as a means for welcoming diverse audiences to the institution. They also served on the Host Committee for the 2018 Spring Garden Party and the Benefit Committee for the 2017 Young Fellows Ball. Cheng collects Old Master paintings and other fine arts.
Kathleen Feldstein, an economist for over fifty years and retired Corporate Director, currently serves as president of the private consulting firm Economics Studies, Inc. She holds a BA from Radcliffe College and earned her PhD in Economics at MIT. Feldstein’s leadership experience is extensive, as she has served on ten public company boards, including that of Bank of America, Bell South, Conrail, and Knight Ridder. She has sought out opportunities to contribute to the arts as well; Feldstein is a former member of the Visiting Committee of Harvard University Art Museums and is an Honorary Trustee at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. At the MFA, she held several positions on the board including Treasurer and Chair of several visiting committees, as well as serving on the Individual Gifts and Planned Giving committees. Also at the MFA, she and her husband endowed the Kathleen and Martin Feldstein Fund for Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, and the Kathleen and Martin Feldstein Paintings Conservation Fund. She has served as a Trustee for the Catholic Charities of Boston and is an Honorary Trustee and former Chair of the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. At the latter institution, she co-chaired its largest and most comprehensive fundraising campaign, which surpassed its $100M goal and ended ahead of schedule. A longtime supporter of the Frick, she has been a member since 2005 and has served on the Autumn Dinner Benefit Committee for three consecutive years, from 2014–16. She is also a collector, having a particular interest in seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes.
Christian Keesee is the Chairman of the Kirkpatrick Bank and is the manager of his family office, which makes investments in oil and gas exploration, banking, and philanthropy. He earned his BA in English from the University of Central Oklahoma. His commitment to the arts is expressed through his work as a patron and advisor to several cultural institutions. He is the founder of the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center and co-founder, with Larry Keigwin and Blake Keesee, of Green Box Arts Festival in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado. In 2012, he received the Oklahoma State Governor’s Arts Award for his service to the arts and humanities in his home state. Keesee is also a Trustee of the American Ballet Theatre and is a Trustee at the American Friends of the Tate in London, where he sits on several committees. A member of the Frick since 2004 and a Director’s Circle member since 2009, Keesee has also been a Fellow of the Decorative Arts Committee since 2016. Additionally, Keesee has supported exhibitions including Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages through Time (2017) and The Pursuit of Immortality: Masterpieces from the Scher Collection of Portrait Medals (2017). He has also supported education programs such as guided school visits and the Frick Art Reference Library’s 2015 photography symposium hosted by the Center for the History of Collecting.
Victoria Lea Smith is an attorney with a Masters of Law from New York University and a JD from Boston University. She has significant philanthropic experience. Currently she is a Circle Fellow at the Aspen Institute, Trustee of the Aspen Music Festival, a Patron at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a President’s Circle member at the Metropolitan Opera, and a former board member of the Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation. She is also a board member of Prisoners Legal Services and a Rocky Mountain Institute Council member. A Director’s Circle member of the Frick, she has supported recent exhibitions including Canova’s George Washington (2018) and Luigi Valadier: Splendor in Eighteenth-Century Rome (2018). Smith is a supporter of the current exhibition Moroni: The Riches of Renaissance Portraiture (Winter/Spring 2019) and the upcoming show Tiepolo in Milan: The Lost Frescoes of Palazzo Archinto (Spring 2019). She is a contributor to the Annual Fund and served on the Host Committee of the Spring Garden Party in 2016.