Board of Directors

David Kutz
Board President

David Kutz has been engaged with the visual arts his entire life. Today he is a Brooklyn based research-oriented artist. In the 1970s, David worked as a fine-art photographer and photojournalist and was the eleventh employee at the International Center of Photography. He then spent over 30-years in film and television working as a director, producer, and media executive. In addition to commercial and industrial assignments, he created the award-winning documentary, The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery and was a senior executive directing the launch of VOOM-HD, a package of 15 high definition cable channels. 

David has a strong background in project management, financial management, logistics, operations, and business affairs. He has an BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. 
Website https://davidkutz.com/

Tracy Penn
Board Chair

Tracy Penn is a visual artist who creates ecologically conscious artwork from post-consumer materials. She has been an active member of the Arts Gowanus community for five years.

Tracy did her artistic training at the Art Students League of New York, the International Center of Photography, and the New York School for Interior Design. She worked in marketing at the Museum of Modern Art and museum education at the Solomon R. Guggenheim. She has a master’s degree in Visual Arts Administration from New York University. Tracy has shown at The Other Art Fair, Established Gallery, Ground Floor Gallery and the Curtis Gallery in Connecticut. Her work is also featured on line on Saatchi, Artsy, The Milano Green Forum (Italy), Voices of Earth (UK), Independent & Image Art Space (China), and Gallerium Art (Canada). She also works as an independent curator and is curating the Arts Gowanus booth at The Other Art Fair. Tracy curated an exhibition for Arts Gowanus on Artsy and a show for the Art Gowanus ArtWalk, UPCYCLING: Transforming the Discarded into Art.

www.tracypennart.com
@tracypennart

Brendan Aguayo

As Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Halstead Property Development Marketing (HPDM), Brendan oversees the development process from inception to completion. He is consistently ahead of the curve on market trends and sought out for maximizing value in all areas of new development. Brendan has successfully worked on over 200 projects throughout the New York metropolitan area, encompassing over 2,200 units with a gross valuation of roughly $2 billion. With this wealth of experience, he brings enormous insight to the development process which in turn guides him in each client interaction. He understands both the complexities and risks with each site and believes that consulting and development are both an art and a science.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Brendan has not only experienced the renaissance in the borough but has been integral in creating new markets, especially evident in Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and the previously undeveloped area of the 4th Avenue corridor in Park Slope. A graduate of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and a licensed broker, he headed the real estate development division of Aguayo Realty Group, one of the most successful boutique real estate firms in Brooklyn, before being recruited by Halstead in 2013. Brendan is committed to sustainable design and responsible development through both advanced building sciences and sound construction methods on his personal real estate projects. One of his own developments, Haus 96, was the first multi-family Passivhaus project in the United States, which uses 70 percent less energy and 90 percent less heat than a typical building.

Behzad Amiri
Board Treasurer

As one of the Top Real Estate Agents in the country Behzad is deeply committed to the neighborhoods of NYC. Having moved to the Gowanus with his family 15 years ago, he feels that the essence of the Gowanus is based in the fantastic community of Artists that make this area their home and choose to create and push the boundaries of perception for the benefit of the whole of the area and NYC’s quality of life. This is why he and his wife who is also an artist in the community chose to come here in the first place and raise their family. He has seen first hand and been involved in many of the projects that are now thriving in the Gowanus and works to ensure whenever possible that whatever comes in the future continues to respect the wonderful mix of artists, makers, creative’s, business’s and long time residents that make Gowanus a truly special place within NYC.

A native New Yorker, Behzad attended Stuyvesant HS and the University of Albany, where he earned degrees in History and Economics. Fluent in French, Persian and English, Behzad is one of the top real estate agents in NYC and his team works throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan in all facets of Real Estate.  Behzad lives with his wife and daughters in Gowanus, Brooklyn in a 1800s home he rebuilt from the ground up. He is always available to discuss ideas and projects about how to improve the neighborhood, increase the visibility of local artists and to keep the vibrancy of the Gowanus.

Sally Davis

Sally Davis practices in Ropes & Gray’s real estate investments & transactions group. She routinely represents private equity funds, institutional investors, hedge funds, asset managers and other financial institutions in a wide variety of transactional real estate matters, including the negotiation of complex joint ventures for real estate investments and related acquisitions, dispositions, financings, recapitalizations and preferred equity structures. Sally is known for developing innovative solutions for achieving client business goals, such as expanding into new asset types, creating hybrid deal structures, or exploring new approaches to governance. She has also represented several nonprofit organizations in connection with their owned and leased real estate assets.

Valerie K. Ferrier

Valerie K. Ferrieris a native of Michigan, a resident of Brooklyn, and a lover of the arts. A graduate of St. John's University School of Law, she is an attorney specializing in management-side employment law. She began her career as in-house counsel for the New York City Transit Authority and now represents companies of all sizes. Before law school, Valerie earned her B.A. in Photography from Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, MA.

Claire Laporte

Claire Laporte has over 15 years of experience in communications & marketing, sales, external affairs, program building, and partnerships in the nonprofit and corporate sectors. She has worked within start-up environments, such as Artnet and Transact Art, and as part of larger organizations such as the Guggenheim Museum, the University of California, the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, and the Museum of Arts and Design, where she was Chief External Affairs Officer and part of the senior leadership team. She joined French Design gallery Demisch Danant in 2018 as Director, overseeing sales and strategy, and has maintained an arts & culture consulting practice focusing on strategic communications and business development since 2011. A French native and trilingual, she holds a degree in Philosophy from New York University and a French Baccalaureate and German Abitur from the Lycée Franco-Allemand Buc in France.

Karen Mainenti


Karen Mainenti is a visual artist who has been a part of the Gowanus arts community for over six years. She has had solo exhibitions at the 2019 SPRING/BREAK Art Show, The Bard Graduate Center Library, Ground Floor Gallery, The Society for Domestic Museology and Chashama. Select group exhibitions include the Untitled Space, DUMBO Arts Festival, La Bodega Gallery, Trestle Gallery, Guest Spot @ The Reinstitute in Baltimore and the Cornell Museum of Art in Delray Beach, Florida. Her artwork has received coverage in ARTnews, Artnet News, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Brooklyn Magazine, Gallery Gurls and The Believer Magazine, among others. In 2018 she was an Artist-in-Residence at the Bard Graduate Center Library. Mainenti teaches at They City College of New York, as well as coaching others to find their own creative paths.
Website: karenmainenti.com karenmainentipath.com

Julie Mashack
Board Secretary

Julie Mashack has more than twenty years experience in media and public programs. Currently, as senior strategist at The Guardian, she manages philanthropic projects and supports the organization’s critical reporting on human rights, democracy, and inequality. Previously, she was the Vice President of Strategy at the 92nd Street Y, a leading cultural and community center in New York, where she oversaw digital and branding strategy. She was a founding member of 92Y’s Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact.  A former public radio and television producer, she also worked on documentary films including WNET’s Sacred and Michael Moore’s Sicko.  

Joanne McFarland

JoAnne McFarland is an artist, poet, and curator, and is Artistic Director of Artpoetica Project Space in Gowanus which focuses on work that is both literary and highly visual. JoAnne curates the multi–year interdisciplinary project SALLY with fellow artist Sasha Chavchavadze. Her latest innovative digital poetry collection Pullman will be published by Grid Books in early 2023. In her practice JoAnne treats violence and creativity as diametrically opposed: each act of making thwarts violence’s aim to destroy.

Demarcus McGaughey

Demarcus McGaughey, a Texas native and Brooklyn-based mixed media artist, passionately captures the beauty, strength, and vibrancy of people of color. McGaughey specializes in a style that combines painting, photography, mixed media, and graphic design. In his art, McGaughey’s art pays homage to cultural influences with elements of pop art, mass media, comic books, and advertising in his pieces and his portraiture work reveals triumphant tales of African American subjects who have manifested their destiny. Behind his art, McGaughey is a certified life coach, he passionately empowers his coaching community that life is what you create it to be. Throughout his 20-year art career, McGaughey has worked with prestigious brands and organizations, including Beyoncé Knowles Carter and beverage giant Dr. Pepper. His work has been highlighted in numerous magazines and galleries stateside in New York and Texas, and globally in Spain. He has completed art residencies with Mas el sigols in Barcelona, Nfinit Foundation Arts Residency in Brooklyn, and Art Crawl Harlem in New York. He has the distinct honor of being selected as a 2021 Artist-In-Residence at Chateau Orquevaux in France. 

Through his captivating lens, Demarcus McGaughey hopes to continue to inform inspiring stories of Black triumph.
Website: demarcusmcgaughey.com