Board Members

Kate Petrie, President

Born in the U.K. award-winning photographer Kate Petrie grew up in England, Nigeria, Texas and Switzerland and returned to America to study at the Rhode Island School of Design where she graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in Architecture and Fine Art. She now lives in Jamestown, R.I., with her husband and three children and photographs passionately the inspiring people, places and wild life that surround her. Kate was on the board of the Jamestown School PTO and is a founding member of the Jamestown Education Foundation, and has been involved in several large island fundraisers.      see a selection of her photographs in the Gallery or visit her personal website

Elizabeth Congdon, Vice President

Elizabeth Congdon is a landscape and still life painter in the post-impressionist tradition. She received her BA from UC Santa Cruz, spending her junior year at the Florence Academy of Art through Smith College, and attended Parsons School of Design MFA Painting Program for one year. Elizabeth has shown her work across America, and for the past 15 years has had an annual solo show in Nantucket. Her collectors include writer Russell Baker, sculptor/philanthropist J.Seward Johnson, Google CEO John Schmidt, and ABC news correspondent David Gregory. Elizabeth is represented by the South Wharf Gallery in Nantucket,MA     see a selection of her paintings in the Gallery

Barbara Hutchison, Secretary

Barbara Hutchison received a BFA in Medical Illustration and Photography from The Cleveland Institute of Art. She has spent her professional career as a freelance medical illustrator for major textbook publishers,contributing volumes of art in many of the best selling Biology and Anatomy/Physiology textbooks. Although her profession is illustration, her passion is painting. She has been returning to the joy of landscape painting, and sharing with others the exhilaration of the creative process – whether on the artist's canvas, on the computer screen, or in the garden.    see a selection of her paintings in the Gallery

Dori Hirsh, Treasurer

Dori Hirsch is a graduate of Columbia University with degrees in Fine Arts and Economics. She worked in Investment Banking and Institutional Bond Trading in New York City for 10 years, before becoming a Jewelry Designer. Her jewelry is currently being sold in New York City and at several locations throughout Rhode Island, including Jamestown Designs. Dori has been an active volunteer in the community since moving to Jamestown. She has held several board positions, including Chairperson of the Jamestown Task Force and Co-Chair of the Jamestown School PTO. She was an active fund-raiser for the Jamestown School playground rehabilitation and for several Cultural Art exhibitions sponsored by the PTO, including the bi-annual Book Fairs. Dori and her husband, Bennett, live in Jamestown and have 3 daughters: Julia, age 11, Madeleine, age 9 and Abigail, age 7.

Jane Mitchell, Board Member

Jane Mitchell is currently a kindergarten teacher at the Jamestown Melrose Public School. She has degrees in Education and Horticulture and extensive experience teaching children with special needs. At the Norman Bird Sanctuary, Jane helped create a children's garden and led bird walks. For several years, Jane held the position of both teacher and coordinator for the Island Arts, Creative Arts Camp, an interdisciplinary summer camp for children. She has also taught art classes and coordinated a summer art camp at the Katherine Brown-Wing Studio.

Jocelyn Donaghue, Board Member

Jocelyn Donaghue received a Post Graduate degree in Illustration from the Parsons School of Design. Following ten plus years in New York City working in advertising, film and at HBO, she and her husband lived and worked in Peshawar, Pakistan and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She has worked at the Courthouse Center for the Arts since moving to Jamestown eight years ago. She is the Visual Arts Director there and has been a judge for the Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) for the past six years and presents screenings of films from the RIIFF on a monthly basis. Donaghue's current art work is in glass fragment construction and appliqued fabric work.

Pat Tuff, Board Member

A fourth-generation Rhode Islander, Pat Tuff is the daughter of award-winning photographer Tony Balloch and painter Maisie Balloch, whose acclaimed artwork captured both New England life and worldwide travels in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Pat began photography by snapping shots of her six children, and took up a more serious interest in shooting during then 1990s by experimenting with light and composition. During the past decade, her work has evolved to encompass classic seaside moments as well as unique portraits of life in the Caribbean, the Seychelles, South Africa and beyond. Limited edition prints of Pat’s work, from fog-soaked shores to cliff-side picnics, are now exhibited throughout the United States. An avid athlete, Pat often scouts her subjects while out running. Pat and her husband, Tim, have eight grandchildren under age 9 and two yellow Labradors and split their time between Atlanta and Jamestown.
   see a selection of her photographs in the Gallery or visit her personal website