WHO WE ARE
The Westfield Arts Collective, Inc., is a newly-created New Jersey non-profit whose mission is to create an inclusive, community-operated workspace where people with common interests in the visual and performing arts can meet, socialize, and collaborate. Through exhibition, education, performance and community outreach, the Westfield Center for the Arts will inspire creativity and enhance people’s lives. Our vision is to create a permanent “Center for Creativity” at the former Rialto Theater in downtown Westfield. The Center is a reimagining of a nearly 100-year-old Westfield institution and will function as a community gathering space for creating and enjoying art. It will be an adaptive space where makers, artists, actors, writers, and musicians of all ages and experience can connect, create, learn and build community.
Board of Directors
Bill Crandall
President
Bill Crandall is an award-winning media executive who has led content teams at SiriusXM Pandora, Rolling Stone and Madison Square Garden. He has produced shows with CBS News, Audible and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and he has interviewed and profiled such personalities as Beyonce, Tom Petty and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Bill was born and raised in Westfield (he remembers the Rialto marquee reading “JAWS” all summer long), and, after starting his own magazine post-college in San Francisco, he returned with his wife Michelle to raise their three daughters. He is so excited to serve as president of the Board of Directors for the Center for Creativity at the Rialto and to see our shared vision of Westfield having a dedicated home for people to showcase, learn and cherish the arts come to life.
Margaret Smith
Vice President
Margaret is an advocate for the arts in her hometown of Westfield New Jersey where she has lived for 23 years and raised 4 children. Margaret is the owner and teaching artist at The Studio, a business she started at the onset of COVID that fosters creativity, imagination, and self-confidence in the children she teaches. Margaret is the Chair of the Westfield Public Arts Commission, a CASA of Union County volunteer, IMAGINE facilitator, a certified therapeutic arts facilitator in the Creative Journal Expressive Arts method and a council member of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame.
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Carl A. Salisbury
Interim Treasurer
Carl is a partner at the firm Bramnick, Rodriguez, Grabas, Arnold & Mangan. He served as a Judicial Clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and has been practicing law for 35 years. Carl also sits on the Board of Directors of the Westfield YMCA and More Than Bootstraps. He served two terms as a Westfield Town Councilman from 1998-2002. He received his undergraduate degree in History, magna cum laude, from the University of New Hampshire, and his law degree from the Wake Forest University School of Law, where he was Managing Editor of the Wake Forest Law Review. He describes his work on the transformation of the Rialto into the Center for Creativity as “the most exciting project I have ever been involved in.”
Nancy Gill Gleason
Secretary
Nancy spent most of her professional career in Financial Services, then in public health, as an Information Technology Program Manager, including the NYC Department of Health. She is a classically trained Soprano, and teaches piano and voice at Valencia Studios in Westfield. She has sung & volunteered with the Chansonettes of Westfield for over 20 years, and performed in numerous Washington School Shows. Nancy is a certified End-of-Life Doula and is a Grief Facilitator at Imagine, A Center for Coping with Loss, in Mountainside, NJ and an active Hospice Volunteer at the Center for Hope Hospice & Palliative Care in Scotch Plains, NJ. She is studying to become a NJ Certified Grief Educator and is recording stories, writing a book, and launching a website to share stories of grief, resilience, and recovery to make everyone’s grief journey easier.
Nancy is passionate about supporting the arts and has been on the Board at the Center for Creativity since 2021 and was on the Board of the Friends of the Farmstead Arts in Basking Ridge. She is participating in the Integrated Community Project and working with the Town of Westfield to ensure access for persons of all abilities and differences to affordable housing, communication, community resources, programs, and services. Nancy believes that the value of art in our lives is immeasurable and helps to express ourselves, understand each other, feel more creative and purposeful, and contributes to our overall well-being. She is excited to be part of bringing the Center for Creativity to life and enjoys being part of the Westfield community where she and her amazing husband of 36 years, Scott Gleason raised their two daughters.
Beth Cassie
President Emeriti
Beth and her husband Scott have lived in Westfield for 26 years and they raised their two children Rob and Claire here. Beth formerly served on the Westfield Board of Education, the College Woman’s Club, and as president of the Westfield Foundation. Her professional background includes work as an investment advisor, management consultant, and private college counselor. Beth has been involved in the performing arts most of her life and currently sings with an award-winning women’s chorus. She served as president of the board for its first three years and now continues as a trustee. The reimagined Rialto is her personal capstone project, combining a commitment to Westfield, her business skills, and love of the arts. As a Westfield resident for 26 years, Beth is continually amazed at the talent that gets cultivated here. Her wish for the Center for Creativity at the Rialto is that it becomes a place for everyone to explore and celebrate the arts.
Tom Jardim
Tom is a 30-year resident of the Town of Westfield, and he served as the Town’s Mayor for two terms between 1996 -2001. In his professional life, Tom is a shareholder of the law firm of Jardim Meisner Salmon Sprague & Susser, P.C., based in Florham Park. Prior to engaging in the private practice of law, Tom worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture, in the U.S. Department of Justice, and as an Assistant Legislative Liaison with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. He is a 1988 graduate of the University of Richmond and received a law degree and a Master’s Degree in foreign affairs, magna cum laude, from the American University in 1993. Prior to law school, Tom spent six months living in Tanzania in East Africa while conducting research and co-writing a documentary film. ​ In addition to his role as a founding board member with the Center for Creativity at the Rialto, Tom currently serves on the board of the Community Health Law Project, which provides legal services for individuals with disabilities, and Mayo Performing Arts Center, a regional performing arts venue located in Morristown, New Jersey.
Dawn Mackey
The Rialto is part of the DNA of Westfield. As a council woman, resident, AddamsFest Chairperson and Downtown revitalization professional, she feels invested in the commitment to preserve the Rialto for future generations. A pivotal nostalgic building, the Rialto holds the heart of most residents and remains confident that this community has the tenacity, talent and will to create a Rialto for the future. Dawn sees the Center of Creativity as a way to honor and elevate our young artists in town the way we have our young athletes.
Kirti Malik
Kirti is not a “traditional” arts nonprofit Board member. As a physical therapist, her speciality is in healthcare. However, since starting her practice, On The Spot Therapy, in 2015, she has handled every aspect of business ownership from marketing to finances to growth prospects. Kirti’s family has always been immersed in the arts, from exploring free theater and galleries to attending exhibits and performances all over the world. She has a long history of volunteer activities in town from PTO leadership at Lincoln and Tamaques Schools to Chairing various committees (Westfield Green Team, Lifelong Westfield) to helping run the Westfield Area CSA (community supported agriculture). She is honored to be sitting on the Board of the Center for Creativity at the Rialto because it is THE iconic structure of Westfield. She is drawn to the history, the long list of events, the endless memories and the unprecedented potential of this space.
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Richard Solomon
Richard and his wife, Amy Seid, have lived in Westfield since 1987. They have two sons, Josh and David, and a grandson, Mateo. From 2001-2010, Richard served on the Westfield Board of Education. In 2022, he retired after 41 years at CBS Television, where he was the Director of Production Management and responsible for managing the operation of the television studios at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, as well as the Ed Sullivan Theater. In 2015, he oversaw the complete restoration of the Sullivan Theater including theatrical lighting, sound, post-production, audience seating, HVAC, restoring architectural details that had long been hidden from view, rebuilding the marquee, and renovating over 30,000 square feet of production office space. Over the years Richard has been Production Manager on various productions for CBS News, WCBS-TV, CBS Entertainment, and CBS Sports, including the winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway and Nagano, Japan. He has 5 Emmy Awards; two for the Olympics, two for Late Show with David Letterman, and one for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Richard is excited to be involved with the project to transform the Rialto into a community and regional arts center, and reestablishing it as a centerpiece of the Westfield community.
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David Veca
David is the CFO of Veckridge Chemical Company, a third-generation family business. Under his leadership, the company grew from $35 million to over $68 million in sales and climbed 10 spots in the ICIS Top 100 Chemical Distributors over the past four years. Prior to joining Veckridge, he worked at American Express in Corporate Finance and Card Member Marketing, where he managed short-term liquidity, built short- and medium-term forecasts, and advised on investment optimization for a $750 million annual marketing budget. He holds an MBA from Rutgers School of Business and has been recognized as an Emerging Leader by the National Association of Chemical Distributors. David is a passionate advocate for preserving and refurbishing important community institutions in Westfield like the Rialto. He serves on this board for the Center for Creativity as well as the Retail Advisory Board for Downtown Westfield, NJ. He has lived in Westfield with his wife Alyssa, an artist, and their three children since 2016.
OUR STORY
The organization came about largely as a result of an amendment to the Town of Westfield's land use ordinance in October 2020, when the Town changed the zoning in the Town's Central Business district to allow "artisan manufacturing," or the creation of traditional and non-traditional art such as printmaking; leather products; jewelry and clothing/apparel; metal work; wood work; furniture; glass or ceramic production; and paper manufacturing. Several of the founding members came together to take advantage of this change in zoning law and began looking for a central location in downtown Westfield that could house such an endeavor.
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Since its initial creation, the mission of the Westfield Arts Collective has evolved, from solely a "makerspace" for the creation of physical objects (e.g., ceramics, woodworking, pottery, etc.) to a laboratory for all kinds of art, including music, visual arts, and fine arts. Our vision now is to create a permanent “Center for Creativity” at the former Rialto Theater in downtown Westfield, which the Westfield Arts Collective is in contract to purchase. The Center is a re-imagining of a nearly 100-year Westfield institution and will function as a community gathering space for creating and enjoying art. It will be an adaptive space where makers, artists, actors, writers, and musicians of all ages and experience can connect, create, learn and build community. The organization received its 501(c)(3) charitable designation in October of 2021.