Catskill Mountain Foundation appoints executive director

HUNTER―The Catskill Mountain Foundation (CMF) announced Wednesday that Amy Scheibe has been appointed executive director, effective January 1, 2026.

Scheibe will oversee the foundation’s many operations, including its performing arts and film programming, its educational programs for area children, its many arts residencies and partnerships, the Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts, the arts education programs for local children, The Guide Magazine, and the gift shop in Tannersville.

In addition, Scheibe will take the helm of its many buildings, including the Orpheum Performing Arts Center, the new Orpheum Studios, the Doctorow Center for the Arts, the Piano Performance Museum, the many studio arts buildings at Sugar Maples and the 50 bedrooms for artist housing located within the numerous buildings owned and managed by the foundation.

Scheibe will also oversee long term planning, staffing, and significant capital investments planned for the Sugar Maples campus in the years ahead. Building on CMF’s success with Works & Process at the Guggenheim, The Joyce Theater Foundation, Joffrey Ballet School New York, The Ballet Hispanico School, and various other collaborations, she will oversee the development of new arts partnerships.

She will also serve as the spokesperson for the CMF vision across platforms, both within the organization and front-facing to the public, and play a key role in fundraising, board development, financial management, human resources, operations and use of state-of-the-art technology, programming and development, community relations, and communications.

Peter and Sarah Finn, the founders of Catskill Mountain Foundation, recognized the need for a full-time executive director during the summer of 2025, when they began the search for the right person to lead the organization into the future.

“In our search for an executive director, we wanted someone who demonstrates a passion for the arts and for the breadth of programming and cultural engagement that CMF has fostered on the Mountaintop,” said Peter Finn, chairman of CMF.

“This passion would ideally be evidenced by involvement in the CMF over the past few years. The right candidate would also be well connected within the community CMF serves, including audiences, the full-time resident community, donors, weekenders, and local business owners. We knew that this most likely would be a full-time local resident of the Mountaintop,” he continued. “The right candidate for the executive director position needed to have connections to the art scene and to potential donors in New Yor City and to potential funders and decision makers in Albany and in Washington D.C. And finally, the right candidate would have a proven ability to get things done.”

Sarah Finn, president of CMF, added, “As Peter and I discussed our need to bring in a new leader for CMF, we realized that the right candidate was already working with us.”

“Amy has done an extraordinary job in launching, running, and building MATH into a regional theater powerhouse in four short years, and we look forward to her bringing her creativity and energy to the entire CMF organization. Peter and I plan on continuing to lead CMF long term, and we are so pleased to have Amy join us in working to make CMF the very best it can be as we focus on sustainable growth,” she said. “Our goal since the beginning has been to turn our Mountaintop community into an internationally known arts destination. We have made a great deal of progress toward this goal since our launch in 1998, but we still have a lot of work to do. With Amy as executive director of CMF we are confident that the organization will remain on this path for the long term.”

Scheibe joined CMF in 2021 with the launch of Maude Adams Theater Hub (MATH), a program to develop community theater within CMF. MATH has produced more than 30 shows since its creation and has been wildly successful. Most productions have enjoyed sold-out audiences and have received rave reviews from the audiences. Scheibe has served as creative director of MATH since 2023.

“It has been such a joy to be a part of making Maude Adams Theater Hub a thriving entity within the greater programming at The Catskill Mountain Foundation,” Scheibe said.

“Peter and Sarah Finn connected to the dream of amplifying local talent from the start, and their ongoing support is steadfast and passionate. Working with them on the greater mission of creating sustainable growth for CMF is a true privilege, and I look forward to working closely with the entire CMF staff to make their vision a reality for the Mountaintop community and beyond,” she added.