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John Cino Program Director / Curator (Part-time) John Cino is a sculptor, art educator, curator and arts activist who sees all of these activities as part of a greater whole. He graduated from Hunter College of the City University of New York in 1985 with a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts. After holding positions as a gallery assistants for a noted NY artist and art educator for the NYC public schools John began teaching on the collegiate level in 1999. Highlights as a sculptor include the installation of one of his pieces on the Dubuque, Iowa Mississippi River water front, artist in residency programs including Stony Brook University and and two consecutive NYSCA Long Island Creative Artists Grants in 2013 and 2104. From those grants John first extended his work into public art with “Library at Babel: Patchogue” and then into multimedia performance with “Common Ground.” His work has also been exhibited in sculpture parks, museums, college campuses and lobbies including the Islip-MacArthur Airport. Cino has taught on the graduate and undergraduate levels courses in a broad range of studio practices as well as many phases of art history at a number of area colleges and universities. Currently he teaches sculpture and three dimensional design at Nassau Community College and modern art history and art appreciation at St. Joseph’s College of New York. While at Suffolk Community College he received a grant to create and implement an innovative course in mathematics which was taught math through art making. He has curated many exhibitions in New York City and Long Island including 14 Sculptors Gallery, Adelphi University, the Islip Museum and Nassau Community College. He has been the senior curator of the Patchogue Arts Gallery since its inception and has co curated two of its largest projects the Patchogue biennials of 2009 and 2011.
Cino’s work as an arts activist lead to his presidency of 14 Sculptors Gallery, a highly regarded sculptors’ cooperative in the 1990’s and to founding membership in the Patchogue Arts Council in 2008, served as President and currently is part off the staff as Program Director and Sr. Curator.
Gabriela studied and received a BFA in Photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and is passionate about supporting fellow female artists as well as the broader local artistic community. Professionally Gabriela works in Podcast Media as a Media Coordinator and part-time supporting the Patchogue Arts Council • MoCA L.I. as our PEACE Social Media Manager, creating content and awareness for the program.
Gabriela Manfredi is a Photographer focused primarily on Photo Manipulation & Documentary work. Gabriela’s work varies vastly in subject matter and style, but shares common themes of exploring the therapeutic artistic process and the exploration of light and color. Gabriela’s documentary work gives an intimate look at her close family dynamics, and her experimental work pulls inspiration from the psychedelic era with highly contrasted manipulated images of the natural world.
Gabriela is part of the curatorial collective for the Patchogue Arts Council including aspects of MoCA L.I.ghts.
Previously, Fernanda held the position of Museum Educator & Administrator at Preservation Long Island’s (PLI) Custom House in Sag Harbor, NY.
As a visual artist, her work examines the exploration of identity through the societal norms and peculiarities that emerge within our contemporary world. Fernanda’s work has appeared in exhibitions, film festivals, and virtual exhibitions both locally and nationally.
Fernanda is currently exploring live art performance, painting, sculpture, and video as she continues to devote herself to the arts.
Fernanda is part of the curatorial collective for the Patchogue Arts Council including aspects of MoCA L.I.ghts.
Meg Sexton is an arts manager with a BA in Theater and English from the State University of New York at Geneseo and an MA in Teaching of English from Columbia University, Teachers College. Her focus has been on non-profit arts organizations working in a variety of departments including education, development, marketing, and production. Presently, she is the Director of Marketing at The Suffolk in Riverhead, Development Assistant and development assitant for special projects at the Patchogue Arts Council, as well as a freelance grant writer and consultant.
Eric Murphy Graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelors in Art History in 2014. Since then, he has worked in and has been publicly recognized for his contributions within the arts community of Long Island.
Since 2014 Eric has worked at and been involved in numerous events for Islip Art Museum, Patchogue Arts Council, Long Island Museum, Muneca Arthouse, Amulet Arts, Crozier Fine Arts, and the Simon center, Wang center and Zuccaire Galleries of Stonybrook University.
He has been awarded numerous citations and proclamations from local ( Islip Town and Village of Patchogue), regional representaives, and state entities for his involvement with numerous impactful community programs in which he made major contributions. In addition his own work has been recognized by the 2014 president of Stonybrook University for his contributions and his work now resides in the presidents art collection.
Eric is part of the curatorial collective for the Patchogue Arts Council including aspects of MoCA L.I.ghts.
Robinson Crothers | PAC • MoCA L.I. Fundraising Assistant & MoCA L.I.ghts Street Team and Official Glow Guide
Robinson “Robbie” Crothers works to support the fundraising efforts at PAC MoCA and provides general support for programs and events. For MoCA Lights, Robbie serves as a Development Assistant and a member of PAC’s Street Team. This includes coordinating with local businesses and leading public tours to all of the MoCA Lights Locations. Deeply passionate about Patchogue, and our Long Island community at large, with a particular focus on using the Arts as a catalyst to drive economic change. As a Patchogue native, he has witnessed the role of the Arts in driving the evolution of the area into a vibrant regional destination.
Robbie is a Partner at American Portfolios, a Wealth Management firm, where he works with local individuals, families and institutions to help them meet their financial goals. He studied Finance and Art History at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, where he was also a member of the University’s Wrestling team. In addition to his work at PAC, he is a Youth Wrestling Coach at Patchogue-Medford High School.
Dan Lachacz is a fine arts photographer from Patchogue, NY. He is an Assistant Director of the New York Contemporary Artists Symposium and Co-President of Criterion Contemporary arts ervices company with his wife Beth Giacummo - Lachacz. He is also a 2010 alumnus of the New York Foundation for the Arts’ MARK program. Lachacz has previously exhibited his artwork locally and internationally at in galleries and museums. Additonally he has particpated in a nuber of international residencies in Italy, Romania, and Chile.
Dan Lachacz has been a freelance professional art installer since 2018, most recently joined CROZIER as an art handling specialist in 2022.
Benny Migliorino (Migs) is a Long Island, NY-based environmental portrait artist and filmmaker. By engaging his skill set and imagination, Migs can transform an everyday location into an extravagant, big-budget production with his lighting and composition skills. He uses his talents to reveal the personality and culture of small mom-and-pop shops to large-staffed corporations.
Throughout his career, Mig’s compelling images have adorned the pages of magazines such as Long Island Pulse, Nikon World, Popular Science, Shutterbug, Field & Stream, and Popular Photography, among others. In 2015, Migliorino published a book through Amherst Media to educate readers about the importance of light within portrait photography entitled “ALTERNATIVE PORTRAITURE: ARTISTIC LIGHTING AND DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY.” In 2020, he self-published his coffee table book called Project Face Mask
HTTPS://WWW.BENNYMIGSPHOTO.COM/FACEMASK. It was a personal project showing the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce in his community.
His photographs have won him numerous awards over the years, including Photographer of the Year from the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and the Grand Award with the perfect score of 100 from Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) in 2006.
To expand his creativity and further develop his artistic vision, Migs has captivated audiences through cinematography and his documentary style of shooting corporate business videos that tell a story and are not an in-your-face sales pitch.
In 2020, he drove head-first into the lost art of Wet Plate Collodion Photography. Only about 1,000 people in the world practice this form of photography. The wetplate process was invented in 1851 and was used to document the Civil War. It only lasted 40 years? In 2023, he was awarded $10,000 grand from the New York State Council of Arts for a wet plate project called PORTRAITS WITH PURPOSE that showcases other creatives.
Benny is more of a historian than a photographer by documenting history for future generations.