Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology Announces Appointment of Four New Board Members

Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology Announces Appointment

of Four New Board Members

The Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology (BCAT) is pleased to announce the appointment of four new members to its Board of Directors. At the organization’s annual meeting in June, Melissa Archer, Dr. Ian Barrett, Mark Gaulin, and Elizabeth Gurney were elected to serve an initial three-year term on the nonprofit’s governing board.

BCAT delivers innovative arts and workforce development programs that equip high school and adult students with the tools necessary to achieve financial security and build positive futures. The organization offers a comprehensive arts and technology afterschool program for high school students, along with workforce training in Allied Health, Information Technology, and Landscaping for adults.

With the addition of these four new members, BCAT’s Board of Directors now comprises 14 members. The Board is chaired by Dr. Michael Cropp, President and CEO of Independent Health.

“We are delighted to welcome Mark, Ian, Melissa, and Elizabeth to the BCAT Board,” said Dr. Cropp. “Adding new perspectives, skills, and experiences to BCAT’s leadership only makes us stronger and better able to serve our community. We are especially pleased to include local employers as we continue to strengthen partnerships that support student internships, shadow days, and meaningful career opportunities. Each of these individuals has demonstrated support for BCAT in unique ways, and we are honored to welcome them in this new capacity.”

The newly appointed board members bring a diverse range of professional experience and community leadership to BCAT, further enhancing the organization’s mission to bridge opportunity gaps through education, creativity, and workforce readiness.

New Board members include: 

Melissa Archer, PMHNP-BC, MSN, BSN is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner with SENSES Medical Wellness, a behavioral health organization committed to providing compassionate and personalized care to individuals, couples, and families seeking support for their mental well-being.

Dr. Ian C. Barrett is Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer at Kaleida Health, the largest healthcare provider and largest private employer in the region with 11,176 employees and 1,527 providers.

Mark P. Gaulin is a distinguished business and civic leader who serves as President & CEO of PCI, a Buffalo-based Managed Service Provider (MSP) supporting client systems, cloud and networks. 

Elizabeth Gurney, now retired, served as Director of Corporate Philanthropy at

KeyBank and Executive Director of the First Niagara Foundation. At KeyBank she directed KeyBank’s strategic philanthropic investments across the nationwide enterprise with a focus on education, neighborhood prosperity, workforce development and community service. 

Located on Buffalo’s East Side in the historic Pratt-Willert Park neighborhood, Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology (BCAT), provides pathways for its students to create positive futures. The organization offers cost-free adult workforce training programs in Allied Health, Landscape  and IT fields that lead to meaningful employment with family-sustaining wages, and a cost-free high school arts and technology afterschool program that motivates students to stay in school and graduate with an actionable pathway into college and fulfilling careers. Both programs are offered in a welcoming, supportive, and inspiring environment. 

For more information, please visit www.buffaloartstechcenter.org

BCAT Welcomes Friends and Neighbors to Art Exhibition by Celebrated East Side Artist Wilhelmina Godfrey

WG Art Exhibit 2

Photo above of local gallerist Emily Tucker (center) and attendees to the recent BCAT art exhibit of the works of Wilhelmina Godfrey

As Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology (BCAT) began making plans for the move to their new East Side home, they knew they wanted to open their doors to the local community.  When an opportunity to showcase the work of a renowned East Side artist arose, BCAT leadership knew they had found the perfect event to welcome their new neighbors.  

In March, BCAT hosted “The Search for Identity, Rediscovering Wilhelmina Godfrey,” an art exhibit featuring the works of the textile artist, painter, printmaker, educator, and community activist. The event was a chance to welcome BCAT students, supporters, and neighbors to BCAT’s new gallery space, while celebrating an artist whose roots were in the East Side neighborhood.

Curated by local gallerists Emily Tucker and Chris Kameck, the exhibit featured 40 works that had been discovered in an unclaimed storage space that once belonged to the artist and was auctioned to a local couple. The new owners contacted Emily who helped them manage and showcase the collection.

Emily, a former BCAT board member and champion of the organization, saw the potential for the artwork to be displayed in a place that would resonate with its community roots. She thought of BCAT immediately as the perfect place for the exhibit and a chance to highlight both the aesthetic value of the work, and its historic and educational value.

According to Emily,”My goal is to make art more accessible to everyone – not just seasoned collectors – and the BCAT exhibit was an opportunity to share the work of this artist in a way that was welcoming and accessible. I am delighted that local residents attended and had a chance to experience her work close up,” 

The exhibit was designed to engage visitors throughout BCAT’s gallery space and included a timeline of the artist’s life, as well as a range of mediums including paintings, prints, and woven textiles.  10% of the proceeds from sales of the art went directly to BCAT. 

Prior to the exhibit, students in BCAT’s high school afterschool program took time to research her work and life and created a documentary about Godfrey. The film was highlighted at the BCAT exhibit as well as at a concurrent exhibition of Godfrey’s work at the Burchfield Penney Art Center.