Amy Scheibe appointed Executive Director of Catskill Mountain Foundation

HUNTER — The Catskill Mountain Foundation (CMF) announced today 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, Amy 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, Scheibe will also 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.

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.

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. 

Peter Finn, Chairman of CMF, said, “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. 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. The right candidate for the Executive Director position needed to have connections to the art scene and to potential donors in NYC 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. 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.”

Amy Scheibe commented, “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. 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.”

About Catskill Mountain Foundation

The Catskill Mountain Foundation’s (CMF) aim is to provide educational opportunities in the arts for youth and lifelong learners, to bring the experience of the arts to the Catskill community, and to support artists and art organizations in the development of their work through residencies. Since its founding in 1998, CMF has presented hundreds of music, dance, and theater performances; screened over 1,000 films to tens of thousands of audience members; provided studio arts classes to thousands of students of all ages; and served thousands of art-loving patrons in the Catskill Mountain Foundation Gift Shop. The Catskill Mountain Foundation operates the Doctorow Center for the Arts in Hunter, the Orpheum Performing Arts Center in Tannersville, and the Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts in Maplecrest, NY.

Since 1998, CMF has raised, generated, and invested close to $16 million in facility development and an excess of $42 million in programming operations, for a total investment in the Catskill community of over $58 million. Catskill Mountain Foundation is supported in part by New York State Council on the Arts, the Greene County Cultural Fund administered by the Greene County Legislature, The Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation, The Royce Family Foundation, The Samuel and Esther Doctorow Fund, The Orville and Ethel Slutzky Family Foundation, Platte Clove Bruderhof Community, Bank of Greene County Charitable Foundation, The Greene County Youth Bureau, Marshall & Sterling Insurance, All Souls’ Church, Stewarts Shops, Windham Foundation, and by private donations. CMF believes that the arts can transform the lives of those touched by it and can transform the community. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.