The Team

Board Members, Donors and Volunteers - all working together to make Ball & Socket Arts a reality!

Standing from left to right: Ruth Ratner, Regina Thornton, Barry Feldman, Anthony Carter, Cathi Waas, Larry Colberg, Signian McGeary, Corey Nash, Philip Anderson, Patricia Hartmann, Gregory Wolff, William Wolff, Jane Wolff, Joel Renker, Kathy Kaplan, Jay Kaplan, Tony Falcone, Jeff Stover, Mary Stover, Francois Tellier, Karin Arai, Joseph Ajello, Judi Riccio, Liz Linehan.

Seated from left to right: Kathy Smith, Natividad Carter, Mary A. Hobler Hyson, Elizabeth Hundt Scott, Joanne Peters, Tracey Peters, Roberta Havlick, Ann Marie Hearn, Deb Kaszas, Breina Schain, David Arai, Judith Andrews, Carol Goertz, Clare Leake, Csilla Somogyi

Front row : Kim Wantroba, Ron Bergamo, Ilona Somogyi, Kristof Somogyi, Andrew Martelli photo by Tom Hearn

Leadership

ILONA SOMOGYI

President and Co-Founder


Ilona is a faculty member in the design department at the Yale School of Drama. She has worked as a professional costume designer at regional and commercial theaters in New York City, around the country and in Europe. She has collaborated at non-profit theaters of many different sizes from very small artist ­initiated companies to multi-million dollar institutions. These include Hartford Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, among many others. She received a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She has been a Cheshire resident since the age of five.

RON BERGAMO

Board Chair

Ron Bergamo Jr, of Cheshire, Connecticut, is owner and president of the marketing & printing consulting firm Impact Production Group, LLC. He received his bachelor’s degree in information systems from Quinnipiac University’s School of Business. After serving on our Board for several years he is now the chair of the board of directors for Ball & Socket Arts, He also a member of the Board of Trustees for Cheshire Academy and has served on the boards of numerous charitable fund rating events including acting as co-chairman for the Victorian House Open golf tournament, which benefitted the Wounded Warrior Project.

 
 

BILL CONANT

Facilities Manager

Bill Conant, worked as the General Superintendent at Fusco Management in New Haven for 31 years, where he managed an operations portfolio of over 5.5 million square feet in Connecticut, New York and Florida. The facilities portfolio included Class A office buildings, retail facilities, medical facilities, laboratory and research buildings, education and institutional properties and municipal facilities. During his career he has managed facilities operations in brownfield sites in Manchester and New Haven CT. Bill specializes in project management, building operations, specification development, emergency services development, building code, fire and public safety, preventive maintenance and energy conservation.

LYDIA BLAISDELL

Director of Programming

Lydia Blaisdell has led artist residencies and created public arts programming throughout the Northeast. She also has a background in development and grant writing at several nonprofits, including SPACE on Ryder Farm, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and UJA-Federation. Lydia currently serves as a volunteer member on the Cultural District Commission for the City of New London. She holds an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers, and has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, Marble House Project, and Ucross. Lydia is thrilled to join the Ball & Socket Arts team at this critical moment of growth.

The site in May 2023 courtesy of John McDonald.

Board of Directors

Ron Bergamo, Chair

Phillip E. Anderson, Comptroller

Karin Arai, Treasurer

Dr. Anthony Carter

Courtney Cullinan

Patti Flynn-Harris, Advisory Board

Roberta Havlick

Corey Nash

Joel Renker

Ryan Roth

Cheryl Sharp

Kathy Smith

Ilona Somogyi, President & Co-Founder

Regina Thornton, Secretary

Gregory Wolff

 

Funding Partners

Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development

State of Connecticut

The Town of Cheshire

The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation

The Connecticut Community Foundation

The Community Foundation for
Greater New Haven

 

Development Team

David Arai principal at Maier Design Group, Project Architect

Cabezas-DeAngelis Engineers & Surveyors

MS Nash Construction

NDC Commercial Construction

Fuss & O'Neill, environmental engineers

SLR, site engineers

The Masters Construction Corp, contractors