On Friday, June 25, the Hudson River Museum will host Looking Up, Looking Forward: A Gala to Benefit the Hudson River Museum with a special outdoor evening event in our bucolic courtyard. This is our most important fundraiser of the year, providing essential resources to the HRM and our community during an especially challenging year.

This year’s gala also celebrates four truly outstanding honorees who have strengthened the community, enriched our lives through their creativity, and shown exemplary leadership and philanthropy: Bonnie Bell-Curran, Marcus C. John, the Martinelli Family, and Richard Haas.

Next up is Richard Haas, who is receiving this year’s Isidore Konti Medal, named in honor of one of the Museum’s illustrious founders. A successful sculptor, Konti was a true patron of the arts as well as a devoted public servant, working to bring art and culture to life in Yonkers through strong community work. Richard Haas embodies Konti’s spirit and commitment to excellence with his dedication and service on the HRM Board of Trustees and his distinguished and expansive career.

Richard Haas is a celebrated American muralist who is best known for architectural murals and his use of the trompe l’oeil style. A longtime Yonkers resident, Haas has painted on and within prominent buildings across the US and Yonkers, as well as international commissions in Munich, Germany. He has created more than 120 public art works worldwide, including at the Boston Architectural College, The Peck Slip mural in New York City, the Edison Brothers/Sheraton Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon. Interior murals have also been commissioned for numerous public buildings, including at the Nashville Public Library; the Periodical Room in the main branch of the New York Public Library; Lakewood Public Library, Cincinnati, OH; and Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

Richard has served on the HRM’s Board of Trustees since 1989; retiring in 2019 after 30 years of dedicated service. This summer, the Museum will proudly present Richard Haas: Circles in Space (June 25, 2021–January 9, 2022), a new series of paintings and drawings that explore intersections between abstraction, color theory, and the geometry of the universe.

Richard has received numerous grants, honors and recognitions of merit, among them The American Institute of Architects Medal of Honor (1977), The Jimmy Ernst Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2005), The Municipal Art Society Award (1977), fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1983) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1987). He received the Doris C. Freedman Award (1989) and a Distinguished Alumnus award from his Alma Mater, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 1991. Additionally he received the Westchester’s Arts Council Artist Award. Richard was elected as a National Academician in 1993. He was a member of the Academy Council from 2001–2010, chaired the Abbey Committee for 10 years and was President of the Academy from 2009–2011.