Lawrence J. (Larry) Sterrs, Executive Chairman of the Star of Hope Foundation (“SOH” or “the Foundation”), a not-for-profit organization created by the artist Robert Indiana, is pleased to announce that the formation of the Foundation’s Board of Directors has been completed. The Star of Hope Foundation was established in 2016 by the artist Robert Indiana, who lived in the historic Star of Hope building in Vinalhaven, Maine until his death in 2018, to support the visual arts in Maine.
Appointed by the Maine State Attorney General in 2019 to oversee the operations of the Foundation, including litigation involving Mr. Indiana’s estate that was pending at the time of his death and other matters relating to the settlement of Mr. Indiana’s estate, Mr. Sterrs has recruited Board members from the Vinalhaven, greater Maine and arts communities. Joining Mr. Sterrs on the Board are: Mark Bessire – Judy & Leonard Lauder Director, Portland Museum of Art; Paul Bird – a Maine native and senior partner with the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton in New York; Sharon Corwin – President & CEO, Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago; Kris Davidson – owner, Davidson Realty & Skål restaurant in Vinalhaven, Maine; Séan Alonzo Harris – artist & professional commercial and fine art photographer and resident of Waterville, Maine; Emily Lane – owner, Blue Lobster Consulting in Vinalhaven; Julia Trujillo Luengo – Director of Economic Development Coordination, State of Maine; Adam D. Weinberg – Alice Pratt Brown Director, Whitney Museum of American Art and summer resident of Vinalhaven.
Mr. Sterrs said “The Star of Hope Foundation has made significant progress resolving substantially all of the disputes involving Mr. Indiana’s estate, and now with a fully-formed Board of Directors, we have begun the detailed work of developing SOH’s mission and multiyear strategic plan. SOH will focus on how the use of Foundation resources and collaborations with other arts organizations can achieve mission-identified impacts in the field of the visual arts for the benefit of the Maine community.”
One of SOH’s strategic initiatives involves working closely and collaboratively with Simon Salama-Caro and his family. Simon Salama-Caro began working as a gallerist with Robert Indiana in 1988 and devoted the following decades to safeguarding and advancing Indiana’s artistic achievement. From 1995 onwards, Salama-Caro worked with Indiana as his exclusive world-wide representative for the authorized production, sale, and promotion of such Indiana sculpture series as LOVE (1966), ART (1972), AHAVA (1977), ONE Through ZERO (The Ten Numbers) (1978), and AMOR (1998). The Foundation expects that royalties from the sale of works in such sculpture series, offered through Simon Salama-Caro, and from a licensing agreement managed by the family will help fund the Star of Hope Foundation’s arts related programs. SOH looks forward to continuing the Foundation’s important relationship with Mr. Salama-Caro to help fulfill the mission of SOH.
Larry Sterrs stated, “We are delighted that the Star of Hope Foundation will benefit from the 35- year special relationship Mr. Salama-Caro has had with the art of Robert Indiana, and we look forward to working with him and his family to achieve the Foundation’s goals.”