Orange County Arts Council adds two new members

Sugar Loaf - Monroe resident Thomas Ammons,owner of Affinity Advantage Financial in Middletown, and Garin Baker of Carriage House Art Studios in New Windsor, have been named members of the Orange County Arts Council Board of Directors. Ammons, who has also been appointed the group’s treasurer, formed Affinity Advantage Financial in 1999 to provide coordinated professional services to corporations and individuals. He is past-president of his local rotary club, where he manages the annual career day at the local high school. During the holidays, Ammons participates as a Salvation Army bell-ringer and he acts as a big brother to a local third grader. He serves as chair for the Alzheimer’s Association’s annual memory walk. Baker graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and studied at The Arts Students League in New York City. For many years, he was an illustrator for companies like New York Magazine, Bantam Books, and many advertising agencies. Garin now runs a mural company called Carriage House Art Studios which offers apprentices and young artists an opportunity to work and improve their craft. He has numerous gallery exhibitions and awards to his credit, has been listed in the “Encyclopedia of Living Artists” and his reputation as a New York realist was recognized with a nationally reviewed show entitled ‘Three Generations of New York Realist’ in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1999. The Orange County Arts Council was formed last year to strengthen the arts within the county by providing educational, promotional and information services and to accomplish this by coordinating and facilitating relationships among the arts, schools, businesses, government and the public.The goal of the Council is to serve as an umbrella organization that will enhance the arts in Orange County. For more information about the council and its programming, call 469-9168.