His gallery specialized in limited edition, fine art prints - everything from American and Europeans Masters, up through contemporary.
Working in the gallery was a great experience. I had always wanted to travel, and after college I became a Pan Am stewardess and flew with them for two and a half years. Peter : I was born and raised in Rochester. My grandparents were immigrants from Greece — arranged marriages on both sides. For my first 7 years, I was an only child living in a double house with my parents, grandmother and two bachelor uncles.
I got to live the life of an only-child Greek prince. Other than that, I was a typical American youth. When I was a senior in college, I was student teaching at a small rural K school of students in the Catskill Mountains. Just as I finished my placement, the school fired the teacher who I was working with. The school hired me full time before I finished college. After I completed the school year, I returned to Rochester. I was a high school social studies teacher — teaching as I had been taught - largely via lecture.
I frequently went in the art class next door to get supplies. I was struck by how different that class was from mine. The art teacher was walking around, interacting with students, while they were busy making art. I realized that if the art teacher taught the way I did, he would be up front painting, and everyone would be watching him. I began to challenge myself. What would my social studies classroom look like if the students were actively engaged, rather than passively listening to me lecture?
We hosted a broad range of programming including panel discussions, film series, book readings and dance performances. When I first started at the museum, I was directing the lending and sales program.
