Cynnie Gaasch

Cynnie Gaasch has been the Executive Director of Young Audiences WNY since 2009.  She is a working visual artist, exhibiting her abstract paintings throughout the northeast. As a grant-writing consultant, Gaasch’s clients included American Institute of Architects Buffalo/WNY Chapter, Buffalo First, Buffalo ReUse, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Somali Bantu Organization.  A graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and a recipient of an MFA from American University in Washington, DC, she has been a teaching artist for Young Audiences, gallery curator for the Olean Public Library, development & public relations coordinator for Young Audiences, professor of art at SUNY Fredonia, and executive & artistic director of the Chautauqua Center for the Visual Arts.  As an art critic from 2002-2008 she translated the visual arts in her role as arts editor for ARTVOICE and then contributing critic for the Buffalo News.  She has also written for Buffalo Spree and Buffalo Rising.  As a young professional she worked in a variety of support capacities for notable arts organizations including the Vermont Studio Center and the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, and as personal assistant to critic and historian, Barbara Rose.

Cynnie contributes significantly as a volunteer and community activist. She is a member of the leadership team founding the new Arts Services Initiative of Western New York, and serves on the network policy and certification committees for Young Audiences, Inc. a network of 30 affiliates across the country.

She is one of the founders of Urban Roots Community Garden Center, the nation’s first cooperative garden center, located around the corner from her home. In 2007, she appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle seated in her “tiny front garden” as a participant of Buffalo’s renowned Garden Walk.  Her volunteer activities have also included being a treasurer and board member for Massachusetts Avenue Project. She was a recipient of Buffalo Business First’s Forty Under 40 Award in 2008, and is co-chair of her Leadership Buffalo class.  She completed the Harvard Business School Strategic Perspective in Nonprofit Management program in 2011, and received the Future Leaders in the Arts fellowship from National Arts Strategies and New York Foundation on the Arts in 2009.