Peter

Pockriss

Peter’s 35-plus year career in arts and culture has been distinguished by long-standing leadership roles in fundraising, museum administration and historic preservation. 

At Historic Hudson Valley, a network of historic sites in Westchester County, Peter leads the organization’s Finance, Development, Buildings & Grounds, and Event Production Departments as both Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. For decades, the organization has broken new ground in interpreting the painful history of enslavement in the colonial North, both on-site at its Philipsburg Manor and online through educational resources for student and general audiences. These include the award-winning digital graphic novel, Kofi’s Fire: A Spark of Resistance and the interactive documentary People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North, both funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Historic Hudson Valley operates public tours of Kykuit, home to four generations of the Rockefeller Family (including Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller who founded the New York State Council on the Arts), as well as the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, with stained glass windows by Henri Matisse and March Chagall. Historic Hudson Valley harnesses the arts to produce popular, entertaining events and activations that build audiences for its National Historic Landmarks. Peter was part of the team that conceived The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze in Westchester and led its expansion to a second location on Long Island. Now in its 20th year, the land-art installation is one of the nation’s largest Halloween experiences, generating significant revenue, audience, and tourism activity.

Previously, Peter was Director of Development at the New York Landmarks Conservancy, where he oversaw fundraising efforts for financial and technical assistance programs that preserved homes, religious buildings, nonprofit facilities and cultural sites across New York City. He raised funds to restore the Astor Row houses in Harlem and Prospect Cemetery in Jamaica, among other prominent landmarks. He has been a museum educator at the East Hampton Historical Society and Old Bethpage Village Restoration on Long Island. 

Peter holds a BA in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington and an MS in Nonprofit Management from the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment at The New School. He lives with his family in northern Westchester County and has spent time since childhood in the Western Catskills, where he serves as Vice President of the board of Farming Bovina, a grass-roots organization dedicated to promoting local agriculture and the success of small farms.