We encourage you to write to your council members and to the current Cinema Arts Center board of directors. We hope you will take time to compose your own heartfelt message to the board with what the Cinema Arts Centre means to you and how Dylan’s firing affects your impressions of the institution. We encourage you to include the list of demands as well. And if you prefer, we have provided here a sample email that you can copy and paste and then edit if you wish. Below is a list of the email addresses that can also be easily copied or clicked to write directly to that individual.
Matthew Daidola (Board Chair)
Michael Kornfield Interim CAC Co-Director
Glenn Seidman
Jonathan Gross
Tom Fazio
Suzanne Ettinger
Stephanie Rubin (Co-Secretary)
Monisha George
Prof. Martin Haas (Co-Secretary)
Kelsie Greene, CAC Co-Director
Edmund J. Smyth, Town Supervisor
Dr. Dave Bennardo, Councilman
Brooke A. Lupinacci, Councilwoman
Theresa Mari, Councilwoman
Jennifer Hebert, Councilwoman
Andrew Raia, Town Clerk
Sample Email Draft:
To Whom it May Concern:
I believe one of Long Island’s most important and beloved cultural institutions has been thrown into turmoil by a series of reckless decisions from its current leadership, culminating in the firing of longtime Co-Director Dylan Skolnick.
Dylan has devoted nearly his entire adult life to the Cinema Arts Centre and has been instrumental in building it into the internationally respected cultural institution it is today. His extraordinary relationships with filmmakers, distributors, artists, critics, cultural leaders, and the Long Island community were built over decades. Those relationships, his institutional knowledge, and his commitment to independent cinema are not interchangeable assets that a new board can simply replace.
It is especially disturbing to see his dismissal followed by vague public allegations that have damaged the reputation of someone who has given decades of his life to this institution.
I have lost confidence in the current leadership and am joining the call for:
• Dylan Skolnick to be immediately reinstated as Co-Director.
• Co-Directors Michael Kornfeld and Kelsie Greene to resign.
• Board Chair Matthew Daidola and the current CAC Board members to resign.
The Cinema Arts Centre does not belong to a handful of board members. It has been built and sustained over more than fifty years by its members, donors, filmmakers, artists, volunteers, audiences, and the larger community.
We will not stand quietly by while that legacy is dismantled.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[TOWN / CONNECTION TO THE CAC]