Irene Joan Sherr & Leigh Stanton Breslau

Irene has held senior leadership positions in both government and the non-profit sectors with a focus on building communities, regional economies and organizations in the fields of economic development and the arts. She was one of the founders of the critically acclaimed Hyde Park Jazz Festival and the Hyde Park Alliance of Arts and Culture. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Public Art Group and the Hyde Park Art Center. Irene was raised in New York City and was awarded a Master of City Planning degree at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Leigh is one of the world’s recognized designers of convention, cultural and performing arts centers and brought that extensive experience to the ExpoGeorgia campus. He led the design teams for Chicago’s celebrated Millennium Park, the Chicago Symphony Center and Ravinia Festival; the orchestra’s summer home, the Dallas City Performance Hall, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, the LG Art Hall in Seoul, and the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas. He developed master plans for the Brooks Museum in Memphis, the Toledo Museum of Art, Canary Wharf in London, and is collaborating with his partner at Trahan Architects on the Cheekwood Art and Gardens and Austin Contemporary Art Museum Laguna Gloria master plans. In addition to his architectural expertise, Breslau provided critically-acclaimed scenic designs for Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Albee’s Three Tall Women, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Ibsen’s The Wild Duck at Chicago’s Court Theatre, as well as a performance and scenic setting for Erica Mott’s techno-opera production Three Singers which premiered at the Cricoteka Festival in Krakow, Poland. In addition Leigh is a classical pianist, bringing a deep-rooted knowledge and passion for performing arts to his work beyond typical architectural skills. Leigh was born in New York City, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in Phialdelphia with a Master of Architecture degree.

Irene and her husband Leigh have assembled a very personal ART collection including works in various media by internationally celebrated artists Alexander Calder and John Cage; Chicago artists Karl Wirsum, Phyllis Bramsom, Richard Willenbrink, William Conger, John Himmelfarb, Seymour Rosofsky, Gin Soo Kim, and Terry Evans; Latin American artists including Liliana Porter, Olga Sinclair, Sandra Eleta, Gabriele Gonzalez, Retrato con Bodegan and Taro Tobal, to name a few. Their most recent acquisitions, two works by Giorgi Gatserelia, selected at the 2018 TAF.