Donor Profile

Sue Priester, of Greenville, S.C., and her family are connected to Cape May MAC (Museums+Arts+Culture), and to Cape May, as deeply as any family could be. One of Cape May MAC‘s most committed donors, Priester and her family have supported the organization and loved this historic seaside resort for decades, and their ties to Cape May started with Sue’s father, Bill Carpenter.

“We go way back in Cape May on my father’s side,” she said. “I am suspecting that his parents, who lived in Philadelphia, may have discovered Cape May in the 1920s, but I know Dad, my father, came to Cape May in 1927, so we are close to 100 years in our connection to Cape May with our family.”

Sue was born in St. Louis and her parents, Pat and Bill Carpenter, raised the family in Pittsburgh, Pa. Pat had spent summers in Cape Cod, Mass., and so she grew up loving the beach.

“Dad rented our first home in Cape May in 1964 on Benton Avenue. They never bought a home in Cape May, but I certainly remember the rental homes, and we spent the whole summers there.”

Sue and her sister Jane (Valdes-Dapena) began spending summer vacations in Cape May most years from 1964 to 1971. Sue’s first job was in Cape May, at Morrow’s Nut House. She worked at The Lobster House in the summer of 1971. Since her family had not rented a house for the entire summer season that year, she found a place to live directly across from the Physick Estate, where she rented a third floor room, so small, she recalls, she could only stand up straight in one spot.

“I didn’t really know about what was stirring with MAC at that time,” she recalls. “The Physick Estate was this forbidding, hulking structure that some people wanted to tear down.”

In 1985, when she was married and her own family grew, her children Anna, 1, and Reimer, 4, began spending summer vacations in Cape May, thus beginning the next generation.

Sue purchased a family vacation home on Franklin Street in 2000. That home served in 2009 as one of Cape May MAC’s Designer Show House fundraisers.

“There’s so much about Cape May that is so interesting and unique among seashore resorts. Every seashore place has a story. But in addition to Cape May MAC and the arts, it has the fishing industry, it has birding – I really enjoy the birding -- I love the history of it, just the sheer beauty. Aesthetically

Shown here with Director Emeritus Michael Zuckerman, Sue Priester, through the Priester Foundation, has steadfastly supported Cape May MAC for decades. This year her foundation’s generous support has helped Cape May MAC through the financial challenges of 2020.

Perhaps the greatest lesson that the “Nation’s Oldest Seashore Resort” can impart to its present-day admirers is simply to slow down. Enjoy the pleasures of a tree-lined street –dappled sun by day, gaslit at night. Or a golden sunset spreading across Delaware Bay. Spend some time rocking on a front porch, doing nothing but watching the passers-by. Admire the intricate details of a gingerbread home. Allow yourself to be seduced by this “Town out of Time,” and be grateful to those who enabled its rebirth.

From “Cape May Renaissance” Oct. 10, 2006 Authored by Sue Priester

Cape May is so lovely. I love the beach. And of course, the food, the seafood. I love that there are so many attractions in this one place.”

With her grown son, Reimer, now living in Detroit, her grown daughter, Anna, living in Massachusetts, and her sister, Jane, and her husband in Philadelphia, Sue describes Cape May as the glue that holds together her now geographically dispersed family. “It’s been our gathering place,” she said. “Cape May has been a constant with us.”

In 2003, Sue’s parents, Pat and Bill Carpenter, returned east from Arizona where they had moved in 1981. They had already started a small family foundation, the Carpenter Family Foundation, and had made their first gift to MAC of $75,000, benefitting the Cape May Music Festival. That gift was instrumental in helping the music festival flourish.

In 1997, Sue and her late husband set up the Priester Foundation following the sale of their company. Cape May MAC began receiving grants from that entity annually. For more than 20 years, an annual grant from the Priester Foundation has supported the organization in a variety of ways, this year, specifically, with a general operating grant that has gone a long way toward helping the organization stay afloat during an extraordinarily challenging time.

“I’m a generalist in my approach to most things,” Sue said. “I think the whole of what Cape May MAC is doing is important. If you are running a sound organization, a professional, ethical organization, it’s not my role to tell you how to spend the money. In certain, specific ways, sure, if that’s what you’re asking for. But if we can give a general operating grant -- particularly now in this environment, when so many nonprofits are just trying to keep their doors open -- to continue their services, then that is most helpful. You’re just trying to keep things running.”

Sue lauds Cape May MAC as a collaborative force that helps keep Cape May’s tourism economy humming all year long, while working with other non-profit and business leaders in the community.

“MAC’s role has been just absolutely enormous,” she said. “You want to preserve that which attracts you to the place in the first place. It’s been so important to my family. No, it’s not my primary residence, but it’s such a huge part of our family history, and one of the great things about our life, that you want to preserve that. And by contributions, we hopefully set an example for other people to do the same. If you enjoy a place over time and it becomes important to you, and if you are able, support it in a meaningful way -- from one generation to the next.” -- SK

Partnerships (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1) delicious brunch and dinner dining on the grounds of the Emlen Physick Estate, has been one of these proud new partnerships.

Cape May MAC is partnering with KARA Restaurant Group to oversee the entire restaurant operation beginning this year. KARA operates some of the most successful and diverse restaurants in the Cape May region -- George’s Place, Scola, Shamone, YB -- and now Vintage, featuring menu items that are creative and wildly unique, as co-owner Chef Nikolaos “Niko” Goutzouris describes them.

“We are thrilled to be working with our partners KARA Restaurant Group to bring an excellent dining experience to the Physick Estate for visitors to enjoy here,” said Cape May MAC Director Jody Alessandrine. “It has been an outstanding partnership. We are proud to bring a new dining experience to the Cape May restaurant scene, and visitors have responded with delight and enthusiasm. This year has been a challenge for all restaurants, everywhere, and we are just so grateful that we could provide a gorgeous outdoor venue that enabled Niko and his staff to do what they do so well and to flourish. Our visitors have appreciated it and we have, too, as one of our most successful new ventures.”

Cape May Stage and Cape May MAC forged a new venture as well this year. The Cape May Stage production, “Victoria’s Secrets,” was filmed on site inside the 1879 Physick House in August. Written and performed by Candace O’Donnell, the production is a one-woman show that tells the story of Queen Victoria in her later years, as she dwells on her full life and experiences, and her deep abiding love of Prince Albert.

“I think the reason that Cape May Stage had such a glorious partnership with Cape May MAC when we shot ‘Victoria’s Secrets’ at the Physick Estate was the profound respect each had for the other, said Cape May Stage Producing Artistic Director Roy Steinberg. “Jody Alessandrine is the kind of leader who inspires his staff to bring the best version of themselves to every project.

‘Art’ and ‘Culture’ are not just two-thirds of the acronym of Cape May MAC, they are the very life of the organization. Together, Cape May Stage and Cape May MAC bring a unique treasure to the citizens and visitors of Cape May.”

An ongoing five-years-plus partnership with REV Theatre was a bright spot as well this year. REV’s performance of “Victorian Vaudeville: How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm” at the Physick Estate’s outdoor stage in October was enjoyed by many during the Victorian Weekend Crafts & Collectibles Show.

Exit Zero Jazz Festival and Spy Boy Productions brought jazz to the estate grounds this year, through a partnership forged that confidently embraced a challenging production schedule to bring live arts to the public even in a difficult year.

“In a year where most events were cancelled due to the pandemic, Cape May’s own Spy Boy Productions was a bright, shining star in the world of live music performance,” said Producer Michael Kline. “Guided by an absolute belief in the transformative power of live music and the genuine human connections made when we interact in a live music experience, Spy Boy thoughtfully and creatively crafted production protocols allowing artists to return to performance stages. Here in Cape May, with the Emlen Physick Estate as the idyllic setting, Spy Boy Productions presented the SunSet Jazz Series and the Exit Zero Jazz Festival keeping patrons, production staff, and musicians safe and healthy. In a testament to Spy Boy’s work, one of the most respected cultural organizations in the world, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, chose the stage of the Exit Zero Jazz Festival and the Emlen Physick Estate as the site of their first live performance since February of 2020.”

A new partnership with Without A Cue Productions has enabled Cape May MAC to offer several creative, new offerings for visitors to enjoy this year.

“Without a Cue Productions is thrilled to have the opportunity to create immersive theatrical experiences for Cape May MAC and the Physick Estate,” said Executive Director Traci Connaughton. “The estate and Cape May have been creatively inspiring sites for the company and its members to work.”

These new exciting tours include a “Magic & Mystery House Tour,” and “A Gloomy Apparition,” both in the Physick House Museum, and two new Christmas offerings, “A Dickens of A Murder” in the Physick House Museum, and the “Lamplighter Walking Tour Mystery” this holiday season.

Continuing its mission of commitment to the preservation, interpretation and cultural enrichment of Cape May for its residents and visitors, Cape May MAC has furthered that mission in 2020 even in challenging times. -- SK

Photo by Susan Krysiak

Cape May Stage Victoria’s Secrets filming at the Physick House Museum

Photo by Susan Krysiak

REV Theatre presents Victorian Vaudeville “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm”

Photo by Richard Conde

Exit Zero Jazz Festival Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet with Wynton Marsalis, Thursday, Oct. 1

Photo by Susan Krysiak

Without A Cue Productions: A Gloomy Apparition