R. Scudder Smith

Founder and Publisher

Scudder was born into the newspaper business, first darkening the door of The Newtown Bee when his grandfather and great uncle were the owners, and in 1961, following a tour in the Marine Corps and college, returned to town to join his father, who was then the editor and publisher. Upon his father’s retirement, he became editor/publisher of The Bee. His interest in antiques resulted in the founding of “Antiques and The Arts Weekly” in 1963, first a supplement to The Newtown Bee and, in 1974, the publication was mailed out under its own postal permit. He was awarded the Antiques Dealers Association Award of Merit in 2006, one of the highest honors available in the antiques world. Prior to his death in 2022, he traveled the country reporting on and photographing dozens of antiques shows and auctions.

Madelia Hickman Ring

Editor

Madelia has worked with antiques for over 20 years, first in the furniture and decorative arts department at Butterfield & Butterfield in San Francisco, near where she grew up. She holds a Master’s in Art History from the University of California and moved to the East Coast in 1999. After completing Sotheby’s Institute’s American Arts Course, she worked for a prominent antiques dealer in Woodbury, Connecticut before joining Christie’s Americana department. She worked as a generalist appraiser at Litchfield County Auctions while she started a family but eventually returned to working in New York City as the Americana specialist at Bonhams. Her research has contributed to several publications on American decorative arts and her writing has been featured in Antiques & Fine Arts. Madelia resides in New Milford, Conn., with her 10-year old son, Connor, and loves cooking and baking, doing yoga and taking long walks in the woods of Litchfield County.

W. A. Demers

Senior Editor

W.A. “Will” Demers writes about antiques and the arts and lives to play bluegrass. His passion for prowling antiques shows and auction galleries around New England–documenting the infinite range of what sets collectors’ hearts aflutter–follows a successful career as a corporate communications executive in the high-tech industry. The bluegrass bug is more recent, but Will has been drawn to vintage acoustic stringed instruments and what they can pull from the heart since getting his first guitar in the ninth grade. Will majored in English literature at the University of New Hampshire, served as a journalist in the US Army and spent seven years as a civilian editor for travel and leisure publications in Italy and Germany. He now lives in Ridgefield, Conn., with Ann, also a writer, and their three cats.

Kiersten Busch

Assistant Editor

Kiersten, originally from Media, Penn., attended Franklin & Marshall College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in literature. Prior to joining A&AW, she was a personal assistant in Woodbridge, Conn. She left her previous position to reconnect with her passions for writing and the arts.

Busch loves all things Shakespeare, anime and manga, thrifting, and writing: she lives in New Haven, Conn., with her girlfriend and cat.

Carly Timpson

Assistant Editor

Carly Timpson, originally from Narragansett, R.I., attended Quinnipiac University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing and a Master of Arts in teaching secondary education. Prior to joining Antiques & The Arts Weekly, she was an eighth grade English teacher in Ridgefield, Conn. She left teaching to pursue a greater passion for writing and working with language. Timpson loves word puzzles, researching and learning, attending concerts and hiking; she lives in Newtown with her wife and cat.

Laura Beach

Editor At Large

Laura has been writing about art, antiques and design since 1986, when she joined Antiques and The Arts Weekly as its Associate Editor, returning full time to our editorial staff in June of 2014 and again hitting the road with at-large status in 2018. A journalist specializing in antiques, art and design, Laura is the author of The Art of Stephen Huneck (Abrams) and ‘Til Death Do Us Part: Design Sources of Eighteenth Century New England Tombstones (Yale University Art Gallery). Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Architectural Digest, and many other magazines and newspapers. A graduate of Yale College, where she was advised by the noted American decorative arts scholar and teacher Charles F. Montgomery, and Columbia University, she most recently served as deputy editor, special projects at The Magazine Antiques. She was publicist, exhibition coordinator and curatorial intern, respectively, at the Hudson River Museum, Museum of American Folk Art, and the Museum of International Folk Art, a division of the Museum of New Mexico. In 2018, Laura was elected to the Board of Governors of the Decorative Arts Trust.

Rick Russack

Contributing Editor

Rick is a retired book dealer who exhibited and sold books at major East Coast antiques shows for about 15 years. He lives in a 1760 house in southern New Hampshire with Charlie, a rescue dog from South Carolina who does not much care for northern winters. Rick inherited a love of antiques from his mother, who was also a dealer. One of his earliest memories of the business is of stripping otherwise good pine furniture. An avid student of history, Rick is especially interested in the formative settlements of Williamsburg and Jamestown in Virginia and, closer to home, the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He created and maintains three websites devoted to the latter: WhiteMountainHistory.org, WhiteMountainPrints.org and LoggingInLincoln.com.

Cindie Gannon

Advertising Manager

Cindie has more than 30 years’ experience in print and online marketing and communications, locally and nationally. Serving as a marketing consultant, she specializes in aligning businesses with a multimedia approach of both print and web advertising to maximize their exposure. Cindie enjoys travel, fishing and the outdoors.