Independent Arts News Reporting 
ART NEWS NOW
Arts News Now is an online publication dedicated to all-arts news, sharing unique, creative-related stories on trends, events, people, organizations, and businesses within and surrounding the Bucks County Region. Our publication strives to provide organizations and creatives at all levels a supportive news reporting forum to share their work further. Equally important, Arts News Now also offers arts supporters a trusted, go-to source for authentic artistic inspiration and education. Our audiences are arts patrons, donors, artists, arts buyers, venue operators, agents, press members, influencers, and more. Our tone is inspiring and engaging, always striving to evoke genuine excitement for living creatively, and; all the while, we aspire to help elevate the overall news conversation.
MANDEE K. HAMMERSTEIN, Editor & Founder
Most identified in the Bucks County Region for her media communications & photography work primarily in the arts, Mandee K. Hammerstein has been entrusted with creating and implementing public relations programs for some of the region’s most leading arts institutions. Through various news mediums, Mandee has successfully introduced and emotionally connected high-profile and emerging organizations and individuals to the public by utilizing compelling story-telling, imagery, and authenticity.
Mandee has worked alongside award-winning Broadway talent, entrepreneurs, and down-to-everyday kids. Her print and digital media work have been seen in local and international news, from Bucks County’s best news sources to the Wall Street Journal. Mandee’s creative, story-telling results have also been seen on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and across the Atlantic to the Monaco Channel.
Mandee has worked alongside award-winning Broadway talent, entrepreneurs, and down-to-everyday kids. Her print and digital media work have been seen in local and international news, from Bucks County’s best news sources to the Wall Street Journal. Mandee’s creative, story-telling results have also been seen on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and across the Atlantic to the Monaco Channel.
From the beginning of her career, over twenty years ago, Mandee worked as a creative in advertising and public relations on national campaigns for international companies. Current day, she also runs her own boutique PR & arts consulting firm, continuing to promote not only award-winning talent but business visionaries and artful contributors. Mandee has her BFA in Visual Arts Communications & her Master’s Degree in Business Communications from La Salle University. Mandee has proudly volunteered for Mercer County’s Big Brothers, Big Sisters and is an advocate for the arts and charitable causes that help enrich the lives of others. In addition, she is an active Trustee at Bristol Riverside Theatre and served as a Board Member at the Arts & Cultural Council of Bucks County. Mandee and her husband, William Hammerstein, ESQ, live in New Hope, PA, where they thoroughly enjoy their creative Bucks County lifestyle with a combined family of six kids, two dogs, and two rescue cats. Mandee has taught the occasional art, design, or photography class for added creative fun, keeping her close to her first love, art, and is a part-time contributor to WDVR FM.
Louise Feder
Louise Feder is a writer and curator based in New Hope, PA. She earned her BA from Dickinson College and her MA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Art History with a focus on American art commissioned through New Deal. Feder spent five years on staff at the James A. Michener Art Museum, where she worked as a curator on 15 exhibitions and authored the catalogue, Rae Sloan Bredin: Harmony and Power (2018). She has also written several articles for American Art Review, a selection of catalogue entries and essays, and frequently blogs for Visit Bucks County. While her tastes are eclectic and omnivorous, Feder’s particular passions include public art, contemporary illustration, cult movies, and anything to do with the intersections of artistic location and practice.
Phil Gianficaro
Phil Gianficaro is a national- and multiple-state award-winning journalist in the Philadelphia metro market. Born in Pittston, PA, near Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, he began his writing career as a young boy, crafting short game stories from a baseball box score he kept while watching games on TV. A graduate of King’s College, in Wilkes-Barre, with a B.A. in Mass Communications, he has long possessed a passion for writing about the human experience. Among his more significant recent profiles was about the grace and dignity exhibited by a 50-year-old married father of three from Bucks County dealing with ALS, and the heartbreaking plight of a 35-year-old mother of two young children from Bucks County whose police officer husband died from anaphylaxis after a bee sting. His work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press, and in several Delaware Valley print and online platforms.
He most recently worked as a columnist/podcast host for Gannett Media in suburban Philadelphia. He lives in Montgomery County with his wife, two college-age children, and 11-year-old rescue dog, Buster.
Preferences: Beatles over the Stones; the beach over the mountains; homemade sauce over Prego; kindness over cruelty.
Favorite quote from his late mom: “There are givers and takers in this world. Which do you want to be?”
Lori Goldstein
As a Juilliard-trained violist, Lori states, “I’m a music crossover”- she loves contemporary rock, mostly indie, as much as classical music. Lori’s favorite radio stations are WXPN and WWFM. Having retired as a strings teacher in New Jersey public schools, Lori writes freelance articles on the arts for local newspapers and regional magazines. Pre-Covid, Lori was considered a “concert addict” by her circle of friends. Her first post-Covid concert was at WXPN’s Xponential Festival, which occurred in September 2022. Aside from swimming laps throughout the year, as a budding birder, using her Merlin app, Lori finds joy in identifying birds wherever she is in nature, deciphering the rhythmic patterns and/or melodic intervals of the call of each species discovered. Lori loves scenic walks to playlists on her headphones (no buds for her); she follows all the newest recipes and reads her neighborhood book club books along with her own handpicked choices.
Amy Masgay
Amy Masgay is a writer and editor living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Susquehanna University with a double minor in Editing & Publishing and Theatre. In February 2021, she launched Noteworthy Communications, LLC to help local businesses, non-profits, and individuals with their grassroots marketing needs, including social media management, blogging, and grant writing. With her passion for literacy and education, Amy is also proud to serve on the board of the Bucks County Free Library. Amy’s interests and the subjects of her writing are wide and varied, but she is most excited about the prospect of diving further into both the history and continuing legacy of art and culture of the Bucks County region on behalf of Arts News Now.
