STAPLETON — The president and CEO of the Staten Island Museum, Elizabeth Egbert, 69, died on Saturday after a battle with bone marrow cancer, the museum announced.
Egbert, an artist, sculptor and community activist, lead the museum for 12 years, taught art at several colleges and co-founded the visual arts program at the Third Street Music School in the Lower East Side, the museum said.
"Tonight I lost the strongest woman I have ever known," her daughter, indie-pop musician Ingrid Michaelson, posted on Instagram.
"She is in my bones, my voice, my whole broken, broken, broken heart. My love for my mother is endless. My grief is endless. Life goes by. But love won't. I miss you mommy."
Egbert established her art career in the 1960s in SoHo and has had exhibitions in sculpture, public art, printmaking and drawing all over the city, Philadelphia and Arizona.
She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1967 and her master's degree in sculpture from NYU in 1970.
She moved to Stapleton in 1979 with her husband, composer Charles Michaelson, and previously worked at the Hudson Valley Children's Museum; the Staten Island Botanical Garden; the Staten Island Children's Museum and the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor, the museum said.
Egbert also taught art at Hunter College, the College of the Arts in Philadelphia, the College of Mount St. Vincent, New York University and pre-K at the 92nd Street Y.
She started working at the Staten Island Museum in 2002, and the museum credited her with many milestones, including the restoration of two landmark buildings at Snug Harbor set to open next year.
Egbert was born in West Virginia and was raised in Long Island and Connecticut, the museum said.
She is survived by her husband of 37 years, Carl Michaelson; her son, Charles Michaelson; her daughter, Ingrid Michaelson and three sisters, Louise Egbert Johnson, Diane Egbert Anderson and Margaret Egbert.
A memorial service for Egbert will be on Sunday, Sept. 21, at 3 p.m. in the Music Hall at Snug Harbor. Memorial donations can be made to the Staten Island Museum or Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.
