The East End Arts Council has selected Olivia and Harlan Fischer of Head of the Harbor as their 2021 Community Impact Award recipients. They were honored at the ARTworks Gala on October 14 at the Suffolk Theatre in Riverhead.
Harlan J. Fischer is the President of Branch Financial Services, Inc. in Setauket. He and his wife, Olivia, have been supporters of the East End Arts Council for many years, and are annual Music Masters Mentorship program sponsors.
Olivia and Harlan have lived in the Town of Smithtown since 1973. They are founding members of The Ennion Society at the Corning Museum of Glass and are members of the Director’s Advisory Circle at the Long Island Museum. They were presented with the “Patron of the Arts Award” at the Long Island Museum in 2018. They were the first supporters of the Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, and established the Fischer Concert Series, sponsoring twelve music performances annually. For 23 years Olivia and Harlan have awarded scholarships to high school students pursuing their education in the arts.
Harlan has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors and, most recently, received the 2021 “Business and Finance Award” from the Long Island Business News. He was named the 2000 “Man of the Year in Business” in Smithtown by the Times Beacon Record Newspapers. In 2006, Harlan was presented with the “Guardian Angel” award from the Little Shelter Animal Rescue and Adoption Center.
Harlan is active in his community as the Chairman of the Planning Board of the Village of Head of the Harbor. He was President of the Board of Directors of the Smithtown Township Arts Council from 1992-1997 and was the 1997-1998 President of the Smithtown Rotary Club. Harlan served as Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium through 2000. He was the President of the Metropolitan Contemporary Glass Group for eight years through 2009, and the President of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass from 2011–2016. Harlan was the President of the board of the Art League of Long Island through 2019.