Celebrating the life and art of Katherine Vollmer, Feb. 2 at the Sojourner Truth Library

The Department of Art and the School of Fine & Performing Arts invite all campus community members to an exhibition and reception honoring Katherine Vollmer, a visual arts major who passed away in November 2019.

The reception will take place on Sunday, Feb. 2, from 1 – 3 p.m. in the Sojourner Truth Library lobby.

The exhibition of Katherine’s art, which features photography, drawings and bits of writing from friends and loved ones, is currently on view in the Library lobby and will remain through Feb. 8. The works were selected and organized by Katherine’s friends and peers in the Department of Art’s Photography program.

Included in the exhibition is a fragment of biographical text in Katherine’s own words:

“Instead of going to a community college or going away to school when I graduated high school, I did neither. I used the money I had been saving up for years and volunteered in Indonesia and the Philippines for two months, living amongst cultures completely different from my own and meeting other people from all over the world. A few months later, I went back to Southeast Asia and backpacked through the mainland for another two months.

As incredible as this experience was, I also learned a lot about myself from the days and weeks I felt extremely lonely, isolated, and just exhausted. I also learned a lot about the countries and cultures I visited, including parts of history that I was surprisingly never taught about in school. I also learned that I was okay with doing things differently than other people my age, so I went to community college for a year.

Taking college level photography courses made me fall in love with it all over again, and I realized I wanted to combine that and my love for traveling in some way … I also know that this might not be what I end up doing, as I still find myself reevaluating what I want for my future just about every day, but I know it’s okay to take school at my own pace and see everything as an experience for learning and self-discovery.”

If you have accessibility questions or require accommodations to fully participate in this event, please contact Thomas Albrecht at albrecht@newpaltz.edu as soon as possible.