Events

Mary Whalen is a photographer and arts educator living in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She is the chairperson of the Photography and Digital Media program at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and teaching artist with the Education for the Arts, Aesthetic Education program in the Kalamazoo and regional school systems. Her work has appeared in publications and in a variety of exhibitions. She is equally adept at digital image making as well as traditional darkroom and historical photo processes.

Colleen Woolpert’s current project, Echo Location, stems from her exploration of the former Lee Paper Company mill with her twin sister Rani Young at the Prairie Ronde Artist Residency in the summer of 2022. With her studio membership at the KBAC, Colleen created several new works to conceptually expand her project as well as her technical skills— layered handmade paper sheets, a related video, and letterpress, using actual sheets of Lee paper produced before the mill’s closing.

Based in Kalamazoo, Colleen Woolpert is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is rooted in photography and promotes the value of multiple perspectives. The inventor/maker of the TwinScope Viewer stereoscope, Colleen’s interest in 3D photography originated with a desire to help her twin sister, whose visual impairment, strabismus, impedes her depth perception. Colleen’s work has been published and exhibited widely, including at the Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. An experienced educator, she enjoys teaching students of all levels and supporting local artists and arts organizations as a conservation framer, art preparator, and photographer.