FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: May 6, 2008

CONTACT: Lisa Saunders

(845) 574-4244

SUNY Rockland Community College Campus Photographer Receives County Executive Arts Awards

Suffern, NY - SUNY Rockland Community College's campus photographer and adjunct faculty member, Collette Fournier, received the 2008 County Executive Arts Awards for the Visual Artist Category from the Arts Council of Rockland. RCC's Performing Arts Department and Rockland Shakespeare Company were nominated in the categories of Arts Education and Arts Organization respectively.

"The County Executive Awards is an annual celebration of art, those who support and create it," said Mark Judelson, ACOR's Executive Director. "These nominees represent community service and artistic excellence."

Collette Fournier of Spring Valley is an award-winning photographer whose work has been published and exhibited widely and is included in a number of museum collections, such as the Smithsonian Institute and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She is a member of Kamoinge Inc., an African American photographers' collective; Society of Photographic Educators; and University Photographers Association of America.

She currently works as an assistant to the campus communications director, is the campus photographer and an adjunct faculty member in the Photography Department. She has been with the College since 1992. Lena Hyun, adjunct faculty, Art History, said, "We are proud to have a faculty member win. It is a testament to her dedication to making art that reaches people in profound ways."

Fournier has worked as a staff photographer for The Bergen Record, The Rockland Journal-News, about...time magazine, freelanced for the New York Post, and currently freelances for the Image Works Stock Agency.

Fournier has an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the Union Institute and University at Vermont College, a B.S. in Biomedical Communications and an A.A.S. degree in Photographic Illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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Rockland Community College, a unit of the State University of New York, is located 25 miles northwest of NYC. The majority of its students transfer to four-year colleges, and many find immediate employment upon earning their associate's degree or certificate. The College also offers others, from preschoolers to senior citizens, the opportunity to simply learn something new. Quality education...at a price you can afford.