Gift from Patricia Tuohy (B.F.A. '79) Will Benefit Students across Campus
While she has many fond memories of her undergraduate years studying painting at Pratt, Patricia Tuohy (B.F.A. '79) cherishes her time in the Institute's landmarked Library most. "In a time before Google, the library gave people access to the world's information. It was a place to explore," she says. At Pratt, she recalls discovering "Italian designers, Renaissance painting, and social etiquette all in the library." Beyond the tremendous resources the Pratt Library provided, for Tuohy and her classmates attending Pratt in the 1970s, the Library was a place to come together and experience the type of creative community that sparks imagination.
Tuohy's career is a tribute to her combined passions for art, design, and libraries. After working as a project coordinator for the United States Holocaust Museum, she went on to establish and lead the exhibition program at the National Institute of Health's National Library of Medicine-one of the largest repositories of medical knowledge in the world. Over the past 17 years, she has developed and overseen a robust exhibitions program that includes on-site installations, traveling exhibitions, educational resources, and websites. She credits much of her success and ability to the creative problem-solving skills she gained as a fine arts student at Pratt.
In gratitude for the education she received and to help ensure that future generations of Pratt students will have the opportunity to benefit from the Library's rich resources and inspiring atmosphere, Tuohy has made a planned gift through her retirement account in support of the Pratt Library. "I wanted to make a gift that touches the entire college and all of its students," she says. "Considering the impact the Library had on me, it was an obvious choice."