Community, Storytelling, and Place: An Afternoon with Sari Nordman & Jean Zimmerman

oin us on Saturday, June 27, for a special afternoon featuring two interconnected experiences by Catwalk Institute artists-in-residence Sari Nordman and Jean Zimmerman.

Beginning at 1:00 PM, visitors are invited to engage with Sari Nordman‘s interactive installation, Anxiety Cradle. Constructed from colorful recycled plastic, the installation encourages participants to reflect on home, migration, climate change, and our shared responsibility to care for the places we inhabit.

At 2:00 PM, Summer Walk with author Jean Zimmerman will lead a literary walk, reading, and writing experience that invites participants to explore the Catskill landscape through storytelling, observation, and creative reflection. 

A multiple-term resident at Catwalk, Jean Zimmerman explores the estate’s natural history in her forthcoming memoir, Of Heartwood and Woundwood: An Unlikely Arborist’s Path to Courage and Joy (Broadleaf, Fall 2026). Over a decades-long career, Zimmerman has authored critically acclaimed fiction and nonfiction and, as a Certified Arborist, has advised municipalities on preserving the health and longevity of their trees.

Due to the loss of her vocal abilities as a result of ALS, Jean will present the Summertime Walk using AI voice-clone technology.

Designed to complement one another, these events offer multiple opportunities for participation throughout the afternoon. Visitors are encouraged to engage with Anxiety Cradle before the walk, join Jean’s guided experience, and return afterward for continued conversation, reflection, and interaction with the installation.

Saturday, June 27

• 1:00pm – Anxiety Cradle with Sari Nordman
• 2:00pm – Literary Walk & Writing Experience with Jean Zimmerman

Catwalk Institute

4 NY-385

Catskill, NY 12414

Reserve your spot, email Jean Zimmerman below:

Jean Zimmerman’s books have explored the history and culture of the Hudson Valley. Her acclaimed The Women of the House: How a Colonial She Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune, and a Dynasty (2006, Harcourt) is the primary source about the Philipse family, who settled in Yonkers in the 1600s and went on to found a 57,000-acre estate encompassing present day Westchester County. Her duel biography Love, Fiercely, A Gilded Age Love Story profiles a pair of well-to-do philanthropists, one of whom grew up at lavish “Locust Wood” the estate of billionaire 19th-century merchant Robert Bowne Minturn in Hastings-on-Hudson, Zimmerman’s home town.