On Thursday, May 28, the Hudson River Museum will host Galloping Forward: A Hudson River Museum Gala, a festive evening celebrating creativity, community, and galloping into our future together. This special event is our single most important fundraiser of the year, and we are excited to honor featured artist Robert Peterson; community champions Samantha Merton and Brett Humphreys; and Laura Vookles, Chair of the HRM’s Curatorial Department.

For 40 years, Laura Vookles has been a guiding force at the Hudson River Museum, shaping its curatorial vision, collections, and scholarship. A highly regarded curator and author, Laura has curated and written for numerous publications, including Derrick Adams: Buoyant (2020), The Color of the Moon: Lunar Paintings in American Art (Fordham University Press / HRM, 2019), Wyeth Wonderland: Josephine Douet Envisions Andrew Wyeth’s World (2017), The Panoramic River: The Hudson and The Thames (2013), Paintbox Leaves: Autumnal Inspiration from Cole to Wyeth (2010), Dutch New York: the Roots of Hudson Valley Culture (Fordham University Press / HRM, 2009), and Westchester: The American Suburb (Fordham University Press / HRM, 2006). Most recently, she oversaw the implementation of Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time (2025), a New York Times Critic’s Pick, advancing the Museum’s commitment to inclusive, community-centered storytelling.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, and a graduate of the University of Virginia and Boston University, Laura embarked on her professional curatorial path at the HRM. Beginning as a post-graduate intern, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, she advanced to Registrar, Curator of Collections, and since 2016 has served as the Chair of the Museum’s Curatorial Department. Throughout her career, Vookles has nurtured generations of emerging artists while deepening public appreciation for the Hudson River School and American Modernism. She has played a pivotal role in strengthening the Museum’s collection through important acquisitions spanning the nineteenth century to the present, and in preserving and interpreting Glenview, the Museum’s historic home, including a landmark 1999 NEA-funded restoration project, which garnered the National Victorian Society in America Award and the Victorian Society Award, Metropolitan Chapter. Glenview has since prominently featured in HBO’s The Gilded Age, Apple TV’s Severance and PBS’s NYC-Arts.

Deeply committed to not only preserving but also advancing the region’s cultural life, she has also served in governance roles with ArtTable, the Westchester County Historical Society, and the Greater Hudson Heritage Network. A prolific and published poet, Laura has represented Westchester in multiple National Poetry Slams. Her interest in interdisciplinary experiences has introduced poetry into the Museum’s galleries and programs on many occasions.

In recognition of her four decades of scholarship, generous mentorship, and unwavering dedication to the Museum, the ever-evolving field of American art, and our community, it is our greatest pleasure to honor Laura Vookles, the longest-serving staff member in the HRM’s history, on this special occasion with the Isidore Konti Medal of Distinction, so named in recognition of a devoted and ever-inquisitive founder of the Hudson River Museum.