The art of healing

Visiting a health clinic, in this case the Sonoma Community Health Center, can be sad enough, but when Barbara Vollmer looked around, all she saw were gray, empty walls. “There’s no life here, it’s depressing,” she remembers thinking. “People need a little lift.” The owner of company specializing in art prints, Vollmer prescribed just the right remedy – she curated, donated and installed some 100 works to adorn the walls of the then-new Center.

The warmth, color and sense of calm that that art can offer is an important, if subtle, element of a health facility, said Cheryl Johnson, SCHC Executive Director. The wall décor was on the to-do list, but money was tight, so Vollmer’s expertise – and material donation valued at about $30,000 — was “a real blessing,” Johnson said. “It creates the environment we wanted.”

Now retired, Vollmer visited the SCHC last week to complete the job she started in 2016; she spent a Saturday morning hanging works in staff offices and common areas. “It brightens their