DC Healing Arts Gallery Grand Opening, May 9th
First-of-its-Kind Facility Launches in Heart of the U Street Revival - Programs Open to the Public
Washington, DC (PRWEB) April 7, 2008 --The non-profit Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts announces the grand opening of its new Healing Arts Gallery (the Gallery) on Friday, May 9th. The Gallery is a first-of-its-kind exhibition space in the US, innovatively designed to provide each visitor with a unique experience of how the arts can enhance wellbeing. Smith Farm Center, a renowned leader in combining art with health and healing, has leveraged its decade of experience at the forefront of this emerging field to design and construct the facility in the heart of the U Street historic art district. The Gallery, recently featured at the Museum of Modern Art's (MOMA's) "Value and Importance of Art in Health Care" Conference, is supported by the DC Commission on Arts and the Humanities for its groundbreaking approach. The public is invited to attend the grand opening events from 5:30 - 8:00 pm.
Innovative Gallery Design
The Gallery structure itself is based on nature, which inherently evokes feelings of tranquility and peace - a first in art gallery design and layout. The earth is represented by refurbished Brazilian cherry wood flooring, and the sky is conveyed by floating ceiling panels against a blue-gray backdrop, creating the experience of virtual clouds floating above the visitors. Scientific research, in fact, has demonstrated the soothing effects of similar color and design patterns. Smith Farm's goal is to create a Gallery tour that includes an experience of peace and a momentary escape from one's cares, allowing the visitor to be fully present while viewing the art on exhibit.
Two "Living Walls" of plants at the front of the street-level Gallery introduce the energy of the outdoors into the space (allowing the plants to actually oxygenate the Gallery). The Gallery also features a Green Roof. Environmentally-friendly methods and materials like these make this renovation a model for future gallery designs. By using "green" design practices, Smith Farm affirms its commitment to a healthier world for all. Smith Farm Center partnered with environmental architectural specialists Studio CrowleyHall, of DC, to implement its vision for a new type of gallery.
Unique Gallery Programs
Gallery programs focus on the innate healing power of the creative arts. Featured artists are selected based upon Smith Farm's belief that the arts educate, enlighten, awaken, and bring hope and healing. Curator Lillian Fitzgerald, also the curator for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other prominent health organizations, helps identify award-winning and highly respected artists, primarily from the region. Shows are varied in scope: some are meant to instill peace, others ask challenging questions to contemplate, and all will provoke discussion about contemporary topics. New shows are mounted every other month. The Gallery will show exhibits of two and three dimensional pieces, as well as video installations. The Gallery also will offer unique, interactive programming for the public and artists to expand the public's overall access to art. They include:
Experiential Workshops and Programs for people to explore their own creative instincts, have fun, and in some cases assist with their health. The Gallery will draw from its diverse cadre of 14 artists-in-residence at hospitals throughout the City to create new programs.
Art in Extremis is a bi-monthly conversation with prominent artists, clinicians and healers around diverse topics, such as integrating art into health care and healing.
The Gallery will serve as a model for and provide consultancy services to other facilities that wish to incorporate health and healing into their designs and programming for the public.
"Immersed in the Natural World" - On Exhibit May 9 - June 27, 2008
Statement of Curator Lillian Fitzgerald. This exhibit ("Immersed in the Natural World") gives us a glimpse into three artists' personal dialogues. Elizabeth Berger, Tai Hwa Goh and Novie Trump create images from nature. They provide an intimate narrative that explores: patterning in nature, physical identity and ritual.
Elizabeth Berger. Using algae, seedpods, roots, reeds, thorn bushes and other natural materials Berger has created a series of animal and plant hybrids and other work that is inspired by the repetition, systems and patterning in nature.
Tai Hwa Goh. Goh's works present sceneries of the imagination regarding bodily experiences. She uses hand-waxed paper exploring layers of selfhood and markings of memories. The layered waxed papers mimic both the vulnerability of body and strength of selfness.
Novie Trump. Trump combines iconography gleaned from ancient myths with images from nature to create intimate narratives that are landscapes of fantasy, rich with hidden meaning.
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