About the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery

Michael K. Wilkinson, Photographs | www.windsorconsulting-dc.com

Gallery Mission

The mission of the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery is to advance the understanding and utilization of the arts to unite, uplift, teach, build communities, transform lives, inspire and heal. The new space is a showcase for art that inspires us, challenges us, and helps us find solutions to difficult problems. Exhibitions will focus on meaningful topics of individual, community, and global importance.

The Artists and Their Work

Featured artists are selected based upon Smith Farm Centerís belief that the arts educate, enlighten, awaken, empower, and bring hope and healing. Renowned curators help identify award-winning and highly respected artists. For example, Lillian Fitzgerald, curator of the galleries at the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Health and Human Services, and exhibit specialist for the US Botanic Garden Galleries, selects many of the Healing Arts Galleryís artists and works. In addition, exhibitions are often featured in our partner galleries at the National Institutes of Health, Washington Hospital Center, and other local venues.

New shows are mounted every other month. The Gallery will show exhibits of two and three dimensional pieces as well as video installations. Exhibits often focus on a theme, with artists exploring an experiential process in the gallery and then creating site-specific work in relationship to each other.

The Space

Funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the gallery space is designed to embody and celebrate nature. The earth is represented by reclaimed Brazilian cherry flooring, and the sky is conveyed by floating ceiling panels against a blue-gray backdrop. Scientific research has demonstrated this type of color and design pattern has a soothing effect. The gallery was designed with the intention that upon entering, feelings of tranquility will allow visitors to be more fully present.

The vital, living force of nature is represented by two Living Walls of plants at the front of the Gallery (these plant walls actually bring freshness and oxygen into the Gallery) and a green roof. Other renovations have included environmentally friendly methods and materials, representing a model for future gallery designs. By using these environmentally conscious design practices we affirm that a healthier world contributes to the wellbeing of all.

Visitors and the U Street Community

The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, located in the heart of Washington DCís U Street corridor, is for everyone to visit and enjoy. By relocating the Gallery to a street-front space, Smith Farm Center allows greater access for all program participants and the local community to share in the healing power of the arts.

Gallery History

Barbara Smith Coleman
Our Founder, Barbara Smith Coleman, was a visionary artist, sand tray facilitator and philanthropist. Smith Farm Center began in 1996 to provide resources and choices to adults living with cancer and serious illness and to support the community of caregivers who serve them. She fervently believed that we are all innately creative and that invoking our own creativity was a powerful tool on the journey to wholeness.

“We all have creative expression in us and it’s just a question of using it – when we do use it, life changes, much for the better.” – Barbara Smith Coleman

Joan Hisaoka
Joan Hisaoka, founder and president of Hisaoka Public Relations, was 48 when she lost her battle with cancer on May 14, 2008. Her company, founded in 1988, represented many top metro-area hospitality, tourism and retail clients. Her strength of mind and spirit and selfless attitude were characteristic of her life. Joan will be forever remembered for her unending commitment and passion to help make the world a better place for others.

The Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Farm Center has been named in memory of Joan because of her dedication to our shared mission to transform the experience of cancer and other serious illnesses by empowering individuals to make wise decisions about their care and improving the quality of their lives during such challenging times.

Retreats | Workshops | Health | Nutrition | Creativity | Support Groups | Artist-in-Residence Programs | Gallery

Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts is a Washington DC-based, non-denominational, 501(c)3 nonprofit. We welcome people of all races and religious traditions. Smith Farm Center has been awarded the Susan G. Komen Cancer Foundation Virginia Kelly Award for Excellence in Cancer Survivorship in 1997 and 1998, the 2004 Innovations Award by the Washington Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center and has been designated as a Catalogue for Philanthropy Charity. Smith Farm Center provides scholarship assistance for our programs on a needs basis, whenever possible.