Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Farm Center
Grand Opening: Friday, May 9th

Belief in the innate healing power of the creative arts is central to the Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Farm Center. Beginning May 9, 2008, the new gallery, now at street level, will be open to the public.

The newly expanded Healing Arts Gallery is a leader in its field as the first non-profit gallery dedicated to promoting the arts as a tool for healing.  It celebrates and stimulates the dynamic creative resources that contribute to health and wellness in each of us.  

Please join us for the Grand Opening Reception, Friday, May 9, from 5:30-8:00PM. 

Event highlights include:

• Access to the new, innovative gallery space designed to evoke feelings of tranquility and peace through use of live plants, and natural materials and colors.

• Michael Lerner, wellness pioneer and author, will give opening remarks/a talk on the subject of Healing and the Environment.

• The exhibition, “Immersed in the Natural World,” focuses on environmental themes, providing an intimate narrative that explores patterning in nature, physical identity, and ritual.

• Also note, an artists’ dialogue will occur on Friday, June 6, from 5:30-8pm, and will feature discussions about the works and the creative process.

We're offering special programs for the press.

Gallery Mission
The mission of the 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 Center’s 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 Gallery’s 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. 

Discussion and Exploration
Not just a space for viewing works, artist dialogues are a dynamic and regular feature. The Gallery space is designed to hold collaborative discussions and symposia.  Art in Extremis, for example, is a bi-monthly series of conversations with prominent artists, scientists, clinicians and healers around diverse topics. Artists’ dialogues explore both aesthetic and spiritual meanings which, for those who view the work, gives voice to a shared experience.

The New Space
Funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the new 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 Healing Arts Gallery, located in the heart of Washington DC’s 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. 

Artists Interested in Exhibiting With Us
Please click here to review the exhibition guidelines and contact information in order to have your artwork considered for exhibition at Smith Farm Center’s Healing Arts Gallery.

2008 Exhibitions, Programs and Special Events

FOTO WEEK DC
November 15 – 22
More information visit www.fotoweekdc.org

Capital Fringe Festival
July 10 – 27
Check back for specific dates and times
More information visit www.capfringe.org

Immersed in the Natural World
May 9 - June 24
Featuring works by Elizabeth Burger, Tai Hwa Goh, and Novie Trump

June 6, 5:30-8pm – Artist reception and dialogue
Statement of Curator Lillian Fitzgerald. This exhibit (“Immersed in the Natural World”) gives us a glimpse into three artists’ personal dialogues. Elizabeth Burger, 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 Burger.  Using algae, seedpods, roots, reeds, thorn bushes and other natural materials Burger has created a series of animal and plant hybrids and other work that is inspired by the repetition, systems and patterning in nature. [View full artist’s statement]

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 the both vulnerability of body and strength of selfness. [View full artist’s statement]

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. [View full artist’s statement]

June 12, 5:30pm – Creativity in Extremis with Nancy Morgan
June 26, 5:30pm – Living Yoga video

Previous Exhibitions

Transformation
Works by Bill Mould and Anne Leighton Massoni
JAN 4 – FEB 28 | 2008
Gallery is open from 9AM to 5PM weekdays and by appointment.

First Friday! Artist’s Receptions:

Opening Event and Artists’ Reception
FRI JAN 4 | 5:30PM-8PM
AND        
Dan Leonard Original Jazz Guitar
FRI FEB 1 | 5:30PM-8PM

CURATOR’S STATEMENT
Two artists— one a mythic exploration that evokes universal truth, the other on a familial, physical journey of personal transformation. Lillian Fitzgerald

2007 EXHIBITIONS

Curious Stories Works by Jennifer Beinhacker, Robyn Einhorn and Patricia Hartnett
NOV 2— DEC 28 | 2007

First Friday! Artist’s Receptions:

Opening Event and Artists’ Reception
FRI NOV 2 | 5:30PM-8PM

AND

Dan Leonard Original Jazz Guitar
FRI DEC 7 | 5:30PM-8PM

Gallery is open from 9AM to 5PM weekdays and by appointment.  

CURATOR’S STATEMENT
By its nature this exhibit is inquisitive, touching on issues of illness, aging, and the bonds of relationships. These visual narratives explore what we would ordinarily want to keep quiet. There is a real beauty in facing what we equally desire and dread, creating images we find both exquisite and disturbing. Curator, Lillian Fitzgerald

The Goddess and the Feast
Works by Luana Kaufmann and Tina Lassiter
SEP 7— OCT 26 | 2007

First Friday! Artist’s Receptions:
Opening Event and Artists’ Reception
FRI SEP 7 | 5:30PM-8PM

Musical Performance
FRI OCT 5 | 5:30PM-8PM
Gallery is open from 9AM to 5PM weekdays and by appointment.  

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
What I love about this show, beyond its beautiful imagery, is the juxtaposition of two artists who are using the same media –collage- in such dramatically different ways.

Luana’s prints are pure theatre, a world where the stage is filled with deliciously surreal characters and witty visual puns. Created from treasured found images her art weaves a delightful story that is as unlimited as the viewer’s imagination.

Tina works in a rush of emotion, there is a sensuous physicality she expresses in her art. In her work, abstracted lines, jewel colors, rich patterns are combined to create the actual image. The image of Woman. Curator, Lillian Fitzgerald

Like Perfume Poured Out
Works by Eve Hennessa and John Grant
JUL 6-AUG 31 2007

First Friday! Artist’s Receptions
FRI JUL 6 | 5:30PM-8PM
FRI AUG 3 | 5:30PM-8PM
Gallery is open from 9AM to 5PM weekdays and by appointment.  

“Like Perfume Poured Out”  is the title of Eve Hennessa’s body of work, but I feel it is a perfect description of John Grant’s photography, as well. Both artists are keenly observant. Their work has a sensibility that delves deeply into the spiritual.” – Lillian Fitzgerald

Patterns
Works by Jill Romanoke, Susan Due Pearcy, Donna McCullough, & Victoria Farr
MON-FRI MAY 4-JUN 28 2007 | 9AM-5PM & by appointment

Artists Reception & Talk
FRI | MAY 4 | 5:30PM-8PM
Dan Leonard Contemporary & Original Jazz Guitar
FRI | JUN 1 | 5:30PM-8PM

“Patterns” not only explores the obvious visual patterns created by the artists in their work, but is also a metaphor for the patterns of our behavior. I love the feminine in this show, the palpable connection to our mothers and things domestic. But it delves deeper than celebrating the life of a loved one, with a need to document coping with an illness and charting the journey of life. Lillian Fitzgerald, Curator

The Forest Within 2007
Works by Jeanne Drevas
MON-FRI JAN 5 -FEB 25 | 9AM-5PM & by appointment
Artists’ Reception  APR 6 | 5:30PM-8PM
Dan Leonard-Blues & Jazz Guitar  FRI MAR 2 | 5:30PM-8PM

While the old growth forests are gone, the variety and abundance of the natural world offers an unending choice of materials for all who build their homes: bird, squirrel, beaver, wasp . . . and me. I pick and play with an interesting grass, seeing if it's strong enough to withstand some kind of test of time. I collect a doomed young tree with a huge scar on its side and study and dream how I will continue its evolution. It goes from maple DNA to mine.  Of my work someone once said, ‘This is what nature would be like if it had a will.’

Coexistence: His and Her Creation Myths
Works by Mindy & Baldwin North| MON-FRI JAN 5 -FEB 25 | 9AM-5PM & by appointment
Artists’ Reception  FRI JAN 5 | 5:30PM-8PM

Mindy and Baldwin North’s paintings explore a basic and archetypal universe. Mindy's elemental abstracts investigate weather events in a style that touches on the scientific. Baldwin's paintings depict primal humanity in interaction with angels, gods and goddess – interwoven with visual metaphor.

2006 EXHIBITIONS

Some Kind of Truth
NOV 3-DEC 29 | M-F 9AM-5PM and by appointment
Artists Reception | NOV 3 | 5:30PM-8PM
This Adventure we call our lives | How we influence each other | Beyond commonality | Expose ourselves to vulnerability | The razor's edge of processing loss | Raw vision of some kind of truth.

Fall
Wreckage and Rejuvenation
Works by Joanna Axtmann
First Friday Reception with the Artist FRI | SEP 1 | 5:30PM-8PM |6:45PM Artist Dialogue
SEP1 — OCT 30, 2006 | For purchase

Art In Process
Works by Robert Ferrill, Woody Furniss, David Kahn, Adrienne Dern, Ruth Masterson, Darien Reece, Seth Reece, Savneet Talwar and others
JUL 7 — AUG 28, 2006 | For purchase

Small Works
works by Andis Applewhite, Rob Browning, Pat Coady, Jeannie Sausale Knott & Novie Trump
MAR 3 — MAY 5, 2006 | For purchase

Laura Ferguson: The Visible Skeleton Series
MAY 5 – JUN 30, 2006 | For purchase

4 Sculptors
Sy Gresser, Alan Binstock, Michael Winger, Jill Lion
JAN 6-FEB 28 | For purchase

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2005 EXHIBITIONS

The Many Faces of Aqui
Quilts by Gwendolyn Aqui |NOV 2, 2005 - JAN 26, 2006 | For purchase

 The Art of Dario Scholis
Dario Scholis | SEP 14 - OCT 26 | For purchase


Healing Images of Haiti
Cameron Davidson
JUL 20 - AUG 31, 2005 | For purchase


Nostalgia
Pam Jennings
APR 20 - MAY 31, 2005 | For purchase


Self Examination
Kay Chernush
Feb 19 - MAR 19, 2005 | For purchase


Discovering Nzaba
Nzaba
JAN 1 - JAN 31, 2005 | For purchase


Healing Steps: Jamie's Journey
Don Fear
Fall 2004 | For purchase

Click here to download a current workshop and program calendar.
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