WE HEAL: Closing Celebration

Urbano Project invites you to the celebratory culmination of “WE HEAL,” an art project created by artist Nora Valdez in collaboration with patients from the Cancer & Sickle Cell Support Programs at Boston Medical Center, patients from the Dana Farber Institute, and youth from the Urbano Project. Join us Friday, March 19, 2021, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm ET on Zoom for the presentation of the final “WE HEAL” book showcasing the artwork of project participants, as well as a video co-produced by Valdez and artist Donte Thomas sharing the participants’ stories and experiences.

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

Begun in April 2020, WE HEAL encouraged patients, many of whom are immigrants, to explore and express their healing journey in artistic ways. It created a space for patients to be together, share, and learn in a nurturing atmosphere. Amid the pandemic, Valdez adjusted her workshops to function in a digital space where patients, youth, and the artist worked together to explore the topic of healing. What images, words, people, and foods bring comfort and aid healing? What inspires and brings hope? Participants created collages, mandalas, poems, and personal prayer flags to foster peace, compassion, strength, delight, and wonder and to spread goodwill. They also recorded stories of their individual healing journeys and integrated them along with home and family photos, favorite landscapes, and sentimental images into the project’s video documentation.’

This project was generously funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Creative City Boston grant, with funding from the Barr Foundation and support from the Boston Foundation.