Lehigh hosts Hope and Healing art show

Nestled in a corner of Lehigh’s Health, Science and Technology Building is a colorful display of photographs and paintings. From pets and nature to abstract designs, the art is designed to give viewers a sense of peace and hope. 

Each piece was created by a high school or college student as part of the 15th annual Hope & Healing Juried Art Show, held for the first time at Lehigh this year. By entering artwork, students are also eligible to win one of several awards, including the Judges Award, the Community Award and a scholarship to the Baum School of Art. 

Students, organizers and community members gathered for the show’s community reception in HST on Wednesday to view the exhibit and celebrate the award winners. 

Heather Rodale, ‘74, ‘76G, organized the show through a nonprofit she founded, Healing Through the Arts. According to its website, the organization encourages students to submit comforting and inspirational art to be donated to hospitals and other care facilities at the conclusion of each show. 

The exhibit will be running through March 31. Until then, representatives from local healthcare facilities are able to select pieces, free of charge, to display for their patients. 

Rodale said her work is inspired by the research of Roger Ulrich, who demonstrated exposure to art can help patients recover quicker and require less pain medication. She said the creative process helps the students as well, as many of them process emotional and physical pain through their work.

“When I read the inspiration statements about what the students had said, I knew the project was on the right path,” Rodale said. “They hoped their art would help others by donating it, but by creating it, they were also helping themselves. One teacher told me she had no idea that her students were both suffering and healing at the same time until she did our project.”

A different venue hosts the show every year, and Rodale said Elizabeth Dolan, the dean of the College of Health, asked the nonprofit organization to hold the show in HST this year. She said the two first met when Rodale was searching for connections with healthcare experts at the beginning of her project. 

Dolan was also on this year’s panel of judges, along with neurosurgeon Andrew Tsen and photographer Bekah Rusnock. 

Rodale said the panel changes each year to avoid comparisons to previous years’ submissions, and she aims to select panelists with diverse professional experiences. 

“They have to have some art connections, but they can’t be the same, like, we can’t have two photographer people,” she said. “And we like to have a good perspective of them picking art.”

Among the students selected for the Judges Award was Dan Ly, a junior at Reading Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center. He won second place for his piece “Comforting Hugs,” which depicts two embracing dogs in the style of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

This was his first year submitting art for the show, and he said he was surprised and excited to hear he had won the award. 

“I was shocked,” Ly said. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I got an award for this!’”

He said he frequently creates art and plans to become an art director in the future. 

Polly Chevalier, a Healing Through the Arts board member, is responsible for sorting through many of the student submissions and preparing them for display. She said she doesn’t always connect with pieces at first glance, but that changes when she reads through the artist statements. 

“As soon as I start reading the inspiration for a piece, the artwork becomes alive to me,” she said. “The story of the art, and a great deal about who the artist is comes through.”

Since the location changes annually, she said organizers must adapt each show to a new space. 

Chevalier said the nonprofit was excited to hold the show at Lehigh, and it was exciting to explore a new space to showcase student’s art. This was also the first time the nonprofit held a reception since the COVID pandemic, which she said added to the excitement. 

“It’s all worked out beautifully,” she said. “Having them (the art pieces) on the walls here, is so impressive.”