Pictures For Elmhurst presents the outdoor exhibition Art Is Healing from Sept. 22—Nov. 22, 2021 to celebrate the heroic staff at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst who continue to bravely fight COVID-19, and the community of artists who came together to support the hospital at the height of the pandemic. The two-part exhibition will be displayed along fencing at Frank D. O’Connor Playground on Broadway at 78th Street and at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst on 41st Avenue at 80th Street in Queens.
For Art Is Healing, Pictures For Elmhurst collaborated with the photographer Camila Falquez to create 31 original portraits of just a few of the hospital’s staff, to share the faces of those behind the hospital’s immeasurable dedication to its community through these challenging times. Falquez’s new portraits sit alongside 33 photographs from the original April 2020 Pictures For Elmhurst fundraiser to thank our community of artists for their ongoing support of our courageous healthcare workers. The exhibition and fundraiser illustrate how intimately art and health are intertwined – how art can be healing.
“COVID continues to take a toll on front-line staff and the community, yet we come in every day willing to make a difference and save as many lives as we can. Camila captured the essence of not only who we are, but what we do. Words cannot describe the support that we feel from this community of artists who have come together for the greater good. May art continue to prevail and aid in our collective healing,” states Mamie McIndoe, Care Experience, NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst.
Through the spring and early summer of 2020, NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst was the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, dedicating 95% of its operations to caring for COVID-19 patients. The staff heroically confronted the virus every day to save lives – and the world was watching.
In April 2020, a group of New York City-based photographers and creatives established Pictures For Elmhurst, a print sale fundraiser to assist NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst with the purchase of PPE and life-saving equipment. The project rallied the creative community and launched on April 10 with 96 New York-based photographers, expanding to feature 187 prints by artists from around the world. The response was overwhelming, with $1.38 million raised by the end of the 10-day fundraiser. Jason Farago of The New York Times, who named the fundraiser as one of the best moments in art in 2020, wrote the project “reaffirmed that artists already have the capability to build new systems, and can get things moving in a matter of days.”
“At this trying time, as we continue to treat a community recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are so honored to partner with a tremendously talented group of photographers and visual artists to recognize our healthcare workers,” said Helen Arteaga Landaverde, MPH, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst. “We will never forget the deep kindness and generosity of the Pictures for Elmhurst team.”
“Art Is Healing” was produced in partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, NYC Parks Art in the Parks program, Photoville, With Projects, and The Marsé Group.
PHOTOGRAPHERS INCLUDED IN ‘ART IS HEALING’
Adam Pape / Andrew Myers / Annie Powers / Benjamin Hampson / Bibi Cornejo Borthwick / Camila Falquez / Chad Moore / Cheryl Dunn / Clara Balzary / Dario Catellani / Farah Al Qasimi / Gareth McConnell / Gilles Peress / Gregory Halpern / Hans Neumann / Jack Davison / Jamie Hawkesworth / Jeremy Everett / Jeremy Liebman / Justin Leveritt / Luis Alberto Rodriguez / Mark Borthwick / Mary Manning / Massimo Vitali / Matthew Porter / Maxime Poiblanc / Mel Bles / Paul Graham / Quentin de Briey / Robbie Lawrence / Sam Rock / Samantha Casolari / Sophie Green / Zoë Ghertner
