In a year dominated by illness, the Lehigh University Art Galleries has turned its gaze in another direction: toward wellness.
The Well, Well, Well: Picturing Wellness in the LUAG Collection, an exhibit on display until May 28, 2021, promotes the concept of wellness, or, in LUAG’s Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Mark Wonsidler’s words, the “dynamic relationship between mind, body, and spirit.” Designed as a nod to the university’s new College of Health, the exhibit allows for the exploration of issues of health and well-being through a marriage of art and interactive programming.
Stacie Brennan, LUAG’s curator of education, explains that the exhibit comprises pieces that highlight “different forms of wellness,” such as medicine, emotion and expressions of color. She notes that the art, in conjunction with the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown, provides the exhibit with the chance to initiate a dialogue about well-being.
“With everything that was going on with the pandemic and being sequestered in our own little worlds, the exhibition really opened up the opportunity to have a conversation with the community about what wellness looks like and the role of a museum in facilitating programming and conversations around wellness,”
Brennan says.
LUAG has embraced its role in wellness programming, providing art-goers with virtual tours, lectures and a video series focused on discovering wellness through art. The exhibit, with the help of partners such as the Shanthi Project and Artists for Change, also boasts various community activities like family workshops, creative journaling sessions, and Wellness Week contests.
Brennan says that LUAG plans to keep promoting wellness and that she hopes the exhibit continues to highlight the relationship between art and well-being.
“I hope that it brings awareness to how participation in artistic and cultural activities strengthens people’s well-being and health in lots of different ways,” Brennan says. “The arts are the best way for people to express themselves and facilitate communication and coping, especially during this time.”
The exhibit is currently on display in the Fairchild-Martindale Library Study Gallery and the Gallery at Rauch Business Center. For more information on activities and the exhibit, go to luag.org.
Story by Erica Dougherty ’21
