While creatively traversing the country from New York to San Francisco, I’ve been asking random people on the streets or in coffee shops this question: “How would you help heal our broken world?” In response, individuals are invited to trace their hand on a piece of map, representing our world, and record their answer. This…
DetailsOpen Hands, a PowerPoint presentation with an interactive follow-up exercise, challenges students to make positive choices and rethink their responsibilities as global citizens. During the presentation, students learn about a fictional refugee character named Babette. Babette’s social status changes, after working years without pay, when she wins the lottery. Instead of choosing a new life…
DetailsDo you know the fictional story “Babette’s Feast” by Isak Dinesen? Babette, once a famous chef, is a refugee, who escapes the French civil war and resettles in Norway. For the next twelve years, she cooks for two devoutly religious sisters—without pay. One day, Babette’s financial position changes, so she decides to prepare a lavish…
DetailsWhere in the world is Open Hands now? While creatively traversing the country, we’ve been randomly engaging people on the streets with this question: “How would you help heal our broken world?” Open Hands, inspired by Babette’s Feast on stage, first debuted on the streets of New York City in March of 2018. This mobile…
DetailsOver the last decade after creating large healing art installations for ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan, serving tens of thousands of visitors, managing around fifty volunteers a year, figuring out how to financially sustain my art business, struggling to secure a venue to host my work, and buying over 335,000 interactive supplies for the ArtPrize…
DetailsAs an artist, I usually think B•I•G. If my sex-trafficking exhibit requires a forty-foot storage container, I figured out how to rent one or borrow one. If my mental health exhibit requires 5,000 golf pencils, so that 70,000 people can write notes, I figure out how to buy 5,000 pencils (for only $200!). But while…
DetailsYou are invited into my art. As a radical hospitality artist, I have created art that lets others respond. My interactive and collaborative work welcomes visitors like you into a healing place. Inside this safe space, viewers are invited to become active participants. This new type of art offers something unique: it lets you speak…
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