This program is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, you must register here or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org
with Soul Box Project and Community Partners
If you could save a life by folding two pieces of paper, would you?
Over 70,000 people are killed or injured by gunfire in the U.S. every year. Suicides account for over half of those deaths.* How do we put meaning to those numbers, the individual lives torn apart by gunfire? Statistics can tell us facts, bu they do not reveal the pain. How do we respond?
Give yourself an hour to do something beautiful. Something creative. Something caring. Bring your latest Soul Boxes to show. Newcomers and experienced Soul Box-makers are welcome!
Click here to read Let Your Voice Be Heard with the Soul Box Project press release, with words from our Executive Director, Lisa Simms Booth. We are honored to be participating in this project in collaboration with a few of our community partners, including:
- Friends of Oxon Run
- Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery
- Smith Center’s Artist-in-Residence Program
- Thelma D. Jones Breast Cancer Fund
- Southwest Neighborhood Assembly
Supplies Needed:
- at least two sheets of 8 1/2-inch square paper
- any art supplies to adorn your Soul Box
Click to download Soul Box Folding Instructions.
Click the video below to watch “How do I fold a Soul Box?”
Upcoming Soul Box-Making sessions:
- Tuesday, May 18, 1-2pm ET
- Thursday, July 15, 7-8pm ET
- Saturday, September 18, 11am ET
Smith Center will be organizing drop-off days and times to collect your completed Soul Boxes, as a part of our goal to create 500 Soul Boxes to add to the display at the National Mall on October 16-17, 2021.
About Soul Box Project
The Soul Box Project collects and exhibits thousands of hand-folded origami boxes to raise awareness of the U.S. gunfire epidemic. Each Soul Box holds space for one life lost or injured by gun violence, defense, accident or suicide.
About Friends of Oxon Run
Our Mission is to address the needs of conservation of natural resources and preservation of green space in Ward 8.
The Friends of Oxon Run (FOR) was formed in 2017 through an agreement with the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation. The Friends group is the keeper of the entire park. The 501c3 organization is also responsible for fundraising to help improve the park for programming and a bathroom facility among other things. FOR works collaboratively with representatives from the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation in an effort to populate the calendar of activities, improve safety, preserve green space and make the park a viable destination.
About the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery
Art has the rare ability to mend social, psychological, and physical ills by building community, inspiring change, and celebrating life. Founded in 2008, the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, is a nonprofit arts space in Washington, DC. The gallery is dedicated to exhibiting fine art that explores the innate connection between healing and creativity. Through a rotating exhibition schedule, the gallery features contemporary artists that address a diversity of significant themes, including spirituality, social change, multiculturalism, health, environmentalism, and community.
About Smith Center’s Artist-in-Residence Program
The Artist in Residence Program (AIR) reflects the belief that the creative spirit can be found in all of us and can be especially helpful when the human spirit is in need. Smith Center for Healing and the Arts (Smith Center) trains and supervises local visual, literary and performing artists who work directly with patients, caregivers and clinicians at INOVA Schar Cancer Institute (Inova Schar)
Artists in Residence guide arts-based activities that lead to stress reduction, self-awareness and self-expression. Patients and caregivers who participate often express great relief from pain and anxiety associated with their illness and are grateful for an opportunity to discover and explore what they can do. Heath care workers discover that creative self-expression helps to relieve stress that can lead to burnout and lack of resiliency.
About the Thelma D. Jones Breast Cancer Fund
The Thelma D. Jones Breast Cancer Fund (TDJBCF) is a unique nonprofit grassroots organization whose mission is to advocate and improve the overall health and wellness for women and men through outreach, education and support. We promote early detection strategies for breast health and access to the best biomedical and evidence-based complementary therapies to reduce the incidences and mortality rates of breast cancer. Founded in September 2012 on the 60th Birthday Anniversary of Thelma D. Jones, the TDJBCF is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Our vision is to save lives and embrace and achieve a world community free of breast cancer. We plan to realize this vision with guiding principles of respect, collaboration, quality and patient-centered care, culturally sensitive approaches, and evidence-based strategies.
About the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly
Our Mission: To improve the quality of life for all residents; to open to every resident the wide cultural horizon of urban living; to help create rich and equal social, educational and economic opportunities for residents of Southwest DC; to assist in providing the opportunity for gainful employment for all; to promote development of the economic and aesthetic potential of Southwest; and preserve its diverse history. This mission shall be pursued without regard to the social, economic and racial barriers that have divided cities in the past.
