In-person event. Please email programs@smithcenter.org by October 12th if you would like to participate as a volunteer.
with Soul Box Project and Community Partners
Soul Box Exhibit on the National Mall
The Soul Box Project exhibit on the National Mall will be the largest memorial to date, providing a dramatic visual for the incomprehensible number of people killed or injured by gunfire in the U.S. in fewer than three years.
Within this exhibit, almost 36,000 Soul Boxes will represent the number of U.S. gunfire deaths in just one year. This selection of Boxes will be exhibited on display panels under an open pavilion spanning the width of the Mall. Visitors will be able to get up close to view these memorials personalized with names, messages and compelling artwork.
Hundreds of volunteers will carry 164,000 additional Soul Boxes, representing the unnamed victims of gunfire, onto the Mall in a solemn procession.
The title of this exhibit, This Loss We Carry, is an apt description of how we can honor the many lives torn apart by the gunfire epidemic, echoing similar words from Amanda Gorman’s 2021 inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb.”
We will be participating in a volunteer capacity for the event on Saturday, October 16th. On behalf of all of our community partners, we would love for you to join us in-person at the Mall!
Here’s where individuals can sign up to help with volunteer tasks over the weekend:The final drop-off day for any completed Soul Boxes you have folded is Monday, September 20th at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts.
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:
- Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery
- Smith Center’s Artist-in-Residence Program
- Thelma D. Jones Breast Cancer Fund
- Southwest Neighborhood Assembly Youth Activities Task Force
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:
- 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 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 Youth Activities Task Force
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.
