The Ontario Museum of History & Art (OMHA) and Chaffey Community Museum of Art (CCMA) are pleased to present The Art of Healing, the fourth collaboration between the two museums. All four exhibits have been organized in the same way: presenting a single theme, interpreted in two distinct ways.  

The Art of Healing explores the concept of art promoting healing in those who are ill, their families, and in the artists themselves. Locally, this was exemplified in the mid-1950s when San Antonio Community Hospital assembled an art collection to display on hospital walls and in patient rooms. As its name implies, CCMA’s exhibit Highlights from the San Antonio Hospital Collection presents selected works of art from the hospital’s collection. OMHA’s exhibition, Holistic Expressions, showcases the transformative power art can have on the healing process through the work of five artists living in Southern California.

The Art of Healing: Holistic Expressions

The Art of Healing: Holistic Expressions explores the connection between the healing process and artistic practices. The process of creating art can promote mindfulness and relaxation, often reducing stress and anxiety that can allow individuals to gain insights into their inner selves and process complex feelings or traumas. Engaging in this artistic practice can foster a sense of empowerment. By creating, these artists center themselves as active agents who determine how their stories of healing are told, rather than letting pain, grief, or victimization dominate their narratives.

The works in this exhibition demonstrate how artists approach healing through their creative practice to focus on their restorative health and well-being. Through painting, drawing, sculpting, writing, and other forms of expression, the featured artists in the exhibition, Amabelle Aguiluz, Flora Kao, Denise Silva, Melissa Ellyn Watkins, and Caylin Yorba-Ruiz, use these techniques as a powerful avenue for healing and self-discovery.