FusionLab

The initiative’s inaugural event was a four-day visit from fine art photographer Torrance York, MFA. Diagnosed with Parkinson disease at age 50, York uses her photography to explore and make meaning of the diagnosis and its effects on her life and her connections with others.

During her visit, York presented three public events:

• A joint Medical Center Hour and Neurology Grand Rounds
• A community conversation at The Center at Belvedere
• A zine workshop at The Bridge Underground with Jess Walters, CHHE fellow-in-residence

She also met with students, trainees, and faculty in the Department of Neurology and at CHHE.

For their Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP) project, Hook Scholars Laura Liu and Louisa Post-Zweiker explored the Arts for Health and Human Flourishing theme. The result, Look+See: Bites of the Arts and Humanities, brought small works of art created by patients and clinicians into the everyday fabric of medical education.

In 2025, Hook Scholars Elianna Dunster, Zohar Ziff, and Tanvika Vegiraju combined their interest in patient advocacy with arts and social prescribing. Rather than writing a paper or building a standard lecture-based module, they led a group of medical students across Virginia on a policy resolution calling for the Medical Society of Virginia (MSV) “to support health institutions in the Commonwealth of Virginia in establishing social prescribing pilot programs and assessing their benefits, limitations, methods, and effectiveness.” The resolution passed by unanimous vote in November 2025.

This effort was accepted for presentation at the 2nd International Meeting of Arts Prescribing in Greece. Dr. Donna Chen and Hook Scholars Zohar Ziff and Elianna Dunster gave an oral presentation and presented two posters. They connected with attendees from across the globe who expressed interest in working with their own professional organizations to do the same. View the full conference agenda

CHHE partnered with the Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) Visual Arts Department, to present ”Community Connections: Creative Pathways to Understanding.” This exhibition in the Dickinson Gallery at PVCC showcased diverse voices and perspectives with a multimedia collection of artworks made possible through the work of local organizations that offer creative access and artmaking spaces for all.  Participating organizations included The Arc of the Piedmont, Innisfree Village, On Our Own, Bennett’s Village, Empowered Players, Nettle Shirt Puppet Works, Fusion Lab, and The Recovery Model Art Project.

“This exhibition is about more than art—it’s about building bridges and fostering understanding through creativity,” said PVCC Chairperson of Visual and Performing Arts Fenella Belle. ”We’re thrilled to shine a spotlight on organizations that make art accessible to everyone, because when creativity is shared, communities thrive.”

The lead curators were Jess Walters, CHHE arts research fellow, and Daisy Dee, a 2025 UVA Studio Art graduate who completed an independent undergraduate research internship with CHHE in her final semester at UVA. Other members of the Curation Committee were Donna Chen, UVA CHHE; Fenella Belle, PVCC Chairperson of Visual and Performing Arts; and Sandra Bullins, Student Success Coach – Humanities, Fine Arts, and Social Sciences.

Hook Scholar Ruja Parikh (SMD26) created “The Healer’s Note”, an album of six original songs that she wrote, recorded, and published online in the Virginia Journal of Medicine. As Parikh explains, “[The Healer’s Note] explores the clinical experiences, grief, moral distress, and professional development she faced as a student in healthcare and attempts to demonstrate the capacity of songwriting and musical composition as a practical mode of narrative medicine.  Each track is preceded by an explanation of the clinical encounter or experience that inspired it and followed by the lyrics to be read while listening.”

Due to physical, organizational, and social barriers, many people with disabilities are excluded from engaging in arts and culture spaces, participating in events or having opportunities to exhibit their own work. The Accessible Arts Initiative is a strategic plan developed in 2023 by then-CHHE Fellow In Residence, Jess Walters. The initiative collaborates with local organizations to educate around principles of disability justice, evaluate barriers to access and collaborate with stakeholders to improve accommodations and participation of disabled community members. 

In 2024, Walters was invited to present at the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities annual conference in St. Louis, MO with their zine-making workshop, "Breaking Barriers to Belonging: A Disability Justice Framework to Using Zines as Tools To Facilitate Community in Isolation and Zine-Making as A Therapeutic Practice." The same year, New City Arts was accepted into the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau's inaugural "Tourism for All" cohort and Building Good Foundation's C'ville Builds program.

After 18 months of collaborative planning and generous donations of service and supplies from BRW Architects, Architectural Hardware Co., DMA Floors, Johnston & Co., Dunbar Structural, and the CHHE, New City Arts re-opened the gallery space in September 2025 with a newly renovated wheelchair-accessible bathroom. 

In their role as Community Artist in Residence, Jess continues to research and develop strategies for implementing and advancing their initiative with other arts and cultural spaces in and around Charlottesville and UVA Grounds.

Benny the BIG Snake is an interactive multimedia installation representing the Original Benny the Snake, which was constructed from rocks painted by community members visiting the Treehouse at Bennet’s Village.

On viewing the exhibition, Ray Williams MA EdM, internationally respected arts educator and Medical Center Hour speaker in February 2026, noted: “I was struck by the evident ethos of inclusion throughout the exhibition. The large snake sculpture mounted on the wall represented individual responses to a collaborative structure.  The work reminds us that there are tremendous creative opportunities for “variations on a theme.”  Particularly memorable are sections that rewarded touching with surprising textures—even sounds!”

Special thanks to all of the creatives who assisted in the making of Benny the BIG Snake’s body parts: The Scrappy Elephant, Chris McDaniel, Kim Helme, Joan Covatch, Dylan West, Stephen Haske, Donna Chen, Sandra Shifflett, Tori Cherry, Lindsay Leahy, Bess Renjilian, Seth Bolton, Daisy Dee, Jess Walters, and PVCC Geology Club volunteers: Evelyn See, Alice Black, Cannon Starnes, Louise Mather, Lucy Sams.