Mount Sinai holds art fair for health

Mount Sinai Family Health Associates of Queens promoted health through art in a community exhibition that reached out to the Astoria neighborhood on June 22.

“We wanted people to feel like we were part of the community,” said artist Tim Kelly.

Family Health Associates is a non-profit community health center that provides a full range of healthcare for families in Queens in affiliation with Mount Sinai.

Kelly and John Kump, senior director of marketing communications at Mount Sinai, teamed up to celebrate health through art by relating to people “in a language that everyone understands,” said Kelly. “It’s the ultimate catharsis.”

The exhibit, titled “Health is…,” featured works by local artists like photographer Frank Carrado and live painting by Brad Marshall. Kids and adults alike stopped by for face painting and a chance to sit down and paint whatever their hearts desired on paper.

“Art has an amazing healing quality,” said Kump. “It fosters a creative spirit and helps people focus on their health.”

The sidewalk exhibition encouraged passersby to make art, learn a bit more about health, and admire some of the artwork that was submitted.

Young artists like Arielle Bonnici showed off her portfolio of digital photography and Photoshop work. She said the correlation for her between art and health is that “both health and art are fun.”

Christina Gogas, whose painting was selected for one of the “Best in Show” awards, said her piece featured many symbols of hope, new beginnings, freedom and liberty. “Health is everything to me,” she said. As long as you have health, “everything else you can take care of with God’s help.”

Luis Caraos, who won the “Best in Show” for the 50 and above category, is a nurse who said he loved art and the therapeutic benefits of painting.

“I love painting and I want to share it with the world,” he said.

One of his works, titled “The Caravan,” is based off his childhood in the Philippines. To him, the scene shows healthy living in a stress-free environment.

The “Health is…” art event is only part of the celebrations planned to mark the 10^th anniversary of Mount Sinai Queens and 100 years of health care in western Queens.