

Healing by Design
This semester, MUSCARELLE EXPLORATIONS will focus on the aspirational connection between healing and wellness through the arts, architecture, monuments, and heritage spaces. Over the course of the series, there will be lectures, art therapy workshops, a meditation session, as well as a film screening and discussion – all on different related topics and mediums – to explore ways in which art can be therapeutic for individuals and communities.
Information
All of our MUSCARELLE EXPLORATIONS events will be available virtually. We hope you will attend, through your computer, every one of our Healing by Design programs!
Lectures are Free for Members, W&M students, faculty, and staff.
Non-Members: $10
Film and Workshop Events are Free.
Muscarelle Explorations: Healing by Design is made possible by our partner, The Williamsburg Landing.
Lectures
MEMORIAL TO THE ENSLAVED
February 11
6 PM
Panel
Learn more about William & Mary’s upcoming Memorial to the Enslaved through a discussion by the project’s key stakeholders. The intention for the memorial is to serve as a place for the community to gather and heal. The final design, Hearth, by William Sendor, W&M ’11 was unveiled in 2020 and construction is slated to begin in 2021. Panelists include Jody Allen, Director of The Lemon Project; Chon Glover, Chief Diversity Officer; Susan Kern, Executive Director of Historic Campus; Ed Pease, architect and adjunct professor; Burt Pinnock, Principal, Chairman, Baskervill; and William Sendor, W&M ’11, designer.
SPACES ON THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO IN MEDIEVAL AND CONTEMPORARY
March 28
6 PM
Kathleen Jenkins, Professor & Chair, Department of Sociology,
Co-Director, Institute for Pilgrimage Studies, William & Mary
Jessica Streit, Assistant Professor of Islamic & Medieval Art, College of Charleston
Jessica Streit will begin the evening presentation with medieval Le Puy-en-Velay, a city that serves as the starting point for one of the four major routes to Santiago de Compostela. Her talk will feature two of the city’s 12th-century pilgrimage monuments, showing how they engender feelings of arrival and a desire to keep moving for their audience of pilgrims. Kathleen Jenkins will then bring us to the 21st century. Drawing from her recent ethnography, Walking the Way Together: How Families Connect on the Camino de Santiago, Jenkins will present stories of families investing in pilgrimage as a practice for strengthening kin relationships and becoming a part of each other’s emotional and spiritual understandings.

REFLECTING ABSENCE AT THE 9/11 MEMORIAL
April 22
6 PM
Michael Arad, Architect
In 2004, Michael Arad won the design competition for the World Trade Center memorial. Arad, a young Israeli-American architect, studied architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture and lived in New York when the Towers fell. His design, entitled Reflecting Absence, was selected out of over 5,000 entries and is a powerful example of commemorative and healing architecture. In this talk, Arad will give insights into his process and the healing nature of memorials.
Film Screening & Discussion
THE HEALING WALL SCREENING
March 29 – April 1
Streaming online
The Healing Wall (2015) documentary was created by director Christopher Kosinski and a small group of students while attending Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana). Together, they researched and interviewed veterans including Jan C. Scruggs, Esq., Founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and other key players to tell the story of how 21-year-old college student Maya Lin’s unconventional design of landscape architecture led to the healing of a nation from the
Vietnam War.
2015 | CC | 1 hour 3 minutes

THE HEALING WALL DISCUSSION
April 1
6 PM
Christopher Kosinski, Film Director
Jan C. Scruggs, Esq., Founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Join us for a virtual discussion and Q&A moderated by David Brashear with The Healing Wall documentary film director Christopher Kosinski and Jan C. Scruggs, Esq., who conceived of and was instrumental in the creation of the monument. This absorbing documentary tells the story of how the Vietnam Veterans Memorial came into being and the powerful role it has in healing a nation.
Workshops
ART THERAPY WORKSHOPS
February 12 | March 12 | April 16
12 PM
Sarah Balascio, Art Therapist, William & Mary
Sarah Balascio, a registered board certified art therapist and adjunct lecturer at William & Mary’s McLeod Tyler Wellness Center, will lead three virtual workshops to help participants explore feelings and work on relaxation. The focus will be on expressing ourselves through the arts in a supportive and mindful environment. All are welcome to attend and no experience is necessary – just a willingness to experiment! The Museum is pleased to partner with the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center at William & Mary for this series of workshops.
MEDITATION SESSION
March 23
6 PM
Dr. Warren W. Buck, Adjunct Professor of Physics, William & Mary
Join us for the healing art of meditation with Warren W. Buck. Meditation is an evidence-based method for creating a sense of well-being. This guided meditation session will introduce the basic principles, techniques and benefits of focused breathing and mindfulness, followed by 30 minutes of meditative practice. Buck will close the meditation with a Q&A session to delve further into the experience.