Opening in January, 2025, the Give Grief a Voice Traveling Gallery Tour is on exhibit in the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. Abraham Schroeder from our Buzzy’s Bees team reached out last year to the Center after learning about their past art exhibition history, including their work with Art for Recovery and San Francisco Women Artists. When visiting the space in person he met with Judy Young, Executive Director, and Nancy Elgort, Operations Manager, and immediately felt that this would be just the right warm and welcoming space to share Buzzy’s artwork and message.
In planning the exhibit a great deal of time and energy was spent discussing the artwork selection, wall layout, and experience of visitors, staff, and patients, recognizing that this space is a working medical office. As Abraham states, “We wanted to balance visibility of Buzzy’s mission of helping to destigmatize open discussion of grief, with sensitivity to an audience who might not want to be so boldly confronted with a difficult topic out of the blue.”
He continues, “The size of this show was exciting and more than a little daunting, filling 4 floors of wall space with 51 artworks and a dozen info panels and testimonials, and it was really amazing to see how everything fit into the space when we installed it. The color and scale of the artwork really shines in all of the spaces, and we added QR codes to each of the artwork labels so visitors who wish to can click through to the website and read story excerpts and find our other resources. We are also putting together a 3D interactive virtual walkthrough tour of the space for people who are not able to see the show in person.
Abraham noted that everyone they met with was very responsive and supportive throughout the process. Several of our Buzzy’s Bees team were on hand for the Opening Reception on January 23. Kelly Tilford, board member shared the following reflection from the evening.
The entrance to USCF’s Women’s Health Center feels decidedly metropolitan. There is plenty of car and foot traffic, plenty of street noise, and the overall impression is that of a bustling area of business. So, it’s something of a surprise to enter through a conventional hospital entrance and find yourself in a lovely garden-themed tiled hallway. A short walk down the hallways leads to a peaceful garden tucked in between the building and the street.
Adjacent to that garden area is a cafe where attendees were greeted by Judy Young, the ED for UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and Co-Director of the UCSF Black Women’s Health & Livelihood Initiative. From there, we were invited to explore the different floors of the building. Seeing so much of our art exhibited in a single space was a powerful experience. The pieces add so much color and vibrancy to the different floors of the hospital.
Our UCSF hosts treated our panel and guests to a lovely spread of food and drink as we gathered to view art and listen to our panelists discuss their experiences with child loss and the Give Grief a Voice project. From Buzzy’s team, founder Amanda Drews joined artist Vanessa Smith and Give Grief a Voice family participant Alma Rocio. Abraham Schroeder, our gallery tour coordinator, moderated the discussion of what it means to experience or witness child loss and how that experience, plus participation in the Give Grief a Voice project, has shaped the panelists’ understanding of grief. We were so pleased to have The Reverend Brandy McMurry, Chaplain Supervisor and Certified Chaplain Educator at the Mission Bay and Benioff Children’s campuses through UCSF join the discussion, who added her own experience of tending to people who had experienced loss generally and child loss in particular. Connecting with Judy and Brandy of UCSF was the highlight of our visit to San Francisco, and we look forward to building those relationships going forward.
If you find yourself in or near San Francisco, we encourage you to pay a visit to the largest exhibit of Give Grief a Voice art to date. Because this is a working medical office, to avoid disruption to doctors and patients, visitors are asked to check in with the reception desk on each floor when they arrive, and be respectful of the privacy of patients and staff.
For those unable to travel to the exhibit we are excited to offer this virtual “tour” of the gallery made possible with generous support from Matterport’s Social Impact Program. Photography by NorCal Star Media. Thanks to SF Women Artists.
