Artworks for Hope

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.” ~Pablo Picasso

Artworks for Hope is a project that uses the sunflower as a positive symbol of Hope helping to eliminate the stigma of mental health around the world.  You can shine your light of hope on mental health by using various expressions of art to help raise awareness in your community.

Viewbug photo entry4

Photo entry from our View Bug Photography Contest, 2014

Activate Hope

1.  Get involved by creating your own Artwork for Hope!  Create a sculpture, paint, or express yourself through photography and share it with the world.

2.  Start a conversation about maintaining a healthy brain and distribute our brochures for to raise awareness.  Contact us for materials.

3.  Share your stories of Hope with the world on social media. Take a pic of yourself with a sunflower, and tag @ifredorg #SpreadHope

4. Get trained in Hope with our Hope Badge on 7 Cups.

5. Take our Hopeful Minds curriculum to your schools, and help teach Hope.

Why the Sunflower?

The amazing graduate team from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte created a permanent sunflower art sculpture so that people could be reminded of and inspired by hope year round. PHOTO by: Melissa M. Bunker

  • Sunflowers serve as a symbol of light and hope for the hundreds of millions struggling with mental health issues around the world.
  • Sunflowers grow towards sunlight, with their faces tracking the sun.
  • Sunflowers are yellow, the color of joy and happiness.
  • Sunflowers have a stigma, as do those with mental health challenges.
  • Sunflower seeds can be harvested from the middles of the flowers, allowing for a continuous cycle of life of the flowers for generations to come.
  • We need to seek light, instead of responding to the natural instinct of hiding in darkness, during times we may feel hopeless.
  • Universal symbolism is key to ending stigma with any diseases states, so imagine if each and every sunflower around the world became the symbol for Hope.

Plant sunflowers, put up a sunflower photography exhibition, or create a sunflower sculpture.  The options are only as limited as your imagination. Be sure to include a placard to educate others about why and what you’re doing, along with resources sharing how to strengthen hope.  The more we work to educate people in a way that focused on solutions, the better our chances of ending stigma and getting all the treatment they need and deserve.