Youth Art For Healing is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring works of art created by youth into healthcare environments to provide a sense of comfort, inspiration, and healing for patients and their loved ones, and healthcare professionals.
Youth Art For Healing in Action
See highlights from our final project year (2022-23) and learn more about our plans to move forward with the Matt Papirmeister Award in our YAFH in Action video.
The Matt Papirmeister Award
In 2023, Youth Art For Healing established the Matt Papirmeister Award, to be presented annually to two high school seniors. The award is a $2,500 scholarship for each student toward their post-secondary education. Winners of the annual award are selected by the YAFH Board of Directors after they carefully review students' answers to essay questions, the painting that they have submitted, and evaluation scores from the students' program advisors.
The award is in memory of Matt, cherished son of Youth Art For Healing founder Jan Papirmeister and her husband Chuck, and brother of Sara. It is designed not only to commemorate Matt’s kind spirit and zest for life, but also to support and honor student artists who, with their creativity, empathy, and commitment, give to others in their community.
For full details on the award, please visit our Matt Papirmeister Award page.
Isabel Acuna Marin (left) and Erin Malone (right), the first recipients of the YAFH Matt Papirmeister Award, with YAFH Executive Director Jan Papirmeister.
First Recipients of the
Matt Papirmeister Award
At the Youth Art For Healing Art Show on April 26, 2023, graduating seniors Erin Malone and Isabel Acuna Marin were presented with the first Matt Papirmeister Awards. We are very proud of both award recipients and look forward to seeing what Erin and Isabel accomplish in the coming years!
To learn more about these two talented, dedicated YAFH student artists and see their paintings from the 2022-23 school year, read the full article on our News & Announcements Page.
Youth Art For Healing
Retrospective Art Show
(2012-23)
At our Art Show in April 2023, we first presented our 2012-23 Retrospective Art Show video. The show revisits several hundred of the 2,024 artworks created by our student artists during those 11 years. Now you can enjoy our Retrospective Art Show virtually, with hundreds of outstanding student paintings from all the years that YAFH worked with students, teachers, and schools to bring healing works of art into healthcare environments.
2023 YAFH Virtual Art Shows
During the 2022-23 school year, 209 student artists from 12 schools created 156 beautiful works of art, including 119 paintings for permanent installation at five healthcare sites and 37 Gifts of Gratitude paintings for healthcare workers at three hospitals.
We were very excited to display all 156 paintings at our 2023 Art Show, held at the Silver Spring Civic Building in April 2023, which you can read more about on our News & Announcements Page. Now, we are pleased to present our 2023 Virtual Art Shows so that you may enjoy viewing the students’ 2022-23 artworks as many times as you would like!
You can also watch our virtual art shows from previous years in our Virtual Art Shows Gallery. Happy viewing!
