A Catalyst for Healing: Jeane Cohen

Jeane Cohen, Workshop Coordinator for the Porch Light Program, started with Mural Arts Philadelphia as a summer intern in 2013.

With an art and counseling background, Jeane came to this work because she believes there are more ways to make art in the world than in isolation, and “because community art spaces are unparalleled catalysts for healing and growth”. After doing a community mural at her last social services job and seeing the undeniable and multidimensional impact the workshops had upon herself and her clients, she was sold on the power of art as healing.

Jeane is a part of the Porch Light Program- a partnership between Mural Arts Philadelphia and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services to achieve health and wellness in Philadelphia through the groundbreaking public art approach. As a Workshop Coordinator, she goes to all of the program partner site workshops. Jeane says, “it’s exciting to contribute to the process of working with people to reconsider their own creative potential, in conjunction with their own struggles and life stories.”

Jeane is also an artist and is working this year for the Porch Light Wellness initiative, a project that is intended to create a city-wide dialogue about emotional mental health and to reconsider the different dimensions of wellness. For this initiative she is working on an art project that is a series of participatory accordion books about wellness. The workshops really are a chance to take a time-out from your day and contemplate a memory or a new way of thinking about wellness. Jeane says, “some beautiful conversations have emerged at the wellness table among strangers sharing their most personal experiences in life.” If you would like to get involved go to phillywellness.org for more information about the workshops and opportunities!