Christy Honigman has been a professional artist for over 30 years, receiving her BFA from the University of Maine and a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management from Regis University. Living in Denver since 1977, her professional history includes private and public art commissions, throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Her work is represented in more than 50 private and corporate collections. She also served as set designer for several theater performances. She designed and co-authored a dance-theatre- music piece entitled, My House was Collapsing Toward One Side, performed at the Dance Theatre Workshop, in New York City. In addition, she has served as a board member for the Golden Triangle Association and chaired “Striking Gold in the Triangle” an event promoting economic development through collaboration of arts and culture.
Christy currently serves as a Principal for Stonehill Consulting Group where she specializes in building nonprofit capacity. She is the author of the “Colorado Nonprofit Agenda Project: an assessment of the public policy concerns and needs of the nonprofit sector of the state of Colorado.”
Christy feels honored to have received the Mizel Museum commission to create the Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World project project and exhibition promoting intercultural respect and awareness.
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me, but if I am only
for myself what do I amount to? If not now, when?”
Avot, 1, 14
Art, meditation, prayer, and healing all take us into our inner world, the world of imagery,
visions and transformation. They are all associated with similar brain wave patterns,
mind-body changes, and are deeply connected in feeling and meaning. Scientific studies
tell us that art heals by changing a person’s physiology and attitude, putting a person in a
different brain wave pattern, affecting their autonomic nervous system, hormonal balance
and brain neurotransmitters.
Most of the world’s cultures have a long tradition of art and healing—a knowledge
that creativity, community, health and spirit are related on a deep level. The world
of contemporary art has, in recent years, been moving toward the recognition that
community and cultural interaction are essential factors in the creation of transformative
art. Through community and collaborative art works, artists have strived to integrate social
awareness and artistic expression, reflecting a rising cultural imperative that art must
reassume its position as integral to the community.
Tikkun Olam encompasses the work of transformation, meaning, literally, “world repair,” reflecting the values of justice (tzedek), compassion (hesed), and peace (shalom). The
concept of Tikkun Olam originated with Rabbi Isaac Luria in the city of Safed during the
sixteenth century. Today, Tikkun Olam is identified with working for social justice, peace,
freedom, equality and the restoration of the environment. This process calls for human
beings to create a psychological, political, ethical and spiritual continuum involving a
transformative and healing praxis that can be characterized as Tikkun.
There has never been a time when it is more important to affirm a vision of hope and to
actively invite a collaboration of community, health and spiritual awareness through the
transformative powers of artistic expression. The Tikkun Olam art project embraces a
fundamental truth of our time; the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all
human beings. This project is a metaphor for human presence and spiritual connection
focusing on joining art, healing and transformation.