Who is HBHE? Building Community Through Artwork with Project S.N.A.P.

Over the 2017-2018 academic year, the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education worked with Project S.N.A.P to create a piece of art that embodies what we value as a department. Project S.N.A.P utilizes art as a platform to bring people and communities together across a wide range of topics.

In a time where many of us are focusing on our differences, we wanted to remind ourselves what brings us together.

HBHE faculty, staff, and students were given a sheet of paper and asked to fill the page with colorful artwork, keeping in mind what HBHE means to them. The product of this effort is the mosaic mural below, designed with Michigan's natural landscape in mind, and made up of the hundreds of unique drawings members of HBHE created.

The hands at the root of the tree and in the branches symbolize how public health works at the root of the problem while reaching out into the community. The family of ducks represent how HBHE works to improve the health and wellbeing of families within communities across the globe. Our hope for change and advocacy for freedom from oppression and disease are shown by the bird and butterfly.

You can view the mural, and zoom in on each individual artwork, in the Project S.N.A.P. online art museum.

Special thanks to Deborah Rubyan and Michael Rubyan (HBHE '12) from Project S.N.A.P. for collaborating with us on this effort, Olivia Bouchard (HBHE '18) for her renderings of Michigan flora in the mosaic mural, and Kiran Szekeres (HBHE '09) and Jackie Cormany for their time and effort in completing this initiative.

The mural will hang on the third floor of the School of Public Health Building 1, to serve as a reminder of what brought us all to the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.

Stop by and visit us soon to check it out in person on the third floor of SPH I!

To learn more about Project S.N.A.P visit projectsnap.org.

-Hannah Eck, HBHE '18