Sarah Bendix, Teaching Artist, Snow City Arts Foundation

There is a wonderful conversation that happens whenever one hears or reads a story, an intuitive response that creates the visual world of the story. Working with the idea of adaptation allowed patients to explore their own unique ideas while working within the framework of a larger project. I was particularly excited about using a story that comes out of an oral tradition and being able to discuss the ways that people re-tell and re-interpret stories. Stories are not stagnant but are open to the millions of different ways that people materialize their ideas.

Using the model of adaptation also allowed for an exciting collaboration amongst Snow City artists. Lara Golan, Jessica Garst and Sandeep Sharma all read the story and brought their own ideas and ways of working to the material and to the patients, working within the mediums of music, visual art and film. Thus, the project was able to incorporate work from patients at hospitals across the city and to have the depth that comes from layering on art from multiple disciplines.