NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services Patients Present Their Tenth Multimedia Art Exhibition
Enlivened Arts as Resistance includes, for the first time ever, artworks created in the pioneering Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
The exhibition can be accessed in an online catalog, on Soundcloud, and on the Bloomberg Connects app
Nov 04, 2026
NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services (CHS) unveils today its 10th exhibition showcasing original visual art, music, and written works by participants in its Creative Arts Therapy program, the oldest and largest jail-based arts therapy program in the nation. Enlivened Arts as Resistance is CHS’ first Creative Arts Therapy show to include creative compositions by patients receiving care at the pioneering Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit, which opened at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in April 2026 for CHS patients who have complex medical needs.
“This year’s exhibition represents the spirited, expressed imaginations, artistic skills, and cultural values of our patients, who use art to resist stigma and marginalization,” said Dr. Barbara Bethea, Director of the NYC Health + Hospitals/ Correctional Health Services Creative Arts Therapy Department. “Enlivened Arts as Resistance reveals the profound beauty, the pure joy, and the vital healing implicit in the act of making art.”
More than 60 percent of all individuals in CHS’ care are currently receiving mental health services, which may include Creative Arts Therapy. CHS’ Creative Arts Therapy participants attend individual and group sessions with licensed creative arts therapists as part of their mental health treatment while they are in NYC Department of Correction custody. More than 120 participants contributed more than 150 creative expressions—including poems, illustrations, plays, and musical tracks—to the Creative Arts Therapy program’s 10th exhibition.
“CHS proudly marks 10 years of Creative Arts Therapy exhibitions this year,” said Dr. Patsy Yang, Senior Vice President for NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services. “Over the past decade, we have expanded the reach and ambitions of our shows—from a gallery at the School of Visual Arts to a stage at Carnegie Hall and the world on the Bloomberg Connects app. This growth has mirrored CHS’ development as a division of NYC Health + Hospitals and strengthened the connection between our patients and the communities they will return to.”
Prior exhibitions have been mounted virtually and in-person at the School of Visual Arts, NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, Bellevue, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. In 2024, CHS partnered with NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine department to present Bringing It Back: The Impact of Creative Arts Therapy at Rikers & Beyond, an exhibition and short film offering a unique inside look at dance/movement and music therapy at Rikers, for one night at Carnegie Hall and then for several months at Bellevue Hospital. In 2023, CHS and Arts in Medicine opened Creating Within: Art from Rikers and the NYC Health + Hospitals Art Collection, NYC Health + Hospitals’ first-ever exhibition to showcase creative works by individuals detained on Rikers Island alongside selections from its own art collections, at Woodhull Hospital. CHS’ Creative Arts Therapy shows first became accessible on the Bloomberg Connects app that same year, and exhibition catalogs became available online in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I always said, ‘I’m not really that good at art,’ but my personality is really colorful. So I resisted that thought and found out that I can show my true colors through art,” said Jacqueline R., a patient of Correctional Health Services whose work is featured in the exhibition.
CHS’ 13 creative arts therapists primarily work with patients in the mental health therapeutic housing units in the jail facilities on Rikers Island, but they have extended their work to the Program to Accelerate Clinical Effectiveness (PACE) housing area within the Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit at Bellevue. All CHS patients housed on the Outposted unit have complex medical needs and require hospital-based specialty care, but the PACE patients also have complex psychiatric needs. This year’s exhibition showcases the work of these PACE patients and includes photographs of the artworks displayed on the PACE unit, alongside patient statements describing their artistic processes and aspirations.
Extensive research demonstrates that arts programs for incarcerated individuals lead to improved self-esteem, emotional stability, well-being, and socialization skills, as well as reduced stress and anger. Exhibitions of artwork by people in custody have also helped participants feel “seen” by people in the community, serving as a bridge between those inside and outside carceral facilities.
Enlivened Arts as Resistance is accessible to the public internationally in a virtual catalog, on Soundcloud, and on the Bloomberg Connects app.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Nicole Levy, NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services
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About NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services
Correctional Health Services (CHS) is the division of NYC Health + Hospitals that directly provides high-quality health care to people in the City’s custody. CHS’ work focuses on meeting the healthcare needs of every patient in the custody of the NYC Department of Correction, mitigating the adverse effects of incarceration, and supporting their successful reentry. In advancing innovative strategies in carceral health care, CHS is an essential partner in the City’s efforts to reform the criminal-legal system.
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 46,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.