Art-Based Healing for
Communities After Crisis
When emergency aid ends and the cameras leave, grief and isolation often remain. The Holding Frames creates art-based gatherings where survivors process what happened, reconnect with each other, and send messages of care to others walking a similar path.
Your monthly gift holds space for the long recovery ahead—not just the first weeks, but the months and years that follow.
The Holding Frames -
The Holding Frames -
How it works.
A simple, low-pressure way to hold space after crisis.
Gather
We bring people into a shared space to create within simple wooden frames.
See what a gathering looks like →Create
People paint, draw, or write messages of care—no art skills or sharing required.
Learn how frames are used →Keep
Finished frames are installed where they can be seen, visited, and felt over time.
Why this matters long after the news →
Who You’re Holding Space For.
When a crisis or disaster hits, people don’t just lose things. They lose their sense of safety, their routines, and often the feeling that anyone really sees what they’re carrying.
Survivors & Families
People living with loss and life “before and after” who want a way to show up, together, without having to explain everything in words
Responders and local helpers
Teachers, advocates, faith leaders, and community organizers who hold everyone else’s stories and rarely get a space to lay their own down.
Communities in the long stretch of recovery
Towns, schools, and workplaces that had a lot of attention at first are now trying to figure out how to live with what happened once everyone else has moved on.
Choose how you want to hold space.
Everyone lands here for a different reason. Start with what fits you right now.
Support with a gift
Your donation helps bring Holding Frames gatherings, materials, and installations to communities living with crisis and loss.
Donate now →Bring this to your community
If your school, workplace, congregation, or town has been impacted, we can help you host a Holding Frames project that fits your people and your pace.
Host a project →I'm looking for support
If you've been directly affected and want to know what a gathering is like—or just what options exist—this is a place to start.
For survivors & communities →Volunteer or share your skills
From event support to behind-the-scenes skills, you don't need to be a therapist or an artist to be part of this work.
See volunteer options →
The Healing Gap.
In the first days after a crisis, there are cameras, vigils, and donation drives. Then it gets quiet. People are back at work, back at school, back in line at the grocery store—carrying things there’s no obvious place to put. This is the gap we work in. The Holding Frames gives communities a simple way to gather, make something with their hands, and leave a visible reminder that they haven’t been forgotten.
Stay Connected
Want to see where your frame travels? Sign up to follow the story and receive updates, volunteer opportunities, and invitations to future events.
Ready to hold space with us?
Your gift—monthly or one-time—helps communities gather, create, and heal long after the cameras leave. Frame Circle members make this work sustainable, month after month.