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Gallery

Gallery

Get Inspired

Welcome to the Youth Gallery! This vibrant space showcases the incredible creativity and passion of young people making a difference in mental health and well-being. Explore various projects, from powerful artwork and compelling writing to innovative STEM initiatives and captivating performances. Let these inspiring creations spark your imagination and motivate you to join the #CreateConnectCare movement. Together, we can create a more compassionate and connected world.

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Campaign

Campaign
  • 2025 #CreateConnectCare (642)
  • 2024 #CreateConnectCare (33)

Art Activity

Art Activity
  • Visual Arts (444)
  • Literary Arts (207)
  • Media Arts (20)
  • STEM (12)
  • Performing Arts (11)
  • Film (2)

Age Groups

Age Groups
  • 16-18 (250)
  • 13-15 (116)
  • 11-12 (11)

Focus Areas

Focus Areas
  • Promoting/Encouraging Care for Self and Others (354)
  • Raising Awareness (339)
  • Fostering Connection (236)
  • Reducing Stigma (111)
  • Relax and meditate

    By Victor G.
    Visual Arts

    Relax and meditate

    Artist

    Victor G.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    I hope others reduce stress and feel recharged with meditation for relaxation.

  • Eating Healthy

    By Natalie T.

    Eating Healthy

    Eating a healthy diet plays a crucial role in maintaining good mental health. Just as your body needs the right fuel to function properly, your brain requires essential nutrients to regulate mood, manage stress, and support cognitive function. Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, B vitamins, and magnesium can directly impact brain health, boosting the production of feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Additionally, a healthy gut, supported by probiotics and fiber, can positively influence mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. Maintaining hydration also helps mental clarity, while avoiding processed foods, excess sugar, and caffeine can prevent mood swings and irritability.

    A balanced, nutrient-rich diet not only supports your physical well-being but also helps keep your mind strong and resilient. Simple changes like eating a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, incorporating healthy fats from fish or nuts, and reducing refined sugars can make a significant difference in mental clarity and emotional stability. By fueling your body with the right foods, you empower yourself to navigate life’s challenges with a calmer, more balanced mind, demonstrating how vital nutrition is in nurturing mental health.

    Literary Arts

    Eating Healthy

    Eating a healthy diet plays a crucial role in maintaining good mental health. Just as your body needs the right fuel to function properly, your brain requires essential nutrients to regulate mood, manage stress, and support cognitive function. Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, B vitamins, and magnesium can directly impact brain health, boosting the production of feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Additionally, a healthy gut, supported by probiotics and fiber, can positively influence mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. Maintaining hydration also helps mental clarity, while avoiding processed foods, excess sugar, and caffeine can prevent mood swings and irritability.

    A balanced, nutrient-rich diet not only supports your physical well-being but also helps keep your mind strong and resilient. Simple changes like eating a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, incorporating healthy fats from fish or nuts, and reducing refined sugars can make a significant difference in mental clarity and emotional stability. By fueling your body with the right foods, you empower yourself to navigate life’s challenges with a calmer, more balanced mind, demonstrating how vital nutrition is in nurturing mental health.

    Eating Healthy

    Artist

    Natalie T.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Literary Arts

    Reflection

    This reminds others to eat healthy foods to maintain good health.

  • Barbed Truths, Blooming Souls

    By Tehilla N.
    Visual Arts

    Barbed Truths, Blooming Souls

    Age group

    11-12

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    My artwork reflects the fragmented inner world of navigating emotional turmoil and healing. The multiple overlapping faces suggest a struggle with identity and mental conflict, while the barbed wire imagery implies emotional pain, entrapment, or vulnerability. Despite the chaos, the vibrant blue flowers and hints of yellow signify hope, resilience, and the possibility of growth amidst suffering. While it took me time to express this, I am happy to have captured the tension between pain and recovery, shedding light on the silent battles many face.

  • The Chaotic Calm

    By Abel K.
    Visual Arts

    The Chaotic Calm

    Age group

    11-12

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    My abstract artwork, composed of vibrant interlocking shapes and diverse colors, reflects a journey of emotional expression and inner exploration. The chaotic yet harmonious composition symbolizes the complexity of the mind—fragmented yet beautifully whole. The use of watercolor evokes softness and fluidity, suggesting healing, adaptability, and calm. Engaging with this artistic style was very therapeutic, enabling me to practice mindfulness and experience free emotional release.

  • Sprouting

    By Olivia Z.
    Visual Arts

    Sprouting

    Artist

    Olivia Z.

    Age group

    13-15

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    People can grow like flowers and can choose how they want to grow.

  • My Sides

    By Olivia Z.
    Visual Arts

    My Sides

    Artist

    Olivia Z.

    Age group

    13-15

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    Every person has different sides they should embrace.

  • Minds

    By Shelly A.
    Visual Arts

    Minds

    Artist

    Shelly A.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    Mental health is the mind itself-our wellbeing as human beings.

  • Paths

    By Dylan S.
    Visual Arts

    Paths

    Artist

    Dylan S.

    Age group

    13-15

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    The lines symbolize everyone coming together with their own unique path.

  • Weeping Willow

    By Sarah L.
    Visual Arts

    Weeping Willow

    Artist

    Sarah L.

    Age group

    13-15

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    The willow represents the enduring love with strong roots while the drooping branches show grief and mourning; the little boy representing nostalgia and growing up.

  • Multiply

    By Joclynn D.
    Visual Arts

    Multiply

    Artist

    Joclynn D.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    My piece, titled “Multiply” explores the reality of what it is like to live with multiple mental illnesses, and constant new worries due to anxiety. But the main subject, a greyhound, represents the strength and control of the afflicted despite it all. A natural predator of rabbits, which represent worries and multifaceted illness. Such as OCD, which for me, causes constant obsession and intrusive thoughts.

  • Deformaties

    By Hailey C.
    Visual Arts

    Deformaties

    Artist

    Hailey C.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    As a woman in modern-day society, almost everyone experiences physical insecurity at some point. As someone who has been diagnosed with an eating disorder and body dysmorphia, the concept of personal image is no stranger to me. When discussing these issues with others, it’s frightening to realize how common it is to compare yourself to others or feel jealousy toward their bodies. Through these conversations, I’ve also come to understand just how deeply body dysmorphia affects both myself and those around me. In my piece Deformities, I use exaggeration and a touch of humor to explore the idea that what people see in the mirror is often inherently flawed. More specifically, I wanted to create a face so distorted that viewers would clearly recognize it as unrealistic, yet still feel that what they were seeing reflected a deeper truth. I also chose to use unrealistic proportions and colors to emphasize the gap between reality and the distorted self-perception that many experience. I hope that when people—especially young women—see this piece, they recognize that struggling with body image is a widespread experience. Through art, I hope they can find acceptance of their physical beauty, as I have. Most of all, I created this piece to express and almost perform my feelings on this topic without having to speak them out loud.

  • The Hurt

    By Abbi D.
    Visual Arts

    The Hurt

    Artist

    Abbi D.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    My submission is about being inside your own head, its about hurting and learning how to heal. I want others to understand that no matter what happens, you will recover. The mind is strong and beautiful just like you are. Be yourself, don’t give up.

  • True Colors

    By Delila L.
    Visual Arts

    True Colors

    Artist

    Delila L.

    Age group

    13-15

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    True Colors is a self portrait of me breaking through black and white glass, which is acting as a barrier that restricted me from showing my true colors. This is a representation of how you hold the power to be authentic. Many things will try to hold you back but authenticity can defy all negative forces. There is a famous saying, “Confidence is key” and confidence plays such a large role in authenticity. The breaking of the glass in True Colors represents the underlying message that authenticity has such a strong impact and the glass is the negative force being broken by it. These days, it is so important to stay true to yourself, or authentic, and stay confident, with all of the negativity our world holds. Things like social media can fully cause people to lose their spark, but we must overpower the darkness of the world and shine with our True Colors.

  • States of Mind

    By Noelle L.

    States of Mind

    In a room in a room

    among rooms a squirrel

    opens a machine,

    unscrews a thought

    with a twisted center of rust.

    The squirrel turns and turns and turns

    and the thought grates.

     

    And meanwhile the squirrel

    presses buttons.

    Plenty in the glittery

    nut of the machine,

    too many to name.

    A white button

    that grips the machine with ice

    until it sags in shame

    and gurgles just above it.

    A blue button that overheats the machine

    as it rolls back and forth

    and back on its wheels

    and chews batteries like fingernails.

    A baffling gray button that needs

    a song on a broken record

    or none at all.

    A black button,

    which gnashes wires,

    that the squirrel cannot,

    must not

    find.

    A clear button

    for panic, for panic, for panic.

    The light flickered out.

    It’s supposed to be red.

     

    Recently there has also been a mauve button

    that blows a sunny whisper

    silky as a cocoon

    through the panic, the dying,

    the nothing,

    the burning, the crying

    the screwing until

    the metal sighs,

    is still.

    Literary Arts

    States of Mind

    In a room in a room

    among rooms a squirrel

    opens a machine,

    unscrews a thought

    with a twisted center of rust.

    The squirrel turns and turns and turns

    and the thought grates.

     

    And meanwhile the squirrel

    presses buttons.

    Plenty in the glittery

    nut of the machine,

    too many to name.

    A white button

    that grips the machine with ice

    until it sags in shame

    and gurgles just above it.

    A blue button that overheats the machine

    as it rolls back and forth

    and back on its wheels

    and chews batteries like fingernails.

    A baffling gray button that needs

    a song on a broken record

    or none at all.

    A black button,

    which gnashes wires,

    that the squirrel cannot,

    must not

    find.

    A clear button

    for panic, for panic, for panic.

    The light flickered out.

    It’s supposed to be red.

     

    Recently there has also been a mauve button

    that blows a sunny whisper

    silky as a cocoon

    through the panic, the dying,

    the nothing,

    the burning, the crying

    the screwing until

    the metal sighs,

    is still.

    States of Mind

    Artist

    Noelle L.

    Age group

    13-15

    Arts activity type

    Literary Arts

    Reflection

    I wanted to capture the moments when controlling my mind seems out of reach. Each of the buttons I chose to describe (except the last) represent states of mind that are unintentional, miserable, and hard to leave. My hope for this piece is that it would communicate how difficult it is to take back control once it is lost, and help you to carry that understanding and compassion with you.

  • Echoes of San Ildefonso

    By Jane H.
    Visual Arts

    Echoes of San Ildefonso

    Artist

    Jane H.

    Age group

    13-15

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    This clay pot draws inspiration from the intricate and timeless designs of San Ildefonso pottery, a tradition known for its deep black-on-black designs and symbolic patterns. The pot’s smooth, glossy surface contrasts with its matte details, creating a harmonious balance that speaks to both cultural heritage and modern craftsmanship. The subtle elegance of its design whispers stories from centuries past, celebrating the art of creating with the earth. I hope this piece honors the rich history of San Ildefonso pottery, while also reminding others that tradition can inspire new forms of expression. It’s a celebration of craftsmanship, culture, and the beauty in every hand-formed detail.

  • Woven Whispers

    By Jane H.
    Visual Arts

    Woven Whispers

    Artist

    Jane H.

    Age group

    13-15

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    This coil pot is carefully crafted, with each coil of clay built upon the last to create a smooth, flowing form. Its organic curves and textured surface tell a story of patience, care, and connection. Every coil holds a piece of time, layered together to form something unique. I hope this coil pot reminds others that we are all made up of layers — experiences, emotions, and moments — and that these layers create something beautiful, no matter how imperfect they may seem.

  • Blueberry

    By Quinten C.
    Visual Arts

    Blueberry

    Artist

    Quinten C.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    Blueberry is a soft, fluffy cloud that’s a little shy and a lot thoughtful. With its calming blue color, it reminds us that it’s okay to have quiet, introspective moments. Sometimes, just like Blueberry, we all need space to reflect and breathe. I hope Blueberry helps others feel peaceful and accepted, reminding them that it’s okay to take time for themselves and embrace their emotions

  • Kindness Rocks

    By Ellie W.
    Visual Arts

    Kindness Rocks

    Artist

    Ellie W.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    These kindness rocks are like little sprinkles of love and encouragement, scattered around to brighten someone’s day. Each one carries a small message or a cheerful design, reminding us that kindness can be simple, quiet, and powerful — and that even tiny things can make a big difference.

  • Little Marks of Me

    By adonai b.
    Visual Arts

    Little Marks of Me

    Artist

    adonai b.

    Age group

    16-18

    Arts activity type

    Visual Arts

    Reflection

    I wrote my name on these rocks as a way to say “I’m here.” Sometimes, putting your name on something — even a small rock — can be a quiet way of showing up for yourself. It’s not a message to others, just a reminder that I exist, and that matters too.