Lily Yeh is an artist who brings the healing power of creativity to places torn by drugs, violence, even genocide. Forced to flee China with her family when she was a child, Yeh has advocated the healing power of creativity throughout the world, including Syria and Rwanda. I love this story both for the diversity of the people with whom Yeh has worked with as well as the vitality it has brought to her own life. As a testimony to the life-long growth a creative life affords, Yeh says, “I just reached 70 years old and it feels so great! It is so great to be older. Every day is so fresh, so great.” Be inspired by her example!
“I produce happiness,” Yeh said in a recent telephone interview from Philadelphia, pausing and laughing warmly between sentences. “I want to offer the little bit I know to whoever wants to learn it.”
Yeh’s work centers on going to “broken places” — rough neighborhoods torn by violence, drug use or clashes between cultures — and finding ways to build relationships using creativity. Her starting point isn’t passing ordinances or seeking retaliation. Rather, she starts with public art that promotes a healthy dialogue and, hopefully, revitalization.
A former professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Yeh has led public art and municipal park projects from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City, and around the world from Beijing to Damascus, Syria.
For the full story, see “Artist Spreads Gift of Creativity to All Cultures”.