07/09/2026
At this year's Summer Research Institute, "Depolarization: Cultivating Connection in a Divided World," participant Margaret Schultz created Cultivating Compassion through Our Creative HeARTs—a participatory, contemplative art installation that invited program attendees to co-create a collage in response to one question: What matters most to you?
Margaret began with a pre-made, intentionally layered collage—a mosaic of images representing life on Earth and beyond. Participants were invited to pause, breathe, and notice what drew them in, then pull images from the layered poster to build something of their own.
The question emerged from a simple but powerful observation: the things we hold dear—family, faith, culture, community—can ground us, but can also become sources of division when we feel they're threatened. By inviting people to sit with images that might not reflect their own lived experience, the installation created space to find resonance across differences.
Over the course of the week at the Garrison Institute, the poster took on a life of its own—small circles formed to talk while creating, others worked quietly, and participants explained the project to newcomers and invited them in. It became, in Margaret's words, "a bridge between strangers."
With gratitude to all who participated, including collages by Mark Gabriele, Jackline Ballang, Henry Eisenbeis, Margaret Schultz, Sarah Strohmaier, Gina White, and others featured here.
Read more reflections from here: https://www.mindandlife.org/media/cultivating-connection-in-a-fractured-world/
