Skip to content

About the Exhibition

Thrive! Healthy People • Healthy Planet features photography by 23 national and international artists and a 3-hour nature sound installation. The works explore dimensions of nine Essentials for Health — Air, Water, Food, Shelter, Energy, Community, Safety, Biodiversity, and Purpose. Accompanying text panels and materials ask viewers to reflect on these Essentials and how we might act for human health and the planet’s health.

Graphic components of the Thrive exhibit banner


Nova Institute Scholar, Sara L. Warber, has long researched how human health and our environment are intertwined. She dreamed about bringing people together and raising awareness for planetary health. Her energies ignited a group of creatives, the Mutual Reawakening Collaborative, who collectively envisioned this exhibit.


Watch this 3-minute walk-through of the Thrive! exhibition.

The inaugural exhibition was presented at the Gifts of Art, Taubman South Gallery, Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, from June 12 – August 25, 2023.
A short video is above and photos of the inaugural exhibit are below.

Thrive! — a Traveling Exhibition

This exciting exhibit is available to travel to your institution, health center, or community. Find out how to Host the Exhibition.



Visioning Statement

“When we assure ourselves that all members of the natural world — including humans — have these essentials, then we begin to have health for all.”
— from the Visioning Statement


The making of Thrive!

“Through a multi-stage jurying and curation process, 45 photographs created by 23 artists were selected and combined to tell a visual story of healthy people and a healthy planet.  The resulting work speaks to reconnecting us with nature and each other. 
— from ‘The Making of Thrive!’

Read the whole text


People Behind the Exhibit

This exhibition was facilitated by the Mutual Reawakening Collaborative with generous support from the Nova Institute for Health (Baltimore, MD), the University of Michigan (U-M) Department of Family Medicine, the U-M Museum of Natural History, and the Gifts of Art program at Michigan Medicine.

Mutual Reawakening Collaborative
Founded in 2019 by Sara L Warber MD, Clinical Professor Emerita, U-M Department of Family Medicine, the Mutual Reawakening Collaborative is a multi-disciplinary community of women artists, writers, community facilitators, physicians, and social/health researchers. Members include Amelia Hansen, Nia Heard-Garris, MD, Diana Hoover, Cinder Hypki, Katherine Irvine, PhD, Fayeannette Pierce-Parsons, and Elaine Sims. All share a deep connection to the beautiful ecosystems of the Great Lakes region.

Sound Installation
Samuel Corwin Vandiver | Corwin Trails
As a Music Practitioner at Michigan Medicine, Sam has been working with the healing power of sound for many years. He plays his guitar for hospital patients and enjoys the art of field recording — capturing the sounds of nature with various microphones and techniques.

Branding, Exhibit Design, Web Design
Diana KB Hoover | Strong Heart Creative
As a designer, Diana works on projects supporting social and environmental justice, equality, and joy. She also creates art using physical and digital collage techniques.

We are especially grateful to 
Nova Institute for Health of People Places and Planet
for the visionary, scholarly, and material support that makes this project possible.

Mutual Reawakening Collaborative is honored to be a member of the Planetary Health Alliance.