Mount Gretna International Film Festival (MtGIFF)

Since 2024, this annual film festival features curated short independent films from across our country and the globe for two days in August, all at the historic Mount Gretna Playhouse. Our fourth iteration takes place in August of 2027. MtGIFF is a non-profit, community-based, heart-filled organization that honors the memory of Michael Evan Deitzler. I serve as its Director.

Artful Connections

Thanks to the expertise and creativity of professional teaching artists of diverse art disciplines, the residential community of the Cornwall Manor Continued Care Retirement Community (CMCCRC) takes part in weekly high quality art workshops from clay work to watercolor to drum circle to ballroom dance, and much more. Now in our fifth year, the CMCCRC community benefits from the many benefits toward healthy longevity that are offered by such arts programming. I serve as founder of and consultant for Artful Connections.

Visual Art for Cancer Patients

I am currently completing the art collection for the Penn State Health Hampden Cancer Center. With the theme of “hope, resilience and joy”, the 78-piece collection of both giclee prints and original commissions is the result of the talent and creativity of artists from within the served area of the hospital. Staff, patients and family members weighed into n the final selections.

Art Museum in a Medical Center

I designed and maintain a partnership between a local art museum and a Penn State Health medical center. Each year, the Susquehanna Art Museum educator proposes a new display of an artist’s work, and it is installed for one year on the designated wall in the medical center. A QR code leads to a feedback survey, which yields rich results regarding patients’ and visitors’ responses to the artwork.

Projects about to be launched…stay tuned!

  • Community Art Center with 5 artist studios within a business district

  • Visual art narratives by children’s book illustrators for a teen Behavioral Health inpatient unit in Alaska

  • Collaborative art project in inner-city community building, led by artists of the populations that it serves

  • Month-long pop-up art workshop series to support youth mental health

  • Series of webinars and in-person presentations that connect peer-reviewed, published evidence of the benefits of art to specific populations. They include Art for Mental Health, Art for Healthy Longevity and Art for Building Community.