Photographer Lara Kaur invited individuals to define what community wellness means to them as influenced and defined by their unique backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. She encouraged them to reflect on significant spaces, traditions, and practices that embody and anchor their own understanding of wellness. Then, she collaborated with each community member to capture their individual photographs.

In the 76 framed photographs and canvas banners installed throughout this building, you will find community members who represent diversity in age, race, ability, gender, sexual identity, and culture. They include members from grassroots organizations and local institutions including activists, healers, leaders, artists, advocates for unhoused communities, members of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan (Ohlone Tribe), Healthy Black Families, the Berkeley Waterfront, and many others.

These images capture individuals and the places, objects, and activities which contribute to their personal and communal well-being. Kaur invites you to connect deeply with your own sense of ancestral and communal well-being by thinking about these same questions given to the people in her photographs:

What does wellness look like for you?

What are your personal or cultural wellness practices?

Do you have a space that represents your wellness?

How do you define wellness?

What message do you hope to pass to future generations about wellness?

How would you complete this sentence? “Wellness is…”