Our Community Is the Masterpiece
2025 Art Exhibit at Haywood Mall, Greenville, SC
This year’s exhibit features powerful photo portraits from Walt’s Waltz events, highlighting the beauty, strength, and stories of our community members. Each image—whether a candid moment, group gathering, or individual portrait—serves as a reminder that they are the masterpiece. Through this visual celebration, we honor the people who make our mission possible and who courageously step out of stigma every day.
Arts Integration
Arts Integration at Walt’s Waltz weaves visual and performing arts into our mental health programming as both a wellness strategy and a powerful tool for connection. By using art as a medium for storytelling, self-reflection, and dialogue, we create safe and engaging spaces where participants can explore their emotions, challenge stigma, and start meaningful conversations about mental health.
Walt’s Waltz and Greenville Center for Creative Arts held a community gallery exhibition, Step Out Of Stigma, on May 6. It was a 2-month exhibition. In Step Out Of Stigma, the artists open up discussions surrounding mental health conditions through a variety of techniques and mediums. Their work represents dark depressive days weighted with chaos and anxiety, as well as days filled with light and hope. The exhibition featured the work of artists Traci Wright Martin, Will Crooks, Mimi Wyche, Eli Warren, Savannah Rose Ralph, Nick Burns, Sherrill Hill, Lisa Steffens, and Barbara Castañeda, in addition to the collaborations with Dr. Frank Clark between artists Lisa M. Shimko and Terrell Washington.
May 6th is Walt Crooks’ birthday–increasing the significance and relevance of this event, and our plea for change. Every 40 seconds a human being dies by suicide. At any given time, one in five individuals struggles with a mental health condition. As we work toward change, let’s remember Walt, the Renaissance Man, the Gentle Giant, and Step Out Of Stigma.
