Dickinson Center collaborates with Elk County Council on the Arts to create community art murals

ST. MARYS, Pa-- Dickinson Center, Inc. (DCI), an affiliate of Journey Health System, is collaborating with Elk County Council on the Arts (ECCOTA) to create unique crowd-sourced word art murals at DCI's downtown St. Marys construction site located across from The Diamond and along Market Street. The Dickson Center x ECCOTA Project invites everyone from St. Marys, as well as throughout the larger eight-county region that DCI serves, to submit their responses to the following prompt: "___ BUILDS OUR COMMUNITY." Submissions are now open until Friday, August 19.

Responses to this prompt can be single words, phrases, or even images. The responses will be collected and printed on eight brightly-colored murals that will wrap around the fence at the downtown St. Marys site where the new DCI building will stand. The Dickinson Center x ECCOTA Project community art murals will debut during Fall Fest weekend in downtown St. Marys, September 16 to 18, and remain installed throughout the new building's construction.

The Dickson Center x ECCOTA Project aims to actively engage the local St. Marys community, and DCI's larger region-Elk, Cameron, Potter, McKean, Forest, Warren, Jefferson, and Clearfield Counties, in a positive, creative, and collaborative way. The resulting murals will encourage and welcome folks to begin learning about and interacting with the developing downtown site in a new and inspiring way.

"Dickinson Center is excited to be working with ECCOTA on this special art mural project to let voices of all ages be heard and to spread a positive community-wide message," DCI Executive Director Jim Prosper said. "This collaboration will also help us to further inform the communities we serve about our plan to build a new facility in St. Marys that will better support their needs for the most impactful behavioral health services possible."

People of all ages can submit their words, phrases, or images to the prompt "____________ BUILDS OUR COMMUNITY." in the following ways by Friday, August 19:

• By visiting https://www.eccota.com/dci
• By emailing sara@eccota.com
• By mailing to or dropping off at: ECCOTA Gallery, 237 Main Street, Ridgway, PA 15853

"Self-expression through art has been proven to help people process their mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety, and stress in general," ECCOTA Executive Director Sara Frank said. "Creating art also helps improve self-confidence and critical thinking skills. Some studies have shown that it also improves memory over time. We are happy to be collaborating with Dickinson Center on this community art mural project in order to help bring these, and so many other, benefits to St. Marys and our other local communities."

The Dickson Center x ECCOTA Project was conceived in early 2022 and is being spearheaded by DCI Board Members Abbi Peters and John Schlimm and ECCOTA's Executive Director Sara Frank, along with the larger staffs and teams at both of these local, community-based organizations.

Journey Health System
Attn: Dawn Snyder, Communications Director
800 E Main St.
Bradford, PA 16701

Dickinson Center, Inc. (DCI), an affiliate of Journey Health System, was formed in 1958 and named to honor its founder, Dr. Robert J. Dickinson. DCI is a regional behavioral health provider in northwestern Pennsylvania employing over 200 employees. DCI provides a full spectrum of mental health, intellectual disabilities, and children's prevention services in Elk, Cameron, Potter, McKean, Forest, Warren, Jefferson, and Clearfield Counties.

This release was published on openPR.