UCLA Arts and UCLA Health Come Together for the Second Annual Unity and Kindness Day
Hundreds of health care professionals gathered for a transformative engagement with the arts
On Thursday, May 25, UCLA Health celebrated its second annual Unity and Kindness Day, an event founded in 2022 by UCLA Health’s Nursing Professional Governance Unity in Diversity Council (UID), on the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. Born out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social-justice movement that emerged in 2020, Unity and Kindness Day is unique because it is coordinated by nurses for the benefit of health care staff across the entire UCLA Health system.
The event is intended to be a stress reliever, community builder, and an opportunity to learn about the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). The inaugural event commenced with a note-writing activity, where participants expressed gratitude and pledged to spread kindness, and provided an opportunity for UCLA Health staff to honor both Nurses’ Month and Mental Health Awareness Month.
(Qiydaar Foster / UCLA Arts)
“The idea of Unity and Kindness Day is to reserve a moment on campus to engage as a community,” said Kemi Reeves, chair of UID, “and participate in a creative pursuit that has the potential to help bring understanding, comfort, and assist with coping with everyday stress.”
The second annual Unity and Kindness Day occurred simultaneously at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. It is noteworthy for its cross-campus collaboration between UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (AEDI) Council; The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s Associate Dean for EDI; and UID. For this special occasion, global jazz studies professor and artistic director of Afro Latin Jazz Alliance Arturo O'Farrill performed at the UCLA Santa Monica Auditorium.
“To be a real AEDI practitioner, we must engage across schools and departments. My hope is this collaboration will inspire more cross-campus partnerships. In many ways, this was a proof of concept,” said Anya Booker, associate dean and executive director of AEDI for UCLA Arts.
(Leon Bennet / UCLA Arts)
But the event required an arts engagement. Booker invited Rosalind McGary, professional artist and creative director of Sepia Collective, to develop an original activity, something distinct from the inaugural event’s note writing. The challenge for Booker and McGary, however, was that the activity had to be both engrossing and brief, where someone could simply walk by and immediately dive in.
Booker and McGary both attended UC Berkeley and have worked together several times in the past. “I knew I had to go to somebody who could figure out this activity in an instant,” said Booker.
Together Booker and McGary coordinated a playful, meditative watercolor painting project, where attendees could pick a stencil, a selection of colorful watercolor brush pens, and let their creativity handle the rest.
“Booker asked for an activity that was calming and fun, would appeal to all ages and, importantly, would take only five minutes but could accommodate up to 800 attendees,” said McGary. “We arrived at stencils to take away the stress of figuring out what to do, and combined it with the choice of vibrant watercolors to inspire play. The art exercise could then be as quick or as detailed as any individual chose.”
The activity was designed to inspire and elevate the mental well-being of all participants, a notion that was recently supported by a New York Times article about how art can improve your mental health.
(Leon Bennet / UCLA Arts)
“This was an opportunity to broaden our audience and extend exposure to the transformative and healing power of the arts,” said Booker. “When someone sat down to participate in the activity, they became completely absorbed. They were so thankful, and they were inviting others to join in.” This was the reaction Booker and McGary were hoping for.
McGary echoed Booker’s sentiment, “Seeing others work on their pieces inspired each participant's own sense of play and creativity, and they chose to join in.” For McGary, this is the best part of sharing creative space.
“Art can harness healing benefits and help bring us into a community with one another,” said Reeves. For the second annual Unity and Kindness Day, the UCLA Health community showed up in droves. The event had a total estimated attendance of 1,300 people with the arts engagement occurring at both locations — but there was also an online arts component.
Unity and Kindness Day created an opportunity for student work to be appreciated and showcased in a unique way. For those who couldn’t attend in person, UCLA Arts curated a digital student exhibition. The digital exhibition showcases a diverse selection of UCLA Arts student work from years past, ranging from photography to paintings to sculptures. The hope, said Booker, is for the exhibition to be ongoing and updated every year with new student work.
Unity and Kindness Day ultimately lived up to its name, according to Booker. “The event said to health care professionals, ‘We can take care of each other. We recognize you take care of everybody.’”
By Sean Arenas
Header image: Leon Bennet / UCLA Arts
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