Home » Healing Power of Nature, Princeton Photography Club Exhibit at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center

Healing Power of Nature, Princeton Photography Club Exhibit at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center

by Mary Galioto

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Princeton Photography Club is exploring ways in which nature is restorative during times of illness and stress.  Nature Soothes, Nature Restores, Nature Heals, the club’s current exhibit at D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Johnson Education Center, presents images of natural surroundings that demonstrate the relationship with healing, peacefulness and nature. Recent scientific studies demonstrate that green space offers significant health benefits. Walking in nature reduces depression and anxiety, reducing stress hormones and lowering blood pressure.  Being outdoors near natural lands increases exercise opportunities, providing greater health benefits than indoor exercise.

The Princeton Photography Club will exhibit Nature Soothes, Nature Restores, Nature Heals, including “Imaginary Landscapes” Exhibit by Lucy Graves McVicker, from now through November 6. The “Meet the Photographers and Gallery Walk,” will be on Wednesday October 28, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

“This exhibition was planned to celebrate the resilience of nature and the physical, emotional and spiritual values that green spaces bring to our lives,” says D&R Greenway President & CEO Linda Mead. “Over and over again, I’ve heard stories of healing and inspiration that people have derived from D&R Greenway preserves.  Neighbors have walked the paths at Greenway Meadows to restore themselves after knee surgery.  Hikers have climbed Baldpate Mountain to gain strength and perspective after a difficult diagnosis or treatment.  Former orphans have reconnected to heal emotional scars and build happy memories at our St. Michaels Farm Preserve.”

“Life’s struggles conjure many emotions and people are often told, everything will be OK,” says Princeton Photography Club President Sheila Geisler. “But that isn’t always the case, and recognizing the anger, the frustration, the ‘why me’ question is just as important to the process of healing and coping as is the encouragement. These images of healing and our natural surroundings catch those moments when a photographer reveals that close relationship of healing and the peacefulness that nature can bring to that process.”

The exhibition will be in the Marie L. Matthews galleries of the Johnson Education Center, One Preservation Place, Princeton. Admission is free. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, October 10, 1-4 p.m., with docent-led tours and activities for children. Gallery is closed holidays and special occasions – please call ahead to confirm availability. www.drgreenway.org

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D&R GREENWAY LAND TRUST IS IN ITS 26TH YEAR of preserving and protecting natural lands, farmlands and open spaces throughout central and southern New Jersey.   Through continuous preservation and stewardship — caring for land and easements to ensure they remain protected and ecologically healthy in perpetuity — D&R Greenway nurtures a healthier and more diverse environment for people and wild species in seven counties. Accredited by the national Land Trust Accreditation Commission, D&R Greenway’s mission is to preserve and care for land and inspire a conservation ethic, now and for the future. Since its founding in 1989, D&R Greenway has permanently preserved more than 18,750 acres, an area 20 times the size of New York City’s Central Park, including 28 miles of trails open to the public.

The Johnson Education Center, a circa 1900 restored barn at One Preservation Place, Princeton, is D&R Greenway’s home. Through programs, art exhibits and related lectures, D&R Greenway inspires greater public commitment to safeguarding land. 

 

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