Wilhelmina Grant is a self-taught visual artist who creates assemblages using mixed-media and found objects which she repurposes into visual art. Her artistic accomplishments inclu...view moreWilhelmina Grant is a self-taught visual artist who creates assemblages using mixed-media and found objects which she repurposes into visual art. Her artistic accomplishments include numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the New York metropolitan area and Texas. As an artist-in-residence, she uses the arts to nurture the creativity of cancer patients, their families and staff in a hospital setting. She also guides elder participants through arts projects at senior centers in Harlem and Washington Heights.
She is a two-time survivor of breast cancer who accidentally discovered a lump by in 1994, but almost went undiagnosed due to unconcern and misinformation on the part of the initial medical practitioner. Wilhelmina is the founder of SISTAAH, Inc. (Survivors Inspiring Sisters Through Art and Advocacy for Health), a non-profit organization which combines art with wellness advocacy. SISTAAH encourages and facilitates access to the early detection of cancer by connecting medically underserved people to no-cost screening services.
Wilhelmina considers the transformation of outdated, rusty, or broken objects into art as a metaphor for personal growth, renewal and boundless possibilities. If life as a cancer survivor has given her lemons, then advocacy through art-making has truly become her “lemonade.”
Wilhelmina, a native New Yorker, is a resident of Harlem, where she lives with two rescued pigeons she adopted from a local wild bird rehabilitation group.view less