The Scrubs Paper Project

See our feature “Front-line workers honored with art made from scrubs, military uniforms” on the Fox Report. See article and news segment here. For our blog post on Art Pride’s Voices from the Field! Click here

The Scrubs Paper Project is a connective community art project allowing communities, healthcare workers, patients and those on the frontlines an opportunity to share their experiences with the transformative practices of storytelling and artmaking. We’ve based this process off of our 10 years of experience in working with veterans to make handmade paper from military uniforms in the Frontline Paper program.

This handmade paper of various sizes is made from the deconstruction of donated scrubs and other medical garments, Blank versions can be used for artwork, writing, collage or bound into journals. Postcard versions are screen printed on one side with a template. One set is mailed out to each individual who donated scrubs, with the rest available as bundles of (5) postcards available for purchase, along with instructions and one card with a stamp, or single, blank sheets. To purchase the paper and support the project, click here.

Share your story on Scrubs Paper or pass along and have others share. Please also share your experience with the project, and an image of you with the paper to lindsey@frontlinearts.org or fill in the form lower on this page. If you want your artwork or writing to be featured in a virtual exhibition at frontlinearts.org, send images to the address above, or send your physical work to: Frontline Arts, 440 River Rd, Branchburg, NJ 08876. 

We also have community-based projects that can be installed in a healthcare or group facility. The Scrubs Paper Project Community Book acts as a handbound “scrapbook” for participants to paste finished postcards into the book. This leaves the participants with a communal trace object of the experience, and creates a physical collection of stories that can be viewed by anyone.

The Scrubs Paper Project Community Bulletin Board is very similar to the Community Book. Participants will use Scrubs paper to draw/ write/collage their stories inspired by a prompt, and can pin it to the communal bulletin board installed in a group setting. As people walk by, they will be able see and take in the stories and experiences depicted by participants.

The Scrubs Paper Project can also offer transformative workshops for the full experience of taking scrubs, lab coats, clothes and other trace objects and making them into handmade paper and art in a group setting. This can be set up virtually, in-person or a hybrid of the two. We deconstruct the scrubs while also deconstructing the experiences embedded within, macerate those fibers into a pulp, and reclaim them by pressing into paper. The paper becomes a platform for to tell your story. To see different workshop ideas and models, go to our Frontline Paper for Youth page.

If you are interested in any of these group installations and activities, contact us regarding the Scrubs Paper project at Lindsey Knipe lindsey@frontlinearts.org

If you or anyone would like to further support the Scrubs Paper Project with donations, please go to our Kindful page and donate online, or send a check made out to Frontline Arts at the address above. Thank you so much for your support!

The Inspiration behind the Scrubs Paper Project

Prior to COVID-19 ravaging the world, and the recent reminder that systemic racism has been tearing our communities apart for centuries, a new paradigm in the public health sector has emphasized the need for cultural change, a heightened dialogue, and debate on issues at the core of our collective health and well-being, such as trauma, racism, and mental health. This call to action brought forth an underutilized idea of collaborating with arts and cultural sectors to “expose root issues, center underrepresented voices and concerns, and shift socio-cultural norms and collective behaviors.” (Sonke et al)

At the root of what we do at Frontline Arts is to connect communities through socially engaging arts process. This connection in itself is a call that art and craft making is inherently what Joseph Beuys referred to as a connective practice, where we all have a response-ability to affect social change by participating as world-makers.

Our most recent project, the Scrubs Paper Project, does just that. It is our response to work with healthcare workers and families battling the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. With the virus still upon us, and growing more rampant across the country, it is a stark reminder that the virus is disproportionately taking its toll on the oppressed, under-served, vulnerable, and silenced communities. The state of the world is brittle and will affect our health, well-being and community connectedness for years to come.

The Scrubs Paper Project is an opportunity for healthcare workers to tell their story. We take scrubs, lab coats, clothes and other trace objects and make them into handmade paper. We deconstruct the scrubs while also deconstructing the experiences embedded within, macerate those fibers into a pulp, reclaim them by pressing into paper. The paper becomes a platform for healthcare workers to tell their stories. Because of the need to social distance, the scrubs are currently being made into postcards and sent out in batches for community members to tell their stories related to the COVID-19.

This is a collective action to co-create a new narrative of connectivity between healthcare workers and those they serve. The process serves as a needed action to highlight the structural and systemic issues that we face when it comes to the government response to a growing pandemic, the need for factual and unifying communication, and the travesty of who actually has access to basic healthcare. This capacity-building process will give people the voice and narrative control. Especially as we face an uphill battle against trauma, community despair, and those changing the narrative for exploitation and personal gain. During this time of unrest and disconnect, the Scrubs Paper Project serves as the vehicle to create the new narrative that we are all in this together.

-Dave Keefe, Board President, June 2020

Reference:

Sonke, J., Golden, T., Francois, S., Hand, J., Chandra, A., Clemmons, L., Fakunle, D., Jackson, M.R., Magsamen, S., Rubin, V., Sams, K., Springs, S. (2019).Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-Sector Collaboration [White paper]. University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine / ArtPlace America.

The Process

Share Your Scrubs Paper Project Story

Follow this link to submit your Scrubs Paper Project story and a photo

of you / a healthcare worker holding the paper via Google Forms

or email it to lindsey@frontlinearts.org

Your Scrubs Paper Project Stories

Quotes from Scrubs Paper Project Participants

Gina Puzzuoli, M.D. - “[I] participated in scrubs postcard project. I have worked for the VA for 6 years. Due to my age and pulmonary status I was offered the opportunity to work from home. However, my veterans did not work from home. They worked the frontlines every day. It seemed unacceptable for me to do any less.”

Lauren Leader, CRNA - “Words cannot even begin to express my gratitude for this amazing gift that you helped my husband to create. I was truly speechless, which doesn’t come easily for me. As you would imagine, 2020 was a difficult year for me as it was for many other healthcare workers. It was difficult to go into work and face COVID each day but the most difficult part for me was coming home to my family, fearing that I may infect or bring harm to them. This picture of me with my kids came from a good friend of ours who was able to put into an image what my life is currently like. Mom, healthcare worker, and wife during COVID. We thought initially it would be some fun to touch some light on this time, but I didn’t realize how powerful this picture would become for myself and my husband. I thank you for bringing this to life and helping to honor me. My husband was my rock through this whole thing as he has been countless times in the past.  He always has a way of making me feel special. I am truly in awe of the message and intention for what your project brings to this world. Again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your amazing work and tribute. You are wonderfully, talented artist(s).”

Jim Fallon, Army Medic, Vietnam - “I am an artist and member of Frontline Arts. The pandemic heightened my awareness and gratitude for the many hardworking healthcare providers and their compassionate, giving hearts. We hoped for brighter days as our souls searched for places of solace and beauty while we sheltered in place.”

Scrubs Project Committee

Dawn Christensen, movement therapist and COVID longhaul survivor

Eileen Foti, Master Printmaker and Papermaker with Arts in Health experience

Laura Harvey, Adolescent Behavioral Health RN at Lehigh Valley Hospital Muhlenberg, former Psychiatric RN at KidsPeace

Rachel Heberling, Executive Director at Frontline Arts

Wendell Jeffrey, Artist and Art Teacher at Ride High School

Lauren Leader, Nurse Anesthetist, Frontline Worker

Jeanene Leppert, Director of Inspired Threads

Mark Oldland, Veteran, Artist and Autism Awareness Advocate

Sandy Sharp, former supervisor at Reading Hospital

plus staff members Ron Erickson and Walt Nygard, studio and program managers and facilitators of the project

Please email us if you’d like to join the committee!