In 2021, a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanford School of Medicine looked to honor its community’s experience through a two-part, creative art initiative, “Apart-Together COVID-19 Remembrance.” This “all hands on deck” effort created space for healing and earned the California, U.S., university a Circle of Excellence Award. 

Jacqueline Genovese, Executive Director of the Medical Humanities and Arts Program, watched the death toll rise through the beginning of the pandemic and knew Stanford needed to do something to acknowledge this moment. 

“Once the numbers start to get big you forget the people behind the numbers—the individuals,” she says.