Last month, art by Naked Art Gallery’s Vero Vanblaere was on display at a prominent Harvard conference on health issues.

Most of the attendees at the conference were part of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI), a year-long fellowship program designed to prepare experienced leaders to address challenges in the social sector, including areas such as poverty, global health, environmental degradation, and basic education.

Conference organizers were looking for a way to connect the attendees to the topic of health and healthcare at the ALI two-day “Deep Dive” conference.

According to representatives from Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative:

“For this Deep Dive, ALI looked for ways to help Fellows make an emotional connection to the topic by bringing the visual arts and humanities into conversations that have historically been very problem/solution oriented. ALI featured an image of Veronique’s artwork at the reception on the first day of the Deep Dive. Veronique’s Fresh Air was selected for its striking representation of the health benefits of “unplugging.”

Here is how Vero described “Fresh Air.”

“Screens have changed us. If we just unplugged and went outside more often, we would rediscover the pleasure and health benefits of what is behind the door.”

Vero’s work was on display at a reception held in Harvard Square at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, which doubles as a modern ballet performance center. About 70 people – primarily Harvard Advanced Leadership fellows, faculty and staff – attended the reception, which concluded the first day of the Health Deep Dive Conference.

A Birmingham treasure, check out Vero’s and the work of other many Magic City artists at Naked Art Gallery in the Forest Park Neighborhood.

Pat Byington Longtime conservationist. Former Executive Director at the Alabama Environmental Council and Wild South. Publisher of the Bama Environmental News for more than 18 years. Career highlights include playing an active role in the creation of Alabama's Forever Wild program, Little River Canyon National Preserve, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, preservation of special places throughout the East through the Wilderness Society and the strengthening (making more stringent) the state of Alabama's cancer risk and mercury standards.