Art with a Heart in Healthcare
When a child is in the hospital, their world can quickly shrink. Families adjust to unfamiliar routines built around tests, procedures, and waiting. Patients navigate not only what is happening to their bodies, but also the fear, boredom, and uncertainty that come with it.
For 25 years, Art with a Heart in Healthcare (AWAHIH) has helped bring something else into that experience: creativity, choice, connection, and joy.
Founded in 2001, AWAHIH began with cousins Lisa Landwirth Ullmann and Lori Guadagno, who shared a desire to build something that mattered. Lisa brought a background in philanthropy and nonprofit work. Lori was an artist with experience working alongside children with learning and behavioral challenges. Together, they imagined a program that could bring art directly to children and families in the hospital, offering comfort, self-expression, and a sense of identity beyond what they were facing medically.
Before the organization was formally established, that vision became deeply personal. On September 11, 2001, Lori’s brother, Richard J. Guadagno, was among those who lost their lives aboard United Airlines Flight 93. In the grief that followed, the work took on even greater meaning, becoming a way to walk into difficult spaces with compassion and purpose. By early November of that year, AWAHIH launched.
