A selection of portraits from Hope For Harlem by Wendy Correa

Expanded Programming with the

HOPE Center Harlem and Dream Center Harlem

This fall, Josephine Herrick Project will expand its programming in Harlem in partnership with the HOPE Center and the Dream Center Harlem, longtime collaborators and vital community anchors. Run by First Corinthian Baptist Church, which has served the neighborhood since 1933, the HOPE (Healing On Purpose and Evolving) Center is a clinical and community space built to support the mental health needs of Harlem at large. Its sister organization, the Dream Center, is a community-based arts center that also serves the whole community.

JHP has worked with the HOPE Center and Dream Center on a variety of programming since 2021, and this fall we are excited to offer three distinct workshops for teens, adults, and seniors. All classes begin next week, marking the largest slate of programming JHP has ever offered at the Dream Center in a single season, as well as the first time we have been able to serve three distinct populations at once. The teen workshop is still accepting enrollees, while the adult and senior classes have reached capacity and are now maintaining waiting lists. The senior program will run for six weeks, and the teen and adult workshops will run for a full 12 weeks. Each program will culminate in a public exhibit at the end of the year, with additional details to be shared once the exhibit is scheduled.

As with many of the communities we serve, a pause between sessions never means a pause in presence. On Saturday, August 22, at First Corinthian's annual Hope for Harlem event, JHP Program Director Wendy Correa offered free portraits to community members, capturing roughly 40 portraits over the course of the afternoon. The portrait sessions were more than a festive activity. They invited each participant to bring their whole self to the camera, yielding professional caliber portraits that reflected their personalities and the relationships that root them in the community.

To learn more about JHP's partnership with the HOPE Center and Dream Center, including ways to support the work or explore enrollment opportunities, please email info@jhproject.org.

Photo by Henry Moultrie Jr. made during a JHP photowalk in Central Park

New Exhibition Opens at Margaret Cochran Corbin VA Campus this September

Beginning September 17, visitors to the VA New York Harbor Healthcare’s busy Margaret Cochran Corbin Campus at 425 East 23rd Street in Manhattan will have the opportunity to experience The Bridge, a collaborative exhibition featuring work from participants of the Odyssey Project and Josephine Herrick Project programming.

Curated by photojournalist and Odyssey Project founder Brendan Bannon, the exhibition highlights work created by veterans enrolled in Odyssey Project 2.0, an advanced, project-based workshop led by Bannon in partnership with JHP and the VA. The Bridge will present the work of 10 participants who gathered weekly at the VA to practice photography as a means of exploration, self-expression, and personal growth.

The exhibition will remain on view through October 2, 2026. Admission is free, though please note that visitors will need to pass through VA hospital security to enter the lobby.

80 YEARS OF CHANGING LIVES:

Dick Lubinsky, Artist Spotlight

Photo by Dick Lubinsky, 1972

This photograph of a flute player on the streets of Greenwich Village is a remarkable portrait of New York City in the early 1970s. While we do not know the identity of the musician in the frame, we are thrilled to share the story of Dick Lubinsky, the artist behind the lens.

Lubinsky was awarded our First Grand Prize and the Grace F. Lamb Trophy for best black-and-white photograph in 1972, as a participant enrolled in Volunteer Service Photographers (JHP’s original name) programming at Fountain House. From an accompanying press release, we know he used a Pentax 1-A camera to create this image. The write-up also notes that "Dick is particularly interested in photographing the current scene," a tantalizing detail that leaves the reader to wonder what other subjects he may have captured in New York City throughout this era.

Lubinsky was not only a gifted photographer but an accomplished painter. His work drew deep inspiration from the people and places of his daily life, from self-portraits to studies of his longtime partner and the New Yorkers around him. Although he passed away in 2001, his legacy has been lovingly preserved by his niece, June Kosloff, also an artist.

"In April of 2001 my Uncle Dick passed away and I started on a journey of discovery, both ancestral and artistic,” she writes. “I took care of him and all of his photos, art, and camera collection (which was vast)… Sharing Uncle Dick's legacy is a gift and privilege, and has taught me so very much these past 25 years… My Uncle Dick Lubinsky was a very talented artist and a man who struggled with his mental health his whole life. I am so pleased the Josephine Herrick Project found me."

- June Kosloff

Thanks to his niece’s efforts, Lubinsky's work has been exhibited at Fountain House Gallery in NYC, Local Project Gallery Space in Long Island City, the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, the Erie Art Museum in Pennsylvania, the Outsider Art Fair, and the Metro Fair. His pieces are also held in private collections. More information about Lubinsky, including examples of his paintings, photographs, and life story, can be found at https://www.dicklubinsky.com/.

JHP is honored to share the story of Dick Lubinsky, a Bronx-based artist who lived with mental illness and who found meaningful ways to share his perspective. His story is singular, yet it stands as a poignant example of the mission Josephine Herrick Project continues to embody decades later: that photography can serve as a transformative tool for people of every background and experience to express themselves and share their voice with the world. Twenty-five years after his passing, we are grateful to honor Dick Lubinsky and the enduring body of work he leaves behind.