In the Gallery this Summer: Music for Healing

Music for Healing is an immersive sound and art experience about how noise, music, and vibration affect our bodies, minds, and emotional wellbeing, especially for people living in busy, loud, and overstimulating environments like Holyoke.

Open Hours to View the Show this Summer

The gallery is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays 12-5pm and Saturdays 10am-3pm.

Opening Night & Public Programming

The exhibition opens Friday, July 17, 2026, with an opening-night celebration featuring a live performance by the artist and a reception. Free and open to all.  

Free public programming will run throughout the exhibition, including:

• Live Performance by Angelica Olstad & Opening Reception: Friday, July 17, 2026 | 6-9pm; Free and open to everyone; Refreshments will be provided. At Paper City Clothing Company Gallery: 144 High St, Holyoke, MA 01040

• Community Sound Bath Walk: Saturday, July 18, 2026 | 11am-12pm | Meet at the Carousel in Holyoke Heritage Park. Free; no advanced sign-up required. Refreshments will be provided. Holyoke Heritage Park: 221 Appleton St, Holyoke, MA 01040.

• Piano Masterclass with Angelica Olstad: free; advance sign-up required. More details coming soon. 

• Closing Reception and Embodied Movement Workshop:  Thursday, August 27, 2026 | 6-8pm; Free and open to all; we recommend wearing comfortable clothing; the workshop will be accessible to all ages and experience levels. Paper City Clothing Company Gallery: 144 High St, Holyoke, MA 01040

Using music, gentle movement, and drawing, the exhibition invites people to slow down and listen to sound, to their bodies, and to their own inner knowing about how to heal. Artist Angelica Olstad uses EEG technology, a tool that makes brain activity visible, to show how sound and music can shift us from stress toward ease. You don't need any scientific background to take part; this work is about the felt, lived experience of healing.

At its heart, the project treats music and sound as tools for collective care. It asks: 

What if rest, listening, and care were accessible to everyone? 

What if healing weren't a luxury, but something we practiced together? 

Rooted in the belief that self-care and collective care are acts of resistance and liberation, the exhibition centers BIPOC and low-income communities too often denied quiet, rest, and space to heal.

Music for Healing welcomes all community members, no art experience required. Come as you are. This is a space to breathe, feel, and reset together.

Music for Healing is presented in partnership with ArteSana Gallery, Paper City Clothing Company and Arts Equity Group, with support from Northampton Open Media.

About the Artist

Angelica Olstad is a classically trained pianist and interdisciplinary artist whose work spans film, media art, installation, recording, and community programming. A recipient of a 2024 NYSCA and 2025 Brooklyn Arts Council Artist Grant for Music for Healing, her practice is also informed by years as a yoga and meditation teacher and community organizer. She invites audiences to reflect on belonging, care, and the timelessness of shared human experience.