Early last May, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened The Portal: An Art Experience by Jewel-an interactive exhibit intersecting music, mental health, technology, and art curated by four-time Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter, Jewel. A month into the exhibit, Jewel has found that The Portal is as healing for her as for attendees.
Jewel has been making art for as long as she has been writing music, and it was to art that she turned when she put her touring and recording career on hold in 2014. Jewel described how she recovered in the ten years that followed: "I surrendered to going within and learning how to heal in a new way. I created behavioral exercises; I painted and I wrote. But not for the world. For me... Art is how I turned the poison into medicine, the snake bite into an antidote. It helped me understand the world around me-and who I was independent of it, from the inside out."
She adds: "for The Portal, I wanted to focus on that moment when I hit pause on my life, and to bring audiences on my journey from that point to today, 10 years later."
Jewel describes The Portal as a journey through "Three Planes": the inner plane representing thoughts and feelings, the seen plane representing visible lives-"jobs, families, finances, nature, structure"-and the "unseen plane" standing for "whatever gives a sense of awe and wonder."
The Portal features three of Jewel's own artworks; ten artworks from the Crystal Bridges collection chosen by Jewel herself; and a light show of 200 drones choreographed to Jewel's music. Guests are also given journals where they write down their answers to questions that helped Jewel in her healing period. Observing the guests, she said: "It was so rewarding for me to see couples, families and even strangers engaged in meaningful discussions with one another - I saw parents with tears in their eyes because they got a glimpse into their child's inner world; grown men hugging after a shared experience neither of them knew the other carried."
The Portal is open to the public until July 28.
