HELP USA is proud to announce internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas as the organization’s 2026 Art of Resilience Artist. Thomas will create a permanent, site-specific mural for a newly built families-with-children shelter in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, deepening HELP USA’s commitment to bringing dignity, creativity, and visibility into spaces where families are rebuilding their lives.
Thomas’s mural will be permanently installed in the lobby of the new Bronx shelter, a 194-unit facility developed by Court Square and Hudson Meridian and designed by Curtis + Ginsburg. The mural will serve as the first point of arrival for families entering the space. Spanning approximately 160 square feet, the work will reflect themes central to Thomas’s practice—empowerment, self-validation, and visibility—while offering warmth, affirmation, and inspiration during a critical moment of transition.
Art of Resilience: Creativity as Care
Launched in 2022, Art of Resilience is HELP USA’s trauma-informed art and music therapy program, operating in shelters and supportive housing across New York City. The program is led by certified art and music therapists who are embedded within HELP USA’s clinical case management teams, working directly with individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
Through structured, therapeutic engagement, participants use creative expression to process trauma, develop coping skills, and rebuild a sense of agency as they work toward stability and recovery. Art of Resilience recognizes that healing is not only clinical, but environmental—and that the spaces people inhabit during times of crisis matter deeply.
Each year, the program is amplified through a high-profile artist commission and public benefit, helping to raise awareness of homelessness and generate critical funding to sustain and grow this work.
A Commission Grounded in Dignity and Visibility
Thomas’s commission continues the Art of Resilience tradition of bringing leading contemporary artists into dialogue with HELP USA’s mission and communities. Her work will greet families not as patients or cases, but as people deserving of beauty, care, and respect.
“Having an artist of Mickalene Thomas’s caliber engage with this work helps shine a light on the reality of homelessness and affirms that the people we serve deserve to be seen, treated with dignity, and surrounded by the same quality and care we expect in any place we call home,” said Dan Lehman, President and CEO of HELP USA.
Thomas joins a distinguished group of Art of Resilience artists, including Derrick Adams (2023), Baseera Khan (2024), and Shantell Martin (2025), each of whom created permanent works for HELP USA sites in Brooklyn; and emerging artist Madjeen Isaac (2025), whose oil-on-canvas work was acquired to grace the entryway of a new supportive housing site in Brooklyn.
Supporting the Program
As part of the Art of Resilience initiative, each participating artist produces a limited-edition print series based on their original design. These works are available for purchase exclusively through HELP USA, with 100 percent of proceeds supporting the organization’s art and music therapy programs for children, families, and adults across New York City.
Art of Resilience Benefit
The collaboration with Mickalene Thomas will launch publicly at the Art of Resilience Benefit on March 6, 2026, at the historic National Arts Club in New York City. Now in its fourth year, the benefit brings together artists, patrons, clinicians, and supporters for an evening celebrating creativity as a tool for healing and resilience.
The event will feature artwork created by participants in HELP USA’s art and music therapy programs, along with a shared creative experience led by Thomas. The benefit is co-chaired by Addavail Coslett, Atenedoro Gonzalez, Alexis Rose, Christina Senia, and Eden Williams, with all proceeds supporting Art of Resilience programming.
About Mickalene Thomas
Mickalene Thomas is a celebrated multidisciplinary artist best known for her vibrant, rhinestone-adorned portraits of Black women. Her bold practice—spanning painting, photography, collage, video, and installation—explores the complexities of Black female identity, beauty, and empowerment within the context of the Western art historical canon and the African Diaspora. Drawing on sources ranging from art history to popular culture, Thomas reclaims and reimagines spaces where Black women have historically been excluded or misrepresented.
Beyond her studio practice, Thomas is a Tony-nominated co-producer, educator, curator, and mentor dedicated to uplifting emerging artists and diversifying the art world. She curates exhibitions around the globe, often spotlighting underrepresented voices and challenging dominant narratives in contemporary art. In 2023, she made history as the first Black queer femme artist to have a scholarship endowed in her name at the Yale University School of Art—her alma mater—cementing her influence not only as an artist but as a changemaker in arts education.
Thomas’s work has been exhibited worldwide and is included in major museum collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Smithsonian. She is the first Black woman to present a solo exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, marking a major milestone in contemporary visual culture.
