{"id":379381,"date":"2025-11-14T23:08:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T23:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379381\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T23:08:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T23:08:19","slug":"special-art-show-in-philadelphia-telling-the-stories-of-cancer-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379381\/","title":{"rendered":"Special art show in Philadelphia telling the stories of cancer patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Philadelphia-area nonprofit is using its special connections in the art world to inspire and support the cancer community. A project from Twist Out Cancer<\/a> matches artists with people touched by cancer. The resulting 23 artworks are now on display in Old City.<\/p>\n

“Art lives beyond our stories,” Jenna Benn Shersher, a cancer survivor and Twist Out Cancer founder, said. “It lives to be told by others. To be surrounded by such strength and resilience in this room is pretty overwhelming.”<\/p>\n

The paintings tell the story of cancer patients. Their words and feelings are expressed to artists like Sharon Garlepp, who then create a painting.<\/p>\n

“I’m composing the piece where the flowers are sprouting and blooming in different directions,” Garlepp said.<\/p>\n

Garlepp created one painting after getting to know Cherry Hill breast cancer patient Jill Van Guilder.<\/p>\n

\"twist-out-painting.jpg<\/p>\n

CBS News Philadelphia<\/p>\n

“What I saw from her was a resilience, the fight to want to live,” Garlepp said.<\/p>\n

Garlepp said the painting of the Edelweiss flower is symbolic of Van Guilder’s battle.<\/p>\n

“I chose the Edelweiss because it grows in harsh, alpine conditions,” Garlepp said. “It thrives where the air is thin. It just spoke to the resilience and strength of Jill.”<\/p>\n

The art show, called “Brushes with Cancer, has a couple of dozen pieces on display, Benn Shersher said.<\/p>\n

“We match artists with people who have been touched by cancer,” Benn Shersher said. “That process of sharing your story and then seeing it reflected back to you through someone else’s eyes is incredibly therapeutic.”<\/p>\n

It’s the kind of therapy she says she needed when she was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer when she was just 29.<\/p>\n

“When I got sick, I really wanted to find a way to reconnect with the body that I no longer understood or recognized and felt really betrayed by,” Benn Shersher said.<\/p>\n

\"twist-out-cancer-art.jpg<\/p>\n

CBS News Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Benn Shersher created a nonprofit organization called Twist Out Cancer<\/a> to support cancer survivors through creative arts programs like Brushes with Cancer.<\/p>\n

“How it impacts so many people is pretty beautiful,” Benn Shersher said.<\/p>\n

Benn Shersher has connected hundreds of artists and patients from all over the country for the annual shows.<\/p>\n

“I could not be more excited to be involved in this project,” Garlepp said.<\/p>\n

The Brushes with Cancer show<\/a> runs through the month of November at the Old City Jewish Art Center in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Philadelphia-area nonprofit is using its special connections in the art world to inspire and support the cancer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":379382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,235,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-379381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-cancer","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115550572258408330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}