The fifth annual Hope & Healing Juried Art Show for high school and college students was held March 4 at the Banana Factory/Crayola Gallery, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem.

Students were asked to donate original art which "promotes hope and healing by communicating a message of peace, calm, comfort and inspiration."

The purpose of the show is to inspire hope and healing by raising the awareness art aids in healing, to create art for hospitals and healing facilties where viewers seek inspiration to heal and to provide students with opportunities to explore creativity and create art to help others.

Four judges-- Bill Childs, Elyse Coldren, Santa Bannon and Steve Lemak viewed the artwork and selected first and second place winners at the college level and first, second and third at the high school level. In addition, a number of students received Community Honor Awards which were chosen by anyone who wanted to select a piece, name the award and fund the prize.

During the award ceremony, coordinator Heather Rodale talked about a well-known study by Roger Ulrich Ph.D. which found "patients who looked out to a view of trees went home from the hospital at least one day sooner than those who looked out to a brick wall. The patients with a view of nature needed fewer doses of pain medication. Research continued to show patients with access to views of nature or art were less stressed and more hopeful and optimistic about treatment options.

Following the show, hospitals and health care facilities had the opportunity to request and receive artwork from the show to be placed in patient rooms or treatment areas where patients often spend long hours.

Student artists from Northampton Community College included Erica Halstead, Kasey Kruczek, Alyssa Pascarosa, Michele Pelley, Cambrea Roy, Renata Vieira, Ashlyn Summers, Diony Emanuel Cadiz, Maliah Livingston, Anton Pasternak, Chelsy Peralta, Isabella Rodriguez, Ostara Frost Sherman, Ben Tallarico, Josephine Tan, Tony Williams and Annie M. White.

High school student artists included Shylah Watkins, Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School; Brynn Orban-Salley, Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts; and Eve Cinquino, Grace Cowen, Giselle Ferguson, Abby Gross, Chloe Le, Anya Malik, Haley Schierwagen and Caroline Spugnarai, all from Moravian Academy.

For the 2016 show, students must register to participate by Dec. 1. The final date for donations is Jan. 8, 2016.

For more information, visit www.htta.org.