Susan Swartz Studios does not take the current crisis at hand lightly. Artist Susan Swartz’s endurance and recovery of the harsh effects of Lyme disease and Mercury poisoning is an example of the havoc an illness can wreck on an individual’s body and spirit. Knowing that COVID-19 is affecting individuals directly through disease as well as local and global populations with the repercussions of its spread, is disheartening to say the least.

Susan is pleased to unite her interests in combining artistic expression with activism through the ART AND SOCIAL JUSTICE exhibition, on view at Susan Swartz Studios (260 Main Street, Park City) until February 2, 2020.

During the last half of January, Park City, Utah transforms into the “it” destination for film lovers, celebrities, and other affiliates of the motion picture industry. Sundance shows over 200 films across all genres. This year’s documentary category was particularly strong due to many of the films’ topical subject matter. Combining her passions for philanthropy and art, Susan Swartz has been actively involved with the emergence of documentary films at Sundance over the past 15 years, hosting the first documentary parties at her home and founding Impact Partners in 2007.

Sundance Institute and Zions Bank have joined forces to recognize women leaders in the arts. This year’s award celebration fell at the end of the Sundance Film Festival, which hosted discussions and events surrounding the roles of women in the arts, particularly the film industry. The award holds significant weight, occurring at a time when women in the film and television industries are trying to raise awareness and shift paradigms of gender norms.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Christian Center of Park City will host an event that has become a tradition in the area. The annual Hike for Hunger will bring together people from all walks of life to raise awareness of issues related to hunger and poverty and the charitable work done by the Center to address these concerns.

Susan has long been an impassioned defender of human rights. Over the past decade, she and her husband, Jim, have helped produce important films that seek to shed light on injustice, like Born Into Brothels, which won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary and Anita: Speaking Truth to Power, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Susan was honored to support the Divinity School at Harvard University by sponsoring the February 28th panel about the barriers facing women hoping to work within Shari’a law courts. Titled “Women’s Rights in a Man’s World,” the panel featured Kholoud Al-Faqih, the first female judge in a Palestinian Shari’a court, as well as several other notable female law leaders.

One of the joys of living in Susan’s hometown of Park City, Utah is experiencing the energy of the annual Sundance Film Festival here each January. “For me, watching these films is like going to graduate school, ” explains Susan, “learning about important subjects that I often never even knew existed before.”

As women step into global leadership roles in government and business, they have also become driving forces in addressing humanitarian issues, particularly those pertaining to women and children around the world.

I have long been fascinated by the powerful connection between art and the environment — both define us as a people. Standing in a riverbed deep within the walls of a canyon or at the helm of a boat contemplating the vastness of our oceans, I try to imagine how an artist chooses color and finds form, and I am humbled. The outer world of nature and the interpretive world of art both insist that we transcend our narrow self-interest and see beyond what is right in front of us. Artists seek universal truths and help us form a community that responds to these truths and not to rhetoric or partisanship. The natural world reminds us how we are all connected, not by geography, but by river tributaries and wind patterns and fault lines. We depend on each other and also depend on the stewardship of the natural world. For it provides our lifeblood: clean air and water.

“A Shared Passion for Environmental Campaigning” brings Artist Susan Swartz and environmental leaders Louie Psihoyos and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. together at Belgravia Gallery in London November 7th.

BREATH OF NATURE show of paintings by American Painter and Environmental Campaigner Susan Swartz on view at Belgravia Gallery October 22 - November 24

One of Susan’s most rewarding efforts is the Christian Center of Park City (CCPC), which she and her husband, Jim, co-founded over 12 years ago. An inter-denominational community organization based in Susan’s home community of Park City, Utah, the CCPC aims to meet people at their point of need as an expression of God’s love.

For those of you who might be on Long Island, Susan suggests attending the special screening of the Impact Partners film DETROPIA, hosted by Alec Baldwin, Saturday, July 21. This is part of a series of special screenings over the summer sponsored by the Hamptons Film Festival at East Hampton's Guild Hall. DETROPIA won the Editing Award at Sundance this year. It will have a limited theatrical release this Fall, and will premier on PBS in 2013.

Through her continuing efforts to raise awareness about environmental toxins and healthy, mindful living, Susan has been working on several fronts with Dr. Mark Hyman, author of The Blood Sugar Solution.

The latest is their support of Sugar Babies, a documentary film by Jenny Mackenzie (Kick Like a Girl) about diabetes, a disease that is now threatening our youngest generation. Watch the trailer for this powerful look at our most preventable of epidemics.

As part of the year long celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act, today June 21st is Fishable Waters Action Day. Local Waterkeeper Alliance groups, fisherman and anyone interested in the health of their local waterways are fishing, boating or visiting their favorite water spot today. Susan, a longtime supporter of the work of Waterkeeper, urges everyone to join her in visiting their local stream, river, lake or ocean today to enjoy and observe its health.

Each spring, the Harvard Divinity School (HDS), of which Susan is a member of the Dean's Council, hosts a Leadership Day devoted to thinking through global issues about faith and religion.

This year, Susan was honored to say a few words about retiring dean, William A. “Bill” Graham. “Bill is one of the most open and warm people that I have ever known,” remarked Susan. “He [helped] me to understand how my art flowed from my spiritual self, connecting me with the work of this great institution and the progression of religious expression through art over time.”

May is National Lyme Disease Awareness Month, and June is often the month when infected ticks are most prevalent in much of the United States. This past May offered Susan an opportunity to reflect on a very important film for which she her husband, Jim, served as executive producers over four years ago.

Under Our Skin premiered in May 2008 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and has racked up over 90,000 ratings on Netflix to date. A few weeks ago, Dr. Phil even devoted an entire program to chronic Lyme (video below), using several minutes of footage from Under Our Skin.

An Impact Partners production, Sofia’s Last Ambulance, a film by Bulgarian born Ilian Metev, has won the France 4 Visionary Award at the Cannes Film Festival International Critics’ Week.