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.

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.

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.

Susan and her husband, Jim, are co-founders of Impact Partners, a philanthropic venture organization that supports independent films that address pressing social issues. Over the years, films they have supported have gone onto screen at major festivals all over the planet and to win significant accolades, including Academy Awards.

As an environmental and humanitarian activist, Susan knows that documentary film can be one of the most powerful mediums for shedding light on pressing social issues. That’s why Susan and her husband, Jim, are founding members of Impact Partners, a unique organization that brings together filmmakers and investors. In recent years, Impact Partners has helped fund important and award-winning films like The Cove, An Inconvenient Truth, The Garden and Freeheld.

In the early 1970's, a mysterious illness was discovered among children living around the town of Lyme, CT. What was first diagnosed as isolated cases of juvenile arthritis, eventually became known as Lyme disease, one of the most misunderstood and controversial illnesses of our time.

Did you know that over 70% of the toxic mercury in our environment is the result of industrial activities and human pollution? Mercury accumulates in the atmosphere and makes its way up the marine food chain, ultimately leading to dangerously high concentrations of the metal in the species of fish favored by many humans, like tuna, swordfish and mackerel. In humans, mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that at elevated levels may lead to cancer, slow growth, brain, and kidney damage. After becoming critically ill with mercury poisoning a decade ago, Susan emerged determined to shed light on this environmental and human health catastrophe. Together with her husband, Jim, and their filmmaking partners, Susan executive produced the impactful film Mercury Rising.