The Idea
A hospital wall is the most-looked-at surface in a child's day.
“This is a painting done by all of us.”H.E. Jamaal Rolle — at the unveiling
When you're eight years old and stuck in a bed, you don't get to choose much. Not the schedule, not the needles, not the room. You look at the ceiling, and you look at the wall.
Participaint exists to make that wall worth looking at — and then to do the thing that most public art never does. We hand you the brush.
Patients paint. Siblings paint. Nurses paint on their break. Parents who have been holding it together all week put a handprint on a wall and sign their kid's name next to it. Only then does Jamaal finish the piece, building his work around theirs.
That's the whole idea, and it's where the name comes from. A mural isn't delivered to a community. It's made by one.
Day 1
Create
We draw and color-code the original mural.
Day 2
ParticiPAINT
Patients paint alongside families, staff and our artistic team.
Days 3–4
Transform
Our Lead Artist professionally develops the children's painting into the finished artwork.
Day 5
Reveal
The completed mural is officially unveiled to the hospital community.
Currents of Strength — on the lift, four storeys up — Haverhill, 2024
The Artists
H.E. Jamaal Rolle
Lead Artist
Internationally recognized visual artist and diplomat: Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of The Bahamas to UNESCO, Certified Therapeutic Arts Practitioner, and member of Rotary International. Born in Nassau, the sixth of thirteen children in a family of artists.
He has painted Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sir Sidney Poitier, Prince Harry and Martha Stewart — which is how he came to be known as The Celebrity Artist. At ParticiPAINT he creates each original mural, develops the color-coded painting experience, and transforms the children's painting into the finished professional artwork.
Ask him about his favourite job and he'll tell you about a hospital playroom.
Cindi Gianopoulos
Founder & Assistant Artist
A photographer from Lawrence, Massachusetts. She met Jamaal when he came north to paint Currents of Strength, then apprenticed to him for the two weeks it took — feeding him, driving him, and painting beside him on the lift.
She founded ParticiPAINT with a vision to give children the opportunity to create something meaningful within the spaces caring for them — and she works alongside the children throughout every ParticiPAINT experience.