Imagine an entire school – students, teachers, and administrators – taking time each morning to turn inward together, and listen to a brief mindfulness prompt and world-class music.
The Well's programs combine best practices in arts and wellness and are designed in partnership with those they serve.
We love collaborating with local, national and international community partners and peoples in a variety of arts programming and mindfulness practices.
We are a small yet mighty team, dedicated to making a big difference with what we have. Your support means the world to us.
True Body Project
Schools
Communities
True Body teens, 2005. Captured by teen Esther Freeman.
The Well's Founder Stacy Sims created the first True Body Project in 2005 as an intensive summer program for teen girls in partnership with ArtWorks and the YMCA, funded by P&G's FemCare brands.
That six-week, daily curriculum married art, writing, movement, mindfulness, activism, media literacy, gender studies, and holistic wellness and encouraged girls to deepen their own exploration of what it means to be a human in a body and to share their experiences truthfully to advocate for the wellness of self and others. The girls created a literary journal that summer as well as a short documentary film.
True Body prompts.
In 2006, another 13 teen girls gathered for a summer job and a journey of self-discovery. In partnership with U.C. and ArtWorks and with artists Dorit Cypis and Aralee Strange, the teens created performance works for the Contemporary Arts Center's Black Box theatre. The themes they included were body image, beauty, time, media and connection.
True Body constitution. True Body Summer Camp 2007.
In 2007, teen girls attended a week-long summer camp at Hope Springs in Ohio. They wrote, made art, hiked, did yoga and meditated, ate amazing food and created time and space for just being. This constitution remains a vital part of the True Body Project.
Finale: Body Language, A Radical Truth
In 2008, Stacy Sims engaged the community in prompted conversations and crafted a site-specific piece for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival in the School for Creative and Performing Arts. It won the "Audience Pick of the Fringe".
A mother daughter argument becomes part of the performance.
Earth work creation and celebration at Hope Springs.
This residential week of camp for teen girls included lots of time in nature, writing, movement, meditation and play. The teens helped to create an earthwork to leave on the site and crafted a closing ceremony to celebrate the land.
Body Language II: Phys. Ed. at Cincinnati Fringe
In 2009, True Body returned to Cincinnati Fringe festival with a crowd-sourced script that examined the complexity of "gym class" for both boys and girls. Staged in a gym, the piece was both somber and festive and ended with a surprise flash mob.
True Body New York, Brooklyn Museum
Stacy Sims shared the True Body Theatre process with women in New York and they conducted workshops with more than 200 girls and women across New York to create this grassroots multi-site performance at the Brooklyn Museum and a participatory event at the museum in advance. "During April’s Target First Saturday, representatives from the True Body Project shared their art-making process with Museum visitors by placing journals containing workshop participants’ reflections on each chair. The visitors were encouraged to leaf through the journals and read aloud entries that they personally connected with. The audience’s response was amazing with participants ranging in age from 10 to 65 reading to the group. Innovative and inspirational, the activity created a sense of connection across age, background, and experience."
About the project. Body Language: Brooklyn Museum.
True Body Theatre: Walk in our Shoes
True Body Project enjoyed a third year with CincyFringe with its WALK IN OUR SHOES project. More than 100 people donated shoes and personal stories. We exhibited the shoes and stories at SWITCH on Vine Street and crafted the stories into a sold-out performance work for CincyFringe. We were nominated for Best Alternative Show by City Beat's CEA awards and reprised the show at the Museum Center and the Clifton Cultural Arts Center.
True Body Theatre: Walk in our Shoes
True Body Theatre in LA: Walk in our Shoes
Stacy Sims spent a month in residence with EngAGE seniors and students in Los Angeles for the month of October and created two performance works on the WALK IN OUR SHOES theme. We also created blogs to commemorate our time together and our stories. You can see stories of the Piedmont seniors and students here and the Burbank seniors and students here.
True Body Teens at Women Writing for (a) Change
True Body Project and Women Writing for (a) Change collaborated on a weekly class for teens. The girls created a performance work that was performed at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center.
True Body Project Curriculum Guide was licensed in Canada, Tennessee, Vermont and more so that the True Body work is being done by girls and women in more and more places.
Cambodian girls finding resilience with True Body Project.
At the invitation of Transitions Global (later Hope for Justice) Founders Athena and James Pond, founder Stacy Sims traveled to Cambodia to spend a week with girls who were in a long term aftercare program for trafficking survivors. Stacy wrote about the trip here on her blog.
Connection in Cambodia.
True Body Project girls program.
WVXU featured the importance of True Body Project in schools in this 2016 interview.
Cincy Fringe Poster
True Body Theatre returned to Cincy Fringe to explore the complexity of remembering and healing from sexual assault in a poetic, community-sourced piece of theatre.
True Body Cambodia
A Cambodian teen fills out her "true selfie."
Stacy Sims continues to teach in Cambodia in now alternating year trips. The format for her time in Cambodia has changed slightly over the years yet always included work with NGO's, workshops and direct service with individuals. Currently, The Well hosts Cultural Immersions and invites guests to accompany Stacy to Cambodia to learn more about cultural humility and True Body in cross-cultural, high trauma areas. The next trip will be in January, 2027.
True Body Workshop in Phnom Penh.
2022 True Body Summer Intensive: Greetings from Planet Love
Camp Washington Mural.
Learning about sound healing.
In the summer of 2023, 12 youth art apprentices from ArtWorks joined forces with the True Body Project at The Well and discovered a forgotten planet: Planet Love.
Over 8 weeks, these young explorers spent each day at The Well meeting with guest artists and inspirers and making visual, literary and photographic art inspired by Planet Love. They created a book, entitled Dispatches from Planet Love, and a mural and pocket park in Camp Washington.
This summer program was made possible thanks to City of Cincinnati youth-to-work funds, donations from individuals, Idlewild, and a grant from P&G.
The promise of Planet Love inspired Saturdays on Planet Love, weekly sessions for LGBTQIA youth and monthly sessions for adults, featuring peer facilitation with mindfulness, art, writing and connection. Thanks to ArtsWave Pride for recognizing and funding this important "third space."
Sona and Soma - Regan Jordan
Visiting artist Romain Mayambi and Summer Apprentices.
The Well's True Body Project joined forces with ArtWorks to lead an 8-week summer program for 12 Youth Apprentice Artists focusing on understanding self and other via the lens of photography, art-making, writing, and collaboration.
This year's outcome was a FotoFocus exhibition and catalogue entitled Sona and Soma and investigated through lens-based works the complexity of living in a body. Supported by visiting artists Michael Coppage, Hatsue, Kyle Wolff and Romain Mayambi, lead teaching artist Elan Schwartz and visiting artist Andrea Sisson - with the support of The Well's team - led the teens through creative, critical thinking and team building experiences and help them achieve their artistic vision.
True Body teens gear up for their summer.
It's the 20th anniversary of the True Body Project and we are celebrating with another partnership with ArtWorks!
This year, thanks to America's River Roots, P&G Fund, and Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell, Youth Apprentice Artists ages 15-20 spent the summer researching about the history, present and imagined future of the Ohio River. In a short 7 weeks, these paid apprentices conceived and created:
An educational zine
Two short films
Two installations for the festival
A web comic
A newspaper
An EP
These youth-made outcomes will be featured at the festival and below.
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Stay up to date on our latest mindfulness programs and access past newsletters.
Our programs have been nourishing the community since 2005. In 2019, we became the non-profit, A Mindful Moment.
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We are a small yet mighty team, dedicated to making a big difference with what we have. Your support means the world to us.
