Healing through art: Dozens paint ‘Stars of Hope’ at El Paso Museum of Art

EL PASO, Texas -- It's been more than six months since the Cielo Vista Walmart shooting on Aug. 3 that rocked the El Paso community. Sunday afternoon, one organization encouraged El Pasoans to heal and pay it forward one paint brush stroke at a time.

Dozens of people came together to paint "Stars of HOPE, " 12 inch stars with designs on the front and messages of hope on the back, at the El Paso Museum of Art Sunday afternoon.

Stars of HOPE is one of the world's largest arts healing programs, visiting cities and towns across the globe "empowering people to create and heal after natural and human caused disasters," said Stephanie Wray, an organizer with Stars of Hope.

Back in Aug. 2019, the El Paso Executive Women's Lions Club received 200 stars from Stars of Hope. "We felt that with due time we need to pay it forward and provide out community the opportunity to paint their own stars," said Rose Lucero, president of the El Paso Executive Women's Lions Club.

Stars of HOPE aims to offer art as a therapeutic tool to spread messages of love, hope, and healing to not just the El Paso community

"When something first happens, we try to get stars on the ground right away so that people know (that) 'hey, people from all over the world are hearing about you,' and then the dust settles and everyone is still left with what happens," Wray said.

"One of the important things about therapeutic art is that it really gives people the ability to express themselves when they may not have words," Wray said.

Lucero said Executive Women's Lions Club is working on the possibility of sending the stars painted in El Paso to either Australia, Puerto Rico, or the Bahamas after the natural disasters they experienced.

To learn more about Stars of HOPE, click here.