Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at

Inova Schar Cancer Institute

New space, same mission.

The Inova Schar Cancer Institute is home to the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery's second gallery space, and shares the mission to feature contemporary artists that address a diversity of significant themes, including spirituality, social change, multiculturalism, health, environmentalism, and community. 

Inova Schar is also home to the Arts & Healing Program, a collaboration with the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, that uses art in its many forms to help support people in treatment and recovery and their loved ones.

The treatment center also features a diverse collection of over 200 artworks throughout the facility and treatment center. The gallery will offer docent led tours of the collection beginning in January 2020. To join, please meet in the gallery on the 2nd floor at the times listed below.

November 17, 2021 - January 30, 2022

For millions of years nature has created perfect organisms, like shells. Since the industrial revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere has been growing at an alarming rate, resulting in the acidification of the oceans, thereby putting at risk the survival of shelled organisms and the entire food chain. 

 Through the creation of unique jewelry, Sylvia Gottwald helps sustainable pearl aquaculture and the ocean by sourcing her pearls and mother of pearl from pacific pearl farms that support the health of the marine environment.  

SYLVIA GOTTWALD studied Fine Arts in Rome and Montreal before arriving in the Cambridge, Massachusetts to earn a Masters in Architecture at Harvard, and pursued further study in urban planning at MIT. She worked internationally as an architect and urban planner and promoted preservation of cultural and natural heritage. Her environmental focus was protection of marine life threatened by overexploitation and pollution.   

At the outset of the millennium, her passion for design would merge with her mission to help protect the oceans. Her worldwide travels allowed her to indulge her passion for collecting rare shells and handcrafted treasures made from mother of pearl. The first collection of objects d’art and jewelry was produced in Paris, France with the materials sourced from the sustainable pearl farms in the South Pacific. To this day every effort is made to travel to South Pacific and buy unique exotic objects to be up cycled or to buy the best materials from sustainable aquaculture farms, to be made into objects that awaken senses and deepen one's appreciation of the beauty of nature.

Her two galleries in Korcula, Croatia and Washington, D.C. are known for jewelry with timeless chic made with best quality shells and pearls. The objects & jewelry found in both galleries go beyond fashion. The exquisite designs with pearls, nacre (mother of pearl) and shells are one of a kind.

The goal is to inspire an authentic passion and appreciation for great design with pearls, nacre and shells.The mission is to raise awareness about shells all other sea creatures very endangered by ocean acidification, pollution and climate change.Master of grand design, Gottwald is also known as an eco-luxe pioneer. The jewelry from natural materials juxtaposed against steel and rubber, have dazzled European, Asian and American audiences in every venue in which they have been exhibited and sold. 

Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm

Collection and Gallery tours available upon request.