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A new article drawing on the launch of Trace: A Memorial at CUNY SPH shows how art, community partnerships, and shared memory can deepen trust and make research feel more humane and participatory.
Trace is a heat-sensitive artwork by artist Nyssa Chow honoring essential workers who died early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper, published in the Journal of Participatory Research Methods, reflects on the collaborative process that brought the installment to the Harlem Health Initiative storefront at CUNY SPH where it remains on view.
At the Trace launch in May 2025, more than 100 people gathered at CUNY SPH for an evening of remembrance and recognition. The authors write that the event demonstrated the power of art and memory to bring people together across roles, generations, and experiences, while also deepening understanding of public health as a field shaped by history, inequity, and care.
The authors say the project became a “space for collective remembrance, recognition, and grieving” that helped participants connect personal loss, professional experience, and public health systems.
“Participatory public health dissemination often focuses on transmitting findings, while overlooking the emotional reality of the harms those findings represent,” says Associate Professor Emma Tsui, a member of the author team. “Healing-centered spaces can help communities encounter difficult public health data in ways that are relational, culturally grounded, and more likely to build lasting engagement.”
Public health institutions should treat relationship-building, care, and maintenance as essential infrastructure rather than optional extras, the authors say. Similar remembrance-centered spaces could help future community-engaged research feel more meaningful, more accessible, and potentially more healing.
Trace was brought to CUNY SPH through a collaboration with the Harlem Health Initiative (HHI), the New York City Preparedness and Recovery Institute (PRI), the CUNY SPH Foundation, and Manhattan Community Board 10.
