What is HotL?

We are excited to introduce House of the Living, a collaborative public artwork between FarmerJawn & Friends Foundation Fund, EMIR Healing Center, and Swarthmore College to transform FarmerJawn’s greenhouse into a monument commemorating gun violence victims in Philadelphia. The project intersects environmental sculpture, photography, and agriculture practices to create a safe, nondenominational, judgment-free space where co-victims and the broader community can reflect and heal from the trauma of gun violence.

Read more about House of the Living and the work we’re doing on our website.

How HotL started and where it is now

Once an overgrown greenhouse located on the historic, 42 acre Elkins Estate in Elkins Park, House of the Living is a memorial to people lost to gun violence, and a peaceful place for community members to heal and reflect. House of the Living is a multi-year collaboration between EMIR Healing Center, FarmerJawn & Friends Foundation Fund, and Swarthmore College that addresses the gun violence epidemic in Philadelphia in an unprecedented way.

In the first phase of the project, the group built on FarmerJawn’s previous work, further revitalizing the greenhouse and surrounding landscape. They also conducted trauma-informed interviews of victims’ families and designed and installed 90 engraved acrylic panels with the portraits and names of gun violence victims from Philadelphia. This phase was backed by a grant from the Engaged Humanities Studios of the Lang Center at Swarthmore College.