Thousands of handmade origami flowers, each with a written message of hope and encouragement, fill 21 clear acrylic heart-shaped sculptures for Thursday’s With Love Gala. The black-tie affair will showcase the 1,000 Flowers Community Art Project at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, along with live music and an art auction.
The project is the culmination of hundreds of hands across Hampton Roads.
Virginia Beach artist Erika Hitchcock created the “With Love Campaign” and the art project launched last year to honor her brother, Paul, who died in 2019. Hitchcock was inspired by an inscription she found one day on a park bench that read: “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I would walk through my garden forever.”
Hitchcock traveled to area schools, libraries and community centers, holding more than 40 origami flower-making workshops. She invited students, parents and neighbors to ask themselves, “What would you tell a friend? What message would you want to give someone if they were struggling?”
Some participants wrote Bible verses. Others wrote variations of “You are Loved” and “You Matter” on the outer petals of their pieces; others kept their messages private by writing in the heart of the flower and folding in the petals. The flowers were dropped into the heart-shaped statues.
The gala and art auction proceeds benefit the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI, Coastal Virginia, which provides free mental health resources. One in four adults experiences a mental health disorder in a year and NAMI supports them and their families. The flower project has connected people with NAMI’s services while encouraging the end of the silence and stigma that often surrounds mental illness.
The project has been translated into a school curriculum that introduces conversations to children through art classes and includes flower-making instructions, explanations and age-appropriate concept questions.
“It brings a breath of fresh air to a topic that can be difficult to maneuver,” Hitchcock said. Providing a space where students can talk about mental health can be critical for early intervention and help students recognize warning signs in their peers.
After the gala, the art installation will travel to the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach and tour Hampton Roads into 2026 at schools, libraries and art galleries. Venues will provide mental health programming.
“If there’s that one person that’s struggling and they don’t feel alone,” Hitchcock said, “then all this hard work has been worthwhile.”
The Thursday gala is sold out but a waitlist and information about the project are at withlovenami.com.
