Tracy Ferron
Life on Art
Artist Tracy Ferron is pioneering a new form of public art —large-scale sculptures co-created by hundreds of people centering those most impacted by systemic injustice in an empowering collective process. As Founder and CEO of Life On Art, Tracy has developed art programs for California state prisons, psychiatric facilities, transitional housing sites and schools to provide creative pathways for individuals to discover more expansive narratives about themselves and find a sense of hope and belonging. The resulting public art displays have been seen by over 70,000 people.
Tracy’s award-winning Unbound project brought 1,500 people together to co-create an 80-foot sculpture of hundreds of winged hearts flying free from a cage in partnership with one of California's largest state psychiatric hospitals in Napa, CA. Life On Art’s large-scale works are built through cross-sector collaboration between clinicians, artists, educators, schools, non-profits, and government agencies with a focus upon those most forgotten in our society as co-creators.
Tracy's passions for mental health and arts equity are personal. Her two brothers lived with severe mental illness; one spent decades in institutions and prisons. Art became her path through that experience — and the foundation of everything Life On Art builds.
In 2025, San Quentin Rehabilitation Center invited Life On Art to lead a whole-facility participatory art project, expanding the organization's reach into wellness programming for corrections staff.
Tracy believes that the arts are a powerful and effective tool for public health, wellness and social cohesion and that collective art is a much-needed force for change.