Art as a way of being believed.
FLARE is a cultural platform bringing art, lived experience, education and advocacy into conversation around endometriosis. It is a space for artists, writers and people living with chronic illness to express, document and reinterpret what is so often left unseen.
Chronic illness informs perception, identity and lived experience in ways that go unacknowledged in conventional discourse. Rather than framing it only through a clinical lens, FLARE places it within creative and cultural space — where it can be explored, witnessed and translated into form.
The Name
Flourish in Life through Art + Resources for Endometriosis.
FLARE’s work is organized as lasting programs: exhibitions, the FLARE Journal, public conversations, publications, and film.
Exhibitions
The first chapter, New York 2026, and the chapters to come.
Record → 02Journal
Essays, artist stories, field notes, research and resources.
Read → 03Conversations
Inside FLARE and the public conversations of each exhibition.
Listen → 04Archive
The permanent record of everything FLARE makes.
Enter →The Founder
One person started it. A community built it. An institution is emerging.
Priscilla Smith is an artist, educator and the founder of FLARE. She paints, sculpts and welds, and she has always worked in more than one material at a time.
She taught art professionally for years, and much of her career has gone into building places where other makers can learn and work. She founded FLAME, an initiative that brings more women into welding and the metal trades, as well as P&L Smithed and And They Make.
She has lived with endometriosis for years. After a complicated excision surgery, she went back to her own studio to work through what had happened, and she kept meeting other people living with the same disease: artists, mothers, caregivers, advocates. Many of them felt reduced to a diagnosis, with the rest of the experience going unseen. She wanted to make a place where it could be seen.
That place became FLARE. She founded it in 2026 and curated its first exhibition, FLARE: Illuminating Endometriosis, which brought more than thirty artists from thirteen countries to New York that September. She is also the author of Flourish Through the Fire, a guided art journal for people living with endometriosis.
Priscilla Smith · Founder & Creative Director
History
A short history
Confirmed milestones only. The record grows with each chapter.
2026Founding
FLARE is founded
Priscilla Smith founds FLARE — Flourish in Life through Art + Resources for Endometriosis.
Mar 142026
The FLARE Journal begins
The first story is published on Substack. Read the Journal.
Mar 182026
Inside FLARE launches
The first episode of the podcast is released. Listen to the episodes.
Jul 2026Recognition
A proclamation from the U.S. Senate
FLARE receives a proclamation from the office of U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, dated for the exhibition’s final day, September 19. View the document.
2026Recognition
A statement in the Congressional Record
U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen recognizes FLARE in the Congressional Record ahead of the exhibition. View the document.
2026Publication
Flourish Through the Fire
The founder’s creative wellness journal is published. About the book.
Sep 17–192026
FLARE: Illuminating Endometriosis opens in New York
30+ artists from 13 countries at The Sixth Floor Loft, 873 Broadway. The exhibition record.
Sep 2026Archive
The Exhibition Archive is published
The work of seven photographers enters the permanent record. The photographs.
NextIn development
The second chapter
The next exhibition and The Way Through, a documentary film, are in development.
Take part in what comes next
Artists, partners, volunteers and readers each hold a part of FLARE.