“WOMAN IN MEADOW GRASSES”: This photo by Laura Hawkins is featured in “Healing Trails,” on view through April 5 at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center. The exhibit is in partnership with the Princeton Photography Club. An opening reception is Friday, February 15 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

It’s a walk. It’s an app. It’s an art exhibit. “Healing Trails,” introduced by D&R Greenway Land Trust, is all of the above. The exhibit, in partnership with the Princeton Photography Club, is on view through April 5 at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center, 1 Preservation Place, Princeton. Both the Healing Trails app and an upcoming walk will be unveiled at the “Healing Trails” opening reception on Friday, February 15, 5:30-7:30 p.m. RSVP by calling (609) 924-4646 or go to www.rsvp@drgreenway.org.

“We developed the Healing Trails app as a unique way to connect the value of being outside in nature with physical, emotional, and spiritual health,” says D&R Greenway President and CEO Linda Mead. “Our inspiration came from Edie Howard who, with her husband, Charlie, preserved their land with us in 2013. While undergoing cancer treatments, Edie found that being outdoors in nature, walking among the bees and the butterflies, was a healing process. She shared this with her ‘rainbow circle,’ describing in emails what she saw in nature and how this related to her healing process. We were inspired by Edie to get people out on the trails, in nature, for all the restorative properties it conveys.”

For the exhibit, D&R Greenway partnered with the Princeton Photography Club, coordinated by Sheila Geisler, to identify seven trails. Over a year and a half, club members walked the trails in all seasons to photograph them. Walks were led by D&R Greenway co-founder and photographer Jim Amon. 

The photographs showcasing the seven healing trails are accompanied by a map and take-away information showing viewers how to get there. Princeton Photography Club members will be present at the February 15 reception to answer questions. The Healing Trails app will be available for the first time on a large screen to enable visitors to explore the trail and listen to the stories for themselves.

The trails featured in the exhibition are at Greenway Meadows, Cedar Ridge Preserve, St. Michaels Farm Preserve, the Sourlands Ecosystem Preserve, and Dry Run Creek. Additionally, the walking tour and paddling tour at Abbott Marshlands are featured — D&R Greenway unveiled two Travelstorys apps for these in 2017. 

Photographers include Jim Amon, David Anderson, Mary Anne Borge, Peter Burt, John Clarke, Joel Dowshen, Carl Geisler, David Goodwillie, Laura Hawkins, Sharlene Holiday, Allen Jones, Deborah Land, Mary Leck, Byron Lum, Tasha O’Neill, Santford Overton, Agata Prawdzik, Maia Reim, Igor Svibilsky, Serge Trigoubovich, and Jeff Worthington. 

“The Healing Trails” exhibit, juried by Geisler, D&R Greenway Curator Diana Moore, and botanist, photographer, and Rider University Professor Emeritus Mary Leck, includes poetry by Jody Kendall and Maxine Sussman, and sculpture by Kate Graves. 

The free app’s audio tour features the voices of those for whom nature has been remedial. A March 19 Healing Trails presentation at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center will teach participants how to use the app. There will be a panel discussion to talk about the benefits of healing in nature, with medical professionals and those featured on the trail telling their personal stories of healing.