shanina dionna is a West Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist, nonprofit educator, and certified Person-Centered Expressive Arts facilitator whose practice bridges visual art, somatic inquiry, and community-centered care. Working across earth-based painting, murals, expressive movement, installation, photography, and film, she creates immersive experiences that position art as both aesthetic expression and social medicine.
Rooted in personal and collective narratives of mental health, healing, and resilience, shanina’s work centers communities navigating systemic barriers, using the arts as a catalyst for emotional awareness, self-regulation, and communal wellness. Her practice moves fluidly between studio production, public installation, and healing-centered facilitation, building spaces where beauty, ritual, and cultural responsiveness converge.
Her collaborations span museums, behavioral health organizations, nonprofits, universities, and civic spaces, including the Barnes Foundation, Penn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, the Philadelphia System of Care, Moore College of Art & Design, the University of Southern California, LIFEWTR, and the Office of Senator Sharif Street. Her work is permanently installed at The Colored Girls Museum in Germantown, marking her first museum acquisition, and has been presented at venues including the Urban Art Gallery, Icebox Project Space, Vox Populi, Philly PACK, Fashion District Philadelphia, and the National Liberty Museum.
In 2016, shanina founded ARTbuds Philly, a free youth arts program housed at the Urban Art Gallery. She is a recipient of the inaugural Dean Collection 20 St(art)ups grant (presented by Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz) awarded to 20 artists worldwide in 2018, and was named a Mural Arts Philadelphia Black Artist Fellow in 2023. In 2025, she received the Leeway Transformation Award; and was selected as the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Paul Robeson House & Museum through the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation. Recognized by Philadelphia Magazine for creating positive space for mental health conversations, shanina is a Temple University alum and is currently earning a master’s in Art Therapy & Counseling at Drexel University.
“Art helped save my life. I simply desire to pay that forward.”
- shanina dionna
Photography, Sarah Alderman.