Artist interview: Sarah Ticho, director of Soul Paint and XR Health & Arts Consultant
Soul Paint synopsis:
Soul Paint is an award winning virtual reality experience by Sarah Ticho and Niki Smit. Narrated by Rosario Dawson, this experience asks participants the question: ‘Where are you feeling?’ Backed by behavioural scientists and researchers, the experience combines 3D drawing, playful embodied interaction and personal introspection, inviting the user to create an expressive virtual reality artwork about their own emotions and embodied sensations. Participants craft their own unique inner reality, and then observe the creations of others. The experience aims to encourage new forms of embodied insight, allowing users to reflect on the diversity of human experience on an individual and global level.
Format: VR headset, single user, 6DoF plug and play, hybrid installation.
Selected festivals: SXSW, Games for Change, Kaohsiung Film Festival (Taiwan), BFI London Film Festival, Art*VR Festival (Prague), Geneva International Film Festival, Beyond the Frame Festival (Japan), and many more…
Project evolution:
Soul Paint was conceived by Sarah Ticho initially as a PhD project, but over time pivoted into a business due to funding challenges and limited opportunities for growth within academia. Initial funding came from UK incubator CreativeXR (Arts Council & Digital Catapult), and later when Niki Smit joined as co-director, further support came from Dutch organizations like Dutch Film Fonds Immerse Interact, Stimuleerings Fonds and Cinekid Festival. Further development funding has come from Innovate UK’s Create Growth Fund.
Soul Paint was devised as a project that blends art, science and health, aiming to create a meaningful VR experience that improves wellbeing and supports new participatory forms of storytelling. Ticho emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the work, which she sees as its strength yet which has also led to difficulties securing funding.
“Lots of arts organizations and arts funders were saying, ‘this is a health project. It’s not an art project.’ And then you go to science funding, and they think it’s an art project, not a health project.”
To refine the project, a pilot ran in Maidenhead Library (UK) as well as a few days user-testing at South Devon College in partnership with Devon and Torbay NHS Trust. Ticho also works with some UK National Health Service professionals, including a collaboration with Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust, Healing and Expressive Recovery Arts and WellBN GP centre.
Distribution and exhibition: challenges and rewards
Ticho says she initially positioned the project as a health business, yet found no infrastructure to support health XR distribution, and notes that other companies in this space were equally struggling. Eventually the project started to get traction through arts funding, and after bringing on industry expert Liz Rosenthal as executive producer, the team began exploring a creative release.
Despite interest from major players, promising funding opportunities often fell through. Festivals delivered some exposure, but these were often a significant amount of work for the team. Ticho noted experiences with some festivals where the festival would state they had capacity to show XR, but in reality there was much more support and training required. Ticho also notes the budget required to do festival presentations well is often not forthcoming. Festivals that explicitly connect arts and health have been successful points of exhibition and new opportunities, such as More Culture, Less Medicine in Brighton, UK and SDGs and Games at The United Nations, NYC run by Games for Change.
Ticho points out that part of the difficulty in obtaining investment relates to lack of data availability on VR usage numbers, particularly on places like the Meta store. Also, much of the funding available is for R&D, with very little pitched at next steps including distribution and commercialisation.
“I can’t point to [audience] numbers on the Meta store and say, we’re going to make this much money here, or we’re going to be this successful in healthcare, because it’s a system that doesn’t exist yet. But I think we need to generate that evidence and make that model along the way… There’s so much money being thrown at R&D… but actually getting support to create this and then sustaining yourself – that is just almost impossible.”
An expanded reimagination of Soul Paint is premiering at Lincoln Center, NY, US, in February 2026, and more pilots are planned with UK-based researchers, therapists and hospitals. New research collaborations include working with UCL Neuroscience led by Professor Sarah Garfinkel as part of the Wellcome Trust funded EM-BODY: Interoceptive mechanisms of emotion in mental health treatment. Ticho has many plans for where the project could go next, particularly around expanding how audiences can contribute their feelings to a growing archive, expanding data research opportunities, and working with non-traditional XR venues such as schools, libraries and community spaces.
“The dream was always to be able to create this terracotta army of embodied experience … By doing this … we are improving people’s well-being, their understanding of the connection between emotions and their body… long term that is improving well-being in a community.”
Strategic insights and reflections:
Soul Paint has been incredibly successful and has a clear path ahead. Nonetheless, Ticho says the journey has been emotionally and financially taxing. She notes the lack of transparency within the XR industry, where it can be hard to gain access to closed shops or to learn what’s working and not working for others. Robust economic and social impact data would significantly support greater investment in the field, and better support for partnerships across industries such as health is also needed. Ticho believes XR can be a modern communal space for storytelling, healing, and connection – but only with the right supporting structures.
Ticho has also supported broader research in this space, contributing to a toolkit on audiences, XR and health and wellbeing. She is also the co founder of the XR Health Alliance and has released a number of reports including The Growing Value of XR in Healthcare in the United Kingdom.