Frame it RI, at 991 Oaklawn Ave, will host a three day long weekend of wellness to commemorate mental health month with live music and an art exhibit featuring the photography of Joshua Fonseca and the paintings of Erica Donnelly from May 19 to 21.

Planned by Donnelly, Fonseca and owner of Frame it RI Maria Smith, the event  commemorates mental health month through visual and performance art while “igniting your senses through painting, photography and music.”

“This actually began a couple of months ago,” Donnelly said. “Joshua and I had started Seasons of our Soul, and we had our very first gallery showing in December. Maria has been a very long time friend and vendor of mine via the Providence Center. She has framed many many pieces of patient artwork through all of the galas that I’ve planned.”

During that first show, Fonseca and Donnelly spoke with Smith and decided to work together to create, not just a gallery show, but a way to bring art, music and food together to provide a means of calming mental stress and giving people a break from the rigors and tribulations of day to day life.

The weekend will start Friday night with an opening reception featuring works of art by Smith, Donnelly and Fonseca as well as live performance and hors d'oeuvres from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“This weekend is not only going to be a gathering of visual arts,” Fonseca said. “It’s also going to be a time where folks are going to be coming in to provide live artistic expression and experiences as well. There’ll be singing, poetry, maybe some stand up comedy if the right people show up and there will also be some open drumming music that will hopefully get people dancing and a little interactive.”

Saturday will bring both an open house showing from noon to 3 p.m. and a sound journey meditation from 6 to 8 p.m. Throughout the day attendees will have a chance to browse, and be inspired, by Fonseca’s original photography and Donnelly’s acrylic paintings.

“Myself and two others, some friends, are going to provide a sound journey meditation,” Fonseca explained. “It’s a chance to relax with instrumentation. Which will be live rather than an actual recording of the instruments. We expect there to be a lot of folks who will be having their first time sitting through a therapeutic practice like that. It’s a chance to cultivate community. I think it’ll give folks a different outlook on how you can have a live experience.”

 Fonseca said he looks forward to providing people with a live meditative journey and that he himself will be there to perform, with the group playing hand drums, shakers, chimes, sound bowls and an authentic Australian didgeridoo. This weekend of experience and introspection will change on Sunday to become a more “family friendly” event.

“We’re going to provide a family fun instrument making workshop,” Fonseca said. “So there’s about two or three different instruments that we’re going to help folks make, and at the end of making the instruments we’re going to encourage folks to join in with me for an open jam session.”

Hand-made egg maracas and ocean plate tambourines will be among the instruments available for kids, and adults, to craft along with a possible third craftable instrument that hasn’t been chosen yet. Sunday’s “Family Day Workshop” will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. and will provide fun for all ages.

“What’s going to come from this event will be a ripple effect of happiness and joy,” Fonseca said.

“We’re not doing this for a chance to sell our work,” Donnelly explained. “The healing power of art is amazing. I knew that when I met Joshua I had to partner with him, because his work is truly inspiring, and what he was doing made such an impact on me. I want to bring that inspiration and effect to others who maybe don’t have that in their lives.”