Meet Elizabeth Tobias | Founder & Creative Changemaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elizabeth Tobias and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
My art business helps the world by using creativity as a pathway for healing, connection, and social change. I work at the intersection of art and mental health, creating workshops, programs, and exhibitions that give people safe spaces to express themselves, process difficult experiences, and rebuild a sense of belonging.

My own journey through trauma and loss taught me how powerful creative expression can be. Expressive Arts became the place where I found language for what had no words, and now I share that process with others, survivors, students, communities, and organizations seeking resilience and renewal.

Through Elizabeth Tobias Arts, I create experiences that awaken empathy, strengthen emotional well-being, and ignite collective imagination. Whether I’m leading hands-on workshops, curating transformative exhibits, or speaking on platforms like TEDx, my mission is to help people turn their stories into strength. My work isn’t just about art—it’s about helping people feel seen, supported, and connected, and showing how creativity opens the door to healing and possibility. As an advocate for Expressive Arts, I share a practice that invites us to co-create, imagine new ways of being together, and return to our senses, the colors we see, the rhythms we feel, the breath we share. In creating together, we remember who we are and who we can become.
We don’t always choose the fire, but we do get to choose how we rise.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve always been a risk-taker. As a filmmaker and Expressive Arts practitioner, I merge activism and art to confront urgent social issues, open conversations around trauma and mental health, and invite audiences into creative processes that foster awareness and healing.

When the economic crash hit and my neighbors began losing their homes, my work shifted, creating objects no longer felt sufficient. I turned toward social practice, using art as a means of connection, questioning, and collective resilience. In response to rising food insecurity in Los Angeles, I created The Cupcake Project, an immersive performance in which I bartered homemade cupcakes for personal stories. What began on the streets evolved into a traveling installation shown in museums nationwide, transforming art from product into a deeply human exchange.

My most personal work, Survivor! Share Your 98 Second Story, began as an installation created to give artist-survivors of sexual assault a place to speak the truths often kept in silence. What started as a communal act of witnessing evolved into an award-winning documentary that honors the courage and complexity of survival. The film earned me Best New Director at the Mediterranean Film Festival Cannes, and my advocacy around sexual assault and interpersonal violence has been formally recognized by Vice President Kamala Harris, a reminder that art can move private pain into public awareness and help shift the culture toward healing.

Across film, performance, installation, and photography, the through-line of my work remains the same: to bring the unseen into view, transform pain into possibility, and use creativity not as an escape, but as a way through.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
When someone I love visits San Diego, I want the weekend to feel unhurried, full of moments that linger long after goodbye.

Friday night, we’d wander Little Italy, slipping into restaurants and wine bars, following the scent of something delicious, and letting the streets guide us. The lights, the energy, the chatter, it’s alive, vivid, and effortless.

Saturday, music at the Rady Shell. Sitting by the bay with the skyline behind us, the notes drifting across the water, the city seems suspended in something beautiful. Nights here stay with you.

Sunday, we’d slow even more at Deer Park Monastery: mindful walking, gentle meditation, and a simple vegetarian meal shared in quiet. By the time we sit in the Wave of Peace Hall, the world softens. It’s grounding, luminous, and a perfect ending to a weekend meant to be felt, not rushed.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Motherhood has been the hardest and most humbling work of my life, and also the most miraculous. My daughter, Gaia, has been my compass and my greatest teacher. I named her after Mother Earth, hoping she would always feel a sense of belonging and purpose in the world.

Our journey together has shaped us both. I’ve stood beside her as her fiercest ally, believing in her, steadying her, and learning that protection is not about holding on, but about giving her space to grow. The joys, the heartbreaks, the late nights and early mornings, the imperfect, human moments, they became our lessons in love and resilience.

As she steps into the wider world and into her own unfolding, I see the strength she carries and the roots we planted together. She may not yet understand every choice or every challenge we’ve navigated, but I trust she will. Even the small things, like keeping my favorite Mazzy Star, Jeff Buckley, and Leon Bridges songs in her playlist, remind me of our quiet, enduring connection.

She is ready. And I believe in her completely.

Website: https://elizabethtobiasarts.com

Instagram: @elizabethtobias

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-tobias

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.tobias.12

Youtube: @elizabethtobias108

Other: contact: elizabethtobiasarts@gmail.com