Playing for Change, Music Around the World

To celebrate the season we would like to share with you this video with music from the award winning documentary "Playing for Change". Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe.

Community Based Research Tells Street Stories for Change

I recently came across this article in The University of Victoria Alumni Magazine,
Torch at http://web.uvic.ca/torch/torch2009f/feature_4.htm about Dr. Bernie Pauly and her community based research. Once again we learn how creative community based approaches and participative methods (story, photography, video) can help offer a place for human stories and lived experiences to be voiced and witnessed.CM

From the website:


"Since completing her PhD and joining the faculty of the School of Nursing, (Bernie) Pauly’s remained directly involved in homelessness: leading community-based research projects that engage community groups; playing an instrumental role in developing public policy, primarily through former mayor Alan Lowe’s 2007 Task Force on Homelessness; and currently as chair of the research and evaluation working group of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, which aims to end homelessness in the region by 2018."

"At the core of her approach to research Pauly tries “to understand the solutions from the perspective of people who have experienced homelessness. Because they have lived it.” A new community-based research project that she’s initiated — Street Stories — aims to do exactly that."

"A group of people who are, or have been, homeless will use photography and videotape to document their experiences and, essentially, create their own research data. Pauly hopes it will empower them to communicate the everyday challenges of being homeless."

Quotes from The University of Victoria Alumni Magazine, Torch, Autumn 2009,
Volume 30, Number 2

Physician Speaks Out About Universal Healthcare

Sunday, November 8, 2009

In issue 8 of The International Journal of The Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, IJCAIP, "Physicians Speak Out About Arts and Medicine," we were pleased to feature the article "Stories and Society, Using Literature to Teach Medical Students About Public Health and Social Justice" by Dr. Martin Donohoe MD, FACP, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Community Health, Portland State University and Senior Physician of Internal Medicine at The Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Centre.


In this video Dr. Donohoe speaks about the merits of a Universal Health Care System.

Posted by Cheryl McLean at 9:53 AM

Feedback October 09 Issue IJCAIP Physicians Speak Out About Arts and Medicine

"Many thanks for the link and the mention. We are truly indebted."

Dr. Verna Yiu

University of Alberta Medicine and Health

"I am really looking forward to the other commentaries. A brief scan of them illustrates how much is going on in the Medical Humanities in Canada."

Martin Donohoe, MD FACP

"This issue looks very interesting thank you. I've also sent the link to David Rosen MD, (Texas A & M University) co-author of The Healing Spirit of Haiku.

Joel Weishaus

"Wow!!! An amazing source of knowledge.

Thanks."

Michelle Buckle

"Thank you! Issue 8 of IJCAIP is wonderful (both content wise and visually)! I enjoyed the entire issue..reading about the ways other physicians are incorporating the arts/literature into medical education was interesting, informative and inspiring. I am honoured to be included in this issue."

Seema Shah, MD, MSPH


See our most recent issue of IJCAIP "Physicians Speak Out About Arts and Medicine"

Subscribe free with an email to CherylMcLean@ijcaip.com "please subscribe"

IJCAIP October 09 Issue Explores Arts in Medical Education

Arts Alive and Thriving in Medical Education
C. McLean, Publisher IJCAIP

It has been reported that the use of arts and humanities in medical education may help develop observational skills and enhance understanding of the human condition. Programs integrating the arts and humanities in medical education continue to flourish and gain momentum with leading medical schools offering programming such as Stanford School of Medicine, Arts, Humanities and Medicine, established to “promote creative and scholarly work at the intersections between the arts, humanities and medicine in order to enhance our understanding of the contextual meanings of illness, healthcare, and the human condition.” In Canada, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Humanities in Medicine, offers five core initiatives: History of Medicine; Narrative Medicine (oral storytelling film, mass media, and literature); Music; Spirituality; and Visual Arts. The Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine Program at the University of Alberta was launched in May 2006. The program is directed to engendering a balance of scientific knowledge and compassionate care with a mission statement that formally acknowledges “the explicit recognition within the Faculty that clinical practice is both an art and a science.”

The arts are alive and thriving in medical education today, offering opportunities for learning and a place for self expression and healing. A leader in the field of Narrative Medicine, Dr. Rita Charon, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at the Columbia University has long advocated for the use of narrative in medical education to honour stories of illness. Dr. Arthur Frank, Professor of Sociology, University of Calgary, and author of “The Wounded Storyteller, Body, Illness and Ethics”, writes about the meaningful uses of storytelling for those experiencing illness, “The personal issue of telling stories about illness is to give voice to the body, so the changed body can become once again familiar in these stories.”

In our current issue of IJCAIP, http://www.ijcaip.com, "Physicians Speak Out About Arts in Medicine" we've offered physicians a place to voice their stories and share how they use the arts in education.
Our featured article in issue 8 of The International Journal of the Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice IJCAIP, “Stories and Society, Using Literature to Teach Medical Students About Public Health and Social Justice,” has been contributed by Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Community Health, Portland State University and Senior Physician of Internal Medicine at The Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Centre. Donohoe offers an argument for “enhancing public health education of medical students through the use of literature with the goal of creating activist physicians knowledgeable about, and eager to confront, the social, economic and cultural contributions to illness”. He has also generously provided an extensive list of books, articles and resources. A follow up commentary by Jay Rosenfield, MD, MEd, FRCPC, Vice-Dean of Undergraduate Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, stresses the need for continuing research to examine the use of literature and story in medical education further, particularly when linked to advocacy and health of populations and patient outcomes.

Maureen Rappaport MD, FCCFP, is a family doctor who splits her time between working in a busy community practice in Montreal , Quebec, and teaching family medicine residents and medical students. In the article, “The Poetry of Practice” she writes about the creative writing course she teaches as an elective to fourth year medical students at McGill University, a course that provides an important place for students to express their feelings through narratives and poetry.

Physician and Educator Pippa Hall MD, CCFP, MEd, FCFP, at The University of Ottawa, has been a palliative care physician for over ten years. She has integrated arts into learning activities for pre-licensure students and in post graduate programs as well as in continuing professional development activities in nursing and spiritual care. She explains how she has found the arts in many forms provide opportunities for learning while offering new insights into the human condition.

Seema Shah, MD, MSPH, offers a unique perspective as both a physician and patient who has experienced chronic illness. Working with The University of British Columbia Community Partnerships for Health Professional Education Initiative, she facilitated group sessions using literature and story to help teach students about the lived experience of illness.

Our closing commentary explores the exciting potential for other innovative and creative technologies incorporated into teaching and medical education. Kim Bullock, MD, family medicine and emergency room physician, and Director of the Community Health Division and Assistant Director of Service Learning in the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown University, Medical Centre, Washington, believes digital storytelling in medical education has the potential to “link the social, environmental, and historical issues that influence health and illness through graphics”. “What emerges,” she writes, “are voices from the community that bear witness to issues that influence health including problems related to the environment, housing, public safety violence, inequities ..”

The voices represented in this issue of IJCAIP speak about progressive approaches to learning that have the potential to offer hope and change in education and in healthcare practice. There may yet be questions to be answered but, given the space, there will always be stories to tell and those who will witness, learn and be transformed.

Thanks to all the physicians who joined us in this issue of IJCAIP for sharing their articles and commentaries while contributing to this lively discussion about the arts in medical education.

Issue 8 is accessible and available at the website for subscribers.
We invite you to read the full articles available and accessible from the IJCAIP home page in HTML and PDF formats. We hope you will share these stories with your friends and colleagues.


C. McLean, Publisher IJCAIP



Subscribe free to IJCAIP Journal with an email to CherylMcLean@ijcaip.com "please subscribe"

Read more about the creative arts in interdisciplinary practice in the upcoming book “Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change” to
be published by Detselig/Temeron Press, 2010, Editor, Cheryl McLean, Associate Editor, Robert Kelly.

Qualitative Inquiry for a Global Community in Crisis, Conference 2010

The Sixth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (QI2010)
May 26-29, 2010
2010 Dissertation Award

QUALITATIVE INQUIRY FOR A GLOBAL COMMUNITY IN CRISIS

The Sixth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry will take place at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from May 26-29, 2010. The theme of the 2010 Congress is "Qualitative Inquiry for a Global Community in Crisis." It is clear that in these troubling political times qualitative researchers are called upon to become human rights advocates, to honor the sanctity of life, and the core values of privacy, human dignity, peace, justice, freedom from fear and violence.

The 2010 Congress will offer scholars the opportunity to form coalitions, to engage in debate, and dialogue on how qualitative research can be used to can advance the causes of social justice, while addressing racial, ethnic, gender and environmental disparities in education, welfare and healthcare. Delegates will show how critical inquiry can be used to bridge gaps in cultural and linguistic understandings.

Sessions will take up such topics as: the politics of evidence; alternatives to evidence-based models; mixed-methods; public policy discourse; social justice; human subject research; indigenous research ethics; decolonizing inquiry; standpoint epistemologies. Contributors are invited to experiment with traditional and new methodologies, with new presentational formats (drama, performance, poetry, autoethnography, fiction). Such work will offer guidelines and exemplars showing how qualitative research can be used in the human rights and policy-making arenas.

On May 26 there will be pre-conference language events and on May 27, morning and afternoon professional workshops. The Congress will consist of keynote, plenary, featured, regular, and poster sessions. There will be an opening reception and barbeque as well as a closing old fashioned Midwest cook-out.

We invite your submission of paper, poster and session proposals. Submissions will be accepted online only from October 1 until December 1 2009. Conference and workshop registration will begin December 1, 2009. To learn more about the Sixth International Congress and how to participate, please visit our website <www.icqi.org>.

Keynote speakers

Cynthia Dillard (Nana Mansa II), Ohio State University

"Learning to Remember the Things We've Learned to Forget: Endarkened Feminisms and the Sacred Nature of Research."

Abstract

Colonial and racialized histories have created fragmentation, dislocation, and dismemberment for many, including African and other people color. These entanglements and geneologies of diaspora and location strongly influence the consciousness of African ascendant women throughout the world, even as we negotiate the countless influences that shape and impact both our individual and collective consciousness and particularities as African women. These are always and in all ways contested spaces and locations that are deeply spiritual, situated, and embodied. Collectively, we are not born "Black women": We become Black women, a cross-cultural diversity of nationalities, socio economic classes, sexual identities, spiritual beliefs and generational distinctions. And, as Audre Lorde suggested years ago, a critical part of any becoming is also about learning each other's (her)stories and resisting the temptation to compare or create hierarchies of oppression between and among the collective. This includes a deeper recognition of the ways in which we all have been collectively seduced into forgetting who we are as women (or have chosen to do so), given the weight and power of memory and the truly radical act that re-membering may represent in our present lives and work as researchers. Whether through the ravages of colonization or slavery and their inequitable outcomes, we have learned to be both complicit and vigilant in this process of figuring out who we are, who we are becoming. But in order to heal, to put the pieces back together again, we must learn to re-member the things that we've learned to forget, including engagements and dialogues in cross-cultural community that theorize our differing migrations, experiences and definitions. In this way, remembering becomes a response to our individual and collective fragmentation at the spiritual and material levels, a response to the divisions created between mind, body and spirit, and a response to our on-going experience and understanding of "what difference difference makes" (Wright, 2003).

Feminist research has both held and contested experience as a category of epistemological importance, but primarily as a secular one. Absent any attention to spirit, experience is also constructed as absent the sacred. However, the sacred is fundamental to a Black feminist epistemology and research, given the historical and cultural experiences of African ascendant women worldwide. How can re-membering bear witness to our individual and collective consciousness and generate new theories and conduct of feminist research? Through examples from her work in Ghana, West Africa, Dillard explores how locatedness, rootedness, experience and memory engage and create an endarkened feminist subjectivity and spirituality that both re-members and opens possibilities for research as sacred praxis.

Isamu Ito University of Fukui, Japan

"Globalizing The Rural: Reflections of a Qualitastive Japanese Rural Sociologist."

Partial List of Session and Paper Topics

The topics for the 6th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry include, but are not confined to: Autoethnography & Performance Studies, Decolonizing Truth, Democratic Methodologies, Evidence and Social Policy, Human Rights, Indigenous Law, Justice as Healing, Standards for Qualitative Inquiry, Forms and Varieties of Justice, Participatory Action Research, Politics of Evidence, Research as Resistance, Restorative Justice, Social Justice, Community Ethics, visual sociology, hypertext explorations, visual ethnography.

The Congress will also consist of keynote, plenary, spotlight, featured, regular and poster sessions. There will be an opening reception and barbeque, and a closing old-fashioned Midwest cook-out.
We invite your submission of paper, poster and session proposals. Submissions will be accepted online only from October 1 until December 1 2009. Conference and workshop registration will begin December 1, 2009.

From the website at: http://www.icqi.org/

To learn more about the Sixth International Congress and how to participate, please email info@icqi.org.

Shinah House Working to Provide a Place for Healing and Hope

photo from http://www.shinahhouse.org/index.html

I had the pleasure of speaking today with visionary, social entrepreneur, advocate and mental health survivor, Sharon Unger from Cardston Alberta, founder of Shinah House. There are plans underway for a community centre and ranches across Alberta where women suffering from mental illness can participate in a variety of programs including art and music therapy while learning about nutrition and healthy eating. And that's not all. Women will have an opportunity to take part in the day to day activities of the ranch from collecting eggs to milking goats and grooming horses.

Shinah house is working to create places for healing where hope can be found. At the Shinah House website Unger describes her approach “By addressing the whole spectrum of life issues all can achieve improved wellness and personal growth through excellent nutrition, spiritual self-awareness, emotional connectedness, physical fitness and development of interpersonal skills”.

To learn more about Shinah House visit the website

Performed Ethnography Disseminates Knowledge About HIV/AIDS

Performed Ethnography, HIV/AIDS & Aboriginal Youth

The University of Toronto, Sidney Smith, Room 1078 – 100 St. George Street:

Sept 23rd, 1:30-3:00

with:

June Larkin, New College, University of Toronto

Tiffany Nelson, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto

Christine Smillie, Ontario Institute for Studies In Education

The Youth Warriors, Native and Family Services of Toronto

In this presentation we present an innovative knowledge dissemination strategy for research on HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal youth. In partnership with Native Child and Family Services a group of Aboriginal youth, “The Youth Warriors”, worked with Aboriginal actor, Herbie Barnes, to turn data collected in a study on HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal youth into scripts and discussion questions for HIV/AIDS education. The youth also produced photographs and collages to complement their performance pieces. We will discuss the process of developing the arts-based education strategy and the value of this approach for HIV prevention. The presentation will include samples of the youth performances and artistic productions.

June Larkin is Senior Lecturer and Vice Principal of New College and coordinator of the Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention (GAAP) Project, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto (UofT). For more information on GAAP, see: www.utgaap.info

Tiffany Nelson is a Youth Mental Health Outreach Worker at Native Child and Family Services of Toronto. She was also a panel member at the Young Leaders' Forum for the Canadian Centre for Diversity, UofT.

Christine Smillie-Adjarkwa is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology at the Ontario Institute for Studies In Education, UofT.

Christine is the Research Coordinator for the Performed Ethnography, HIV/AIDS & Aboriginal Youth Project.

Free, all are welcome, please RSVP to adrian.guta@utoronto.ca

Please see our website for upcoming seminar summaries and other events: www.cuhi.utoronto.ca

Science and Humanism featured at Canadian Conference on Medical Education

May 1-5th 2010
Canadian Conference on Medical Education
(St. John’s, Newfoundland)

White Coat, Warm Heart Integrating Science and Humanism

The Program Committee invites the submission of proposals for workshops, oral and poster presentations in the areas of admissions, undergraduate, postgraduate, continuing medical education, faculty development or any other topic relevant to medical education.

for details: http://www.mededconference.ca/home.php

Qualitative Researcher Positions

Research, Employment

Qualitative Researcher Positions

Centre for Research on Inner City Health,

St. Michael’s Hospital

The Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael’s Hospital is seeking a part-time qualitative data coder and qualitative interviewers for the qualitative evaluation component of the “At Home” Research Demonstration Project in Homelessness and Mental Health.

Application Deadline: August 20, 2009

Information: Please contact Maritt Kirst for position details: kirstm@smh.toronto.on.ca.

Creative Arts Therapies Concordia New Tenure Track Positions

Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Creative Arts Therapies

Music Therapy

The Department of Creative Arts Therapies invites applications for one tenure-track position in Music Therapy for July 1, 2010.

The department offers Canada’s only graduate music therapy program within a Creative Arts Therapies context. Approved by the Canadian Association for Music Therapy, our one-year Graduate Certificate in Music Therapy is designed for people with a strong background in music and the behavioural/health sciences wishing to pursue careers in music therapy. Students can expect to gain a clinical skill set that will prepare them for best practices in music therapy and provide them with eligibility to apply for professional accreditation in Canada and certification in the U.S.

Pending approval, our new one-year Master’s in Creative Arts Therapies, Music Therapy Option, encourages the development of advanced professional competencies in the use of music for psychotherapeutic, developmental, rehabilitative, and wellness purposes, and for associated research. These professional competencies in music therapy will prepare graduates for careers in advanced clinical practice and research, as well as for futures in higher education. The department is committed to integrating issues of social and ethical responsibility into the curriculum.

The successful candidate will be expected to teach graduate courses, supervise students in clinical work; initiate and maintain student placement sites; supervise student research papers/projects; engage in research activity; participate in university service involving committee and administrative work; and assist in program development.

Candidates must have a PhD or an MA in Music Therapy or related disciplines; post-secondary teaching experience; professional certification as an accredited music therapist (MTA); minimum of five years clinical experience; an established research profile, including a strong record of funded research in music therapy; and demonstrated administrative experience and committee service. Preference will be given to candidates with a completed doctoral degree. Although classes are taught in English, fluency in spoken and written French would be considered a strong asset.

Submissions should include a covering letter; a current curriculum vitae; a statement of teaching philosophy; evidence of teaching effectiveness (including course syllabi and evaluations); a research statement and documentation; and the names and contact information for three referees, and be submitted on or before November 2, 2009 to:

Department of Creative Arts Therapies Hiring Committee,
Concordia University
1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West, VA-264
Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada
Tel: (514) 848-2424 ext. 4683
Fax: (514) 848-4969
Email: cats@alcor.concordia.ca

Civic address:
Visual Arts Building
Sir George Williams Campus
1395 René Lévesque Blvd. West, VA-264, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

For further information, applicants are encouraged to consult:
Department of Creative Arts Therapies
Faculty of Fine Arts
Academic Services for Fine Arts Faculty

Art Therapy

Concordia University’s Department of Creative Arts Therapies invites applications for one tenure-track position in Art Therapy for July 1, 2010.

The Department of Creative Arts Therapies offers Canada’s only two-year Master’s-level degree in Creative Arts Therapies. Approved by the American Art Therapy Association as an accredited graduate training program, the Art Therapy program offers training/education in the use of and research on the visual arts for psychotherapeutic and preventative purposes. These professional competencies in art therapy prepare graduates for careers in advanced clinical practice and research, as well as for futures in higher education. The department is committed to integrating issues of social and ethical responsibility into the curriculum.

The successful candidate will be expected to teach graduate courses; supervise students in clinical work; initiate and maintain student placement sites; supervise student research papers/projects; engage in research activity; participate in university service involving committee and administrative work; and assist in the coordination and ongoing development of the Art Therapy program curriculum.

Candidates must have a PhD or an MA in Art Therapy; post-secondary teaching experience; professional registration as an Art Therapist (ATR); extensive clinical experience; an established research profile; and demonstrated administrative experience and committee service. Preference will be given to candidates with a completed doctoral degree. Although classes are taught in English, fluency in spoken and written French would be considered a strong asset.

Submissions should include a covering letter; a current curriculum vitae; a statement of teaching philosophy; evidence of teaching effectiveness (including course syllabi and evaluations); a research statement and documentation; and the names and contact information for three referees, and be submitted on or before November 2, 2009 to:

Department of Creative Arts Therapies Hiring Committee,
Concordia University
1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West, VA-264
Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada
Tel: (514) 848-2424 ext. 4683
Fax: (514) 848-4969
Email: cats@alcor.concordia.ca

Civic address:
Visual Arts Building
Sir George Williams Campus
1395 René Lévesque Blvd. West, VA-264, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

For further information, applicants are encouraged to consult:
Department of Creative Arts Therapies
Faculty of Fine Arts
Academic Services for Fine Arts Faculty

Call for Papers Canadian Association for Music Therapy

CALL FOR PAPERS
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR MUSIC THERAPY
36th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
May 12-15, 2010
HALIFAX, NS

SEND US YOUR PROPOSALS

For information please visit:
www.musictherapy.ca






I thought you may enjoy this music therapy video excerpt at Youtube created by Brandon Moore CM
front row seats at Youtube see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPRkgkZHjqI

Subscriber Shares Story of Art and Strength of Bamboo

Artwork by

Zarei Fatemeh


We recently heard from IJCAIP subscriber, Zarei Fatemeh, an artist who is currently working in the medical sciences field in Iran. She shares with us below the story of her art and work in health and education.

" I am a minimalist painter so I try to see things as abstract and simple based on a world that is free of bureaucratic complexity and complexity in relationship and discipline. In a complex world we can tend to see, feel and behave in complex ways. One of my artistic symbols is bamboo. Bamboo may be seen as a simple plant that grows in water but it is, in fact, a straight and hard plant. We see in this simple and clear context that even free of nutrients, the strength and power of the bamboo is revealed. Health also is like this. A simple clear mind is healthier than an over complicated one."

"I have been an artist for eight years and have participated in over 10 art exhibits in Iran. My work is created in acrylic and water colour. I work in health education and promotion with an MS degree from The University of Medical Sciences, Iran. I am working at Qazin University in the medical science field as a member of the health faculty, secretariat of health promotion unit. My aspiration is to continue my major in health promoting my art as well."

Contemporary Text Features Collection of Research Based Accounts About Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice

"Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change" is the inaugural book in "The Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice" series. The new text will be be published by Detselig/Temeron Books in 2010. Editor is Cheryl McLean, Publisher and Editor of The International Journal of the Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, IJCAIP, Associate Editor, Robert Kelly, Associate Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Calgary.

Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change is a contemporary research text which will feature a comprehensive collection of informative and illustrative accounts from leading health researchers, social scientists, artists, therapists, nurse educators and professionals, stories of topical research along with dynamic examples demonstrating how the creative arts in many forms as inquiry and in action applied across disciplines can make a critical difference for individuals and society as a whole.”

What are a few of the general topic areas which are featured in the book?

• Arts and research in aging and health, caregiving, training
• Arts informed methods in CBR, Community Based Research
• Arts and research in work for social change
• Narrative methods in medical education
• Story used in healthcare education
• Performative methods in health raising awareness about lived experiences vulnerable populations

Summer at IJCAIP has been productive and we have received outstanding research based article chapters and submissions for "Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change" from leaders across Canada the USA, UK and Australia representing Education and The Fine Arts, Humanities, Medicine/Healthcare and the Social Sciences. This definitive text, among the first texts of its kind in this interdisciplinary field, will bring together an outstanding cross section of researchers and professionals sharing their experiences and knowledge, their inquiries and methods in compelling articles about the creative arts applied in research and interdisciplinary practice for hope and change.



Visit the book blog: "Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change"

Info: CherylMcLean@ijcaip.com

Photo Exhibit Raises Awareness About Breast Cancer

The Breast Cancer Project

Raising Funds and Awareness About Breast Cancer

Telling the Stories That Need to Be Told Through Art

October 6 - 16

The Arts Project
London, Ontario

This photographic event includes over 60 photographs of breast cancer survivors and their stories. Four of these photographs will be displayed in conjunction with PhotoSensitive's Cancer Project.

A partial installment of The Breast Cancer Project will be exhibited at The Arts Project, 203 Dundas St, London, Ontario from October 6 to October 16th. The opening night gala, "Something Beautiful" will be hosted on October 8th, from 6 - 10pm, with speeches beginning at 8pm. All funds raised are going to the Translational Breast Cancer Research Unit at the London Regional Cancer Program .

Read more about The Breast Cancer Project here

See a Youtube video excerpt about the project

Seeking New Docs by Emerging Filmmakers

NFB-TVO DOCUMENTARY CALLING CARD PROGRAM

NFB-TVO CALLING CARD PROGRAM: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DOC CREATORS IN ONTARIO TO MAKE A NEW MEDIA OR BROADCAST DOCUMENTARY

The Calling Card Program provides an opportunity for emerging filmmakers and new-media teams from Ontario to work with the NFB and TVO to create documentaries for new-media platforms and television broadcast. 2009 marks the first year that the Calling Card Program has been expanded to feature an interactive new media category.

Documentaries must be original, character-driven narratives with a focus on social, political and cultural issues. The submission deadline is August 31, 2009. The winning team in each category (new media and television broadcast) will be awarded $45,000 and receive mentorship from members of the film and new-media community to take their doc from concept to television premiere or online launch.

The winning 30-minute TV documentary will have its premiere broadcast on TVO's flagship Canadian documentary series The View From Here. The winning on-line interactive documentary will be launched and hosted at both nfb.ca and tvo.org.

for more info. check out the website

Music and Singing for Health , Workshop Introduces Music as Medicine, Sacred Singing, Healing Harmonies

MUSIC IS MEDICINE: Sacred Singing, Healing Harmonies

Workshops with Don Hill

Modern neuroscience is affirming what vocalists and shamans have known for years: Singing is healthy for you and specific vocal styles that play on 'harmonic overtones' stimulate the sense of well-being.

Harmonic overtones are embedded within sacred choral music performed worldwide.

In this introductory workshop, you will hear and learn how Tibetan monks, Gregorian chanters and Mongolian overtone singers create the powerful healing and meditative qualities associated with ritual chanting and overtone harmonics.

A complementary instructional DVD is bundled with the workshop.

The introductory workshop will be held in MONTREAL: Friday 10 JULY (beginning at 7 PM) and all day Saturday 11 JULY at 5706 Queen Mary Road (Hampstead).

In EDMONTON: Friday 21 AUGUST (beginning at 7 PM) and all day Saturday 22 AUGUST at the Westwood Unitarian Congregation church at 11135 - 65 Avenue (close to the Parkallen community centre).


Don Hill, formerly host of CBC's "Tapestry ", is a member of the creative faculty and the podcast voice of The Leadership Lab at the Banff Centre's Leadership Development Program. His counsel is part of a gathering of leading edge thinkers from the areas of leadership, popular media and the voice and vocal arts. He has been commissioned (2009) to develop ‘sound explorer’, a new acoustic modality for teaching the art of leadership. With the CKUA Radio Network (2007-2009), a listener-supported public broadcaster in Alberta, Don created and hosted Inspiring Leadership (20 half-hour episodes), and Inspiring Leadership 2.0, a thirteen-part documentary series, which featured conversations with over one hundred leaders about the challenges of sustainability and environmental leadership in the 21st century.

Advance registration for Music is Medicine required with annehill (at) telus.net

Check it out, info: http://www.womensfilmfestival.com/aboutus.php

Spirituality and Health Focus for Calgary Conference

5th International Multidisciplinary Conference

on Spirituality and Health

Faculty of Medicine/ University of Calgary

Working Together for Optimal Health

Thursday, September 24 – Saturday, September 26, 2009
MacEwan Student Centre, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta

The University of Calgary in conjunction with The Canadian Research Institute of Spirituality and Healing will be hosting the 5th International Multidisciplinary Conference on Spirituality and Health.


Conference Objective: The conference aims to provide a diverse, multidisciplinary, multi-faith forum in order to address spirituality from a broad health focus.


Keynote speakers include:

• Arthur Frank PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of Calgary and author of At the Will of the Body; The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics; and The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live.

• Erminia Guarneri MD FACC, Founder and Medical Director of the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, Scripps Health in La Jolla, California and author of The Heart Speaks.

• Lewis E. Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and author of Coyote Medicine: Lessons from Native America; Coyote Healing: Miracles from Native America; Coyote Wisdom: The Healing Power of Story; and Narrative Medicine: A Storied Approach to Health and Healing.
  

This 2 day conferences aims to provide a diverse multidisciplinary, multi-faith forum in order to address spirituality form a broad health focus. Session Topics Include: Christian Science, Palliative Care, HIV/AIDS, Yoga, Aboriginal Counselling, Public Health Spiritual Healing, Photography, Music & the Arts, Meditation, Depression, Cancer, Psycho-spirituality, Resiliency, and Mental Illnesses.

see PDF flyer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: spirit@ucalgary.ca

Call for Film Submissions Ability Arts Festival

Call For Submissions

2009 "Projections" Film Forum:

The Abilities Arts Festival is seeking works by filmmakers with disabilities that exemplify excellence, innovation and creativity in film. Films that provoke, enlighten and offer diverse perspectives. Films that are innovative and entertaining. We welcome submissions of features, documentaries, or animation films that are either feature-length or shorts.

Submission Deadline: July 1, 2009

Dance and Stories Honour Nursing Profession

Press poster above for more details

“An Evening Celebrating the Lives of Nurses and Nursing”

featuring:

Lift-Breathe-Carry, a spoken-word performance by Verb Ballets,
Cleveland’s National Repertory Dance Company
Based on the poetry of Jeanne Bryner, RN, BA

Readings by Cortney Davis, RN, MA, ANP, from her latest book
The Heart’s Truth: Essays on the Art of Nursing (Kent State University Press)

Audience Talk-Back moderated by:

Martin Kohn, PhD, Center for Literature, Medicine and Biomedical Humanities, Hiram College

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
450 Schoolhouse Road
Johnstown, PA 15904

Doors open at 7:15 pm
Performance starts at 8:00 pm

Admission: Free
Seating is limited. Reservations required.
(412) 647-5832 or cep@pitt.edu

Lift-Breathe-Carry is a spoken-word performance based on poems in the book Tenderly Lift Me by Jeanne Bryner, RN. These poems tell the stories of nurses from around the world, spanning over three centuries. From a nurse in a Quebec hospital in 1694 and a nurse caring for victims of the Oklahoma City bombings in 1994, to Helen Albert, civil rights activist and first African American nurse from Trumbull County Ohio.

Verb Ballets is Cleveland’s National Repertory Dance Company. The mission of Verb Ballets is to promote and develop interest in and appreciation for contemporary dance nationally, regionally and locally through performance, programs that promote learning and nurture wellness, audience and community dialogue and advocacy efforts to support the art form.

As a curator of expressive movement that is globally connected and nationally respected, Verb Ballets is a leader in performing dance works of the highest caliber including historical masterpieces, works by outstanding contemporary choreographers and by dynamic emerging artists.

Irwin Barker Performs at Cancer Patient Education Network Conference in Edmonton

I see that comedian, writer and performer Irwin Barker will be featured as a keynote at
The Cancer Patient Education Network Canada Conference (see PDF) in June.

Irwin Barker's style has been described as an analytical and unexpected approach to everyday life and work. In addition to being one of Canada's top stand up comedians, Irwin has an MA in Sociology and has taught at The University of Alberta and University of Manitoba.

In June 2007 he was diagnosed with cancer and, since that time, he has been sharing his cancer journey performing as an inspirational speaker at major conference and events.

Visit Irwin Barker's website here

See a short video clip from the film "That's my Time"
front row seats at Youtube

Photography and Medicine Project Announcements

We recently heard from Robert Kelley a medical student at Touro University College, Vallejo, CA.

"My name is Robert Kelley and I am a 4th year medical student at Touro University in Vallejo, CA. I wanted to share a special project we have been working on for the last 3 years, the Canvas of Hope. It is a collection of works of art created from microscopic images of breast cancer from our pathology department.

The project has received a wide range of responses from a variety of people (students, physicians, survivors, loved ones, artists, and the general public).

Most of the feedback at our gallery events has been positive. Those with cancer have appreciated our charitable pursuits and have served as advisors. We were able to educate the general public on breast cancer, self screening, and the fact that men can get the disease as well. Touro University has been very progressive and supportive of this project."

More about The Canvas of Hope

And still on the topic of photography and medicine, we also received information today about an upcoming photographic exhibition, The Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine, Program University of Alberta. CM

The Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine Program

University of Alberta

presents

Medical Education: Med 2011, Photographic Explorations

Wednesday, May 6

Christina Botros: Light Amidst Darkness

My experience shadowing the staff photographers of the University of Alberta Hospital enlightened me to the necessity for photographic imaging in the medical field. The ability to look at one’s documented process not only allows depiction of the healing process from the

strictest biological meaning, but also aids in the healing process, and doctor-patient relationship.

Jonathan Hickle: Exploring Hands-on Medical Learning Through Photography

The "Patient Partners in Arthritis" program is a patient-led teaching session. Patients with real arthritis findings volunteer their time to teach medical students how to perform a Musculoskeletal physical exam tailored to arthritis after taking an intensive training program.

My photographs are meant to capture the exchange of knowledge between patient-instructors and my colleagues.

12 noon – 1:00 pm

DSME Conference Room @ 2-74 Zeidler-Ledcor Bldg.

Medicine, Arts and Culture Important Intersections for New Advisory Board Member

posted by: Cheryl McLean
Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal

Journal Welcomes Dr. Michael Hutcheon to Advisory Board


The Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal (CCAHTE) has recently announced that Dr. Michael Hutcheon has joined the journal Advisory Board. Dr. Michael Hutcheon is Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto and Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Education, The University Health Network. His research training in respirology was in pulmonary physiology and lung mechanics both at The University of Toronto and the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Hutcheon is a physician who has explored the intersections of the arts and health. Opera in medical education is a particular interest. He reports, "I have explored the meanings taken on by illnesses and the people who have them when medical information is interpreted in a social or cultural context. We have used opera as the cultural vehicle for this exploration. This has been my primary research interest for the past ten years."

Michael Hutcheon and collaborator Linda Hutcheon, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Toronto, have published a number of articles and three books. Their work on the cultural construction of sexuality, gender and disease in opera has been published in a book entitled Opera: Desire, Disease, Death (1996). Their second book, a study of both the real and the represented operatic body entitled Bodily Charm: Living Opera, was published in 2000. They have also published articles in this area in journals such as The Cambridge Opera Journal, Opera Quarterly, and the University of Toronto Quarterly. Their latest collaborative book called Opera: The Art of Dying, was published by Harvard University Press in 2004. They are currently studying creativity and aging through the late style and later lives of nineteenth and twentieth century opera composers.

"Few art forms are as thoroughly dependent as is tragic opera upon desire, suffering and death as narrative and emotional staples. The body, the live singing body on stage, gives voice to the drama of the suffering person."
Michael Hutcheon, Linda Hutcheon

Read more here

Oliver Sacks Quote and Music Therapy Video

Quotes of note

"(I sense) a certain doubleness in me: that I feel myself a naturalist and a physician both; and that I am equally interested in diseases and people; perhaps, too, that I am equally, if inadequately, a theorist and a dramatist, am equally drawn to the scientific and the romantic, and continually see both in the human condition . . ."

-Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

In this video clip Oliver Sacks author of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "An Anthropologist on Mars" discusses the effect of music therapy on Parkinson's disease patients.

Front row seats at Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nnLTPPDRXI&feature=related

Stories of Sport, Disability, Rehabilitation, presentations by Brett Smith, Arthur Frank

Toronto Rehab and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Research Department
and Spiritual Care Services

PRESENT

Dr. Brett Smith, PhD
Qualitative Research Unit
School of Sport and Health Sciences
University of Exeter

Dr. Brett Smith’s research interests revolve around the
psycho-social dimensions of spinal cord injury and
stories of disability. He is the co-editor of the journal
Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, and has
published extensively in a variety of medical, psychology,
and sociology journals.

Encountering Chaos: Exploring Responses to
a Spinal Cord Injury Narrative

Monday, April 27, 2009

12:00 - 1:00pm
Class Room A and B
Lyndhurst Centre
520 Sutherland Drive, Toronto

When Bodies Need Narratives: The Case of Becoming
Disabled Through Sport

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

12:00 - 1:00pm
Lecture Theatre
University Centre
550 University Avenue, Toronto


Dr. Arthur W. Frank
Department of Sociology
University of Calgary

Arthur Frank is a Professor of Sociology at the University of
Calgary and during 2008-09 has been visiting Professor
in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at University
of Toronto. The core of his work is the study of illness
experience. His first book, At the Will of the Body, is the
story of his own illnesses and won the annual writers’
award from the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship
in the US. His second book, The Wounded Storyteller,
sets out a framework of illness narratives that has been
taken up by many researchers, including Brett Smith and
Andrew Sparkes. His most recent book, The Renewal of
Generosity, won the 2008 annual medal in bioethics from
the Royal Society of Canada. His current projects include
SSHRC-funded research on people’s use of information
and communications technology in doing health work,
and also a CIHR-funded project on moral distress among
workers in pediatric intensive care units.

Wounded Storytellers and Since: Lessons from the Last
Fifteen Years, Especially about Rehabilitation

Friday, April 24, 2009

12:00 - 1:00pm
Lecture Theatre
University Centre
550 University Avenue, Toronto

If you have any questions, please contact Jim Huth, Ethics and Spiritual Care at
416-597-3422, ext. 3716.Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

Poetry as Research, Conference PEI

Second Annual International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry

50 University Ave
Charlottetown Prince Edward Island

October 15, 2009 – October 18, 2009

This event is held by The Centre for Education Research, University of Prince Edward Island & Centre for Arts-informed Research, OISE/University of Toronto.

The 2nd Annual International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry will bring together international literary poets, artists, and poet/scholars from diverse contexts and interdisciplinary fields to explore Poetry as a Way of Knowing. We welcome proposals in a variety of creative presentation formats. Symposium events will take place in artistic venues such as art galleries, cafes, and studio theatres located within the Charlottetown community.

Conference Chairs: Suzanne Thomas & Ardra Cole

View Conference Details here

Student Seeks Entry Position Urban Community Planning, Culture, Arts and Health

We recently heard from subscriber and student, Monica Dikkes. We are publishing her letter below. Monica is a student in the Professional Planning Program at the University of Waterloo. She is very interested in urban and community planning as well as heritage and culture and the links between arts and health. We would like to support this student in her ongoing job search. If you have an opening or know of any possible job prospects for Monica we would be pleased to hear from you. CM


To whom it may concern:

I am currently a fourth year Honours student in The University of Waterloo's Professional Planning Program. I am interested in a full time entry level position. My last year of schooling is scheduled so that I can start work immediately. I have experience in CAD work but I would like, if possible, to broaden my background and follow up with valuable practical experience in my chosen area of study. I am interested in all aspects of urban and community planning, especially heritage and facilitating community wellness, food systems sustainability and planning, cultural management and the link between art and health.

I am motivated to combine my passions, experience and education and apply my skills and knowledge to meet and exceed expectations. Along with my initiative and ability to function efficiently in a fast-paced environment, I strive to uphold the integrity and standards of the company for which I am employed. I am highly focused on meeting deadlines ahead of schedule with a keen eye for detail. I enjoy prioritizing my schedule of duties and believe these skills will enable me to succeed in the realm of junior planning and management. I thrive in team oriented surroundings and am motivated where there is room to learn and share creative experiences.

I look forward to hearing from you to set up an interview to further discuss a possible position.

Monica Dikkes

Send inquires for this applicant email to ccahte@cmclean.com