Textile Artist Judith Martin Honours Life in Intricate Fabric Constructions

"Art is part of life, not separate. My art contains my worries and hopes. It understands." Canadian Textile Artist, Judith Martin

On a recent family trip north to Espanola, Ontario, we drove to Little Current on Manitoulin Island. I was pleased to discover there was an Artists' tour taking place on the week-end and
even more pleased to have an opportunity to meet textile artist, Judith Martin who was
exhibiting her work. It was a timely meeting. I had just finished teaching the course, "Creative Responses in Death and Bereavement" at The University of Western Ontario. Many of Judith's fabric creations and textile artworks are modern fabric constructions that deal with themes around the passage of time.. birth, life and death, while reflecting and honouring life stories and poetically reconstructing personal memories.

Judith explains, "The fabric constructions I make combine fine art's conceptualism with traditional woman's craft. Photographs, drawings, paintings, and objects are mixed with fabrics, threads, and text in order to communicate poetically. Meditative handwork fills most of the pieces.Traditional quilt patterns and multi-cultural symbols concerning birth, death, and sexuality are the foundation for my artwork. When one considers the connection that these rites of passage have to the bed, then the quilt is an obvious and powerful medium."

We carefully unfolded the blanket pictured above as she shared special memories of her mother the late Pauline Johnson.

"She always encouraged me to find my own self. To follow my own interests. To save my own self and my own sanity. This advice from her during our weekly phone calls gave me the inner strength to go ahead and do what I wanted (and needed) to do in order to become the artist I was meant to be.... She had an active interest in politics and literature. She was passionate about these things."

"My subject is the passage of time. The artwork I make documents and saves the daily life of our family and our surroundings here on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada.
I was born in Fort Frances and spent the next four decades of my life in North Western Ontario. I went to Lakehead University twice, once at age 19 for a teacher's diploma and again fifteen years later for a fine arts degree. After we were married in the mid 70's my husband and I made a fourteen month tour of Europe. I make mixed media textile art and have had thirteen solo exhibitions. On The Lake, a wall piece that I made from stitched photos and satin is in the Canada Council Art Bank. I must also mention that I am a mother of four because almost all of my art practice has to do with balancing that phenomenon. In 1993 we moved from Kenora to Manitoulin Island and the peace and quiet of this lovely place has had a profound effect on my work." (Quotes from Judith Martin's BLOG "Judy's Journal" )

If you will be travelling to Northern Ontario this summer, visit the Judith Martin exhibit "Red Thread" at the Gore Bay Museum Manitoulin Island until August 10, 2008.

For more about Judith Martin's life and work:
see Judy's Journal and visit Judith Martin website
email: njmartin@vianet.ca


And, oh yes, also while in Espanola I discovered the walrus. But more about this great catch, later. CM

Bereaved Families of Ontario, Summer 5K Run

Run to support Bereaved Families of Ontario

in support of the
Bereaved Families of Ontario
SW Region

Friday, July 18th, 2008

The Barking Frog
Downtown
London, Ontario
7:00 PM

click here for info

Art, Humanities and Medicine Theme at Global Health Research Conference

We recently posted an announcement about The Sixth Annual Global Health Research Conference held at The University of Toronto. The exhibition explored transformative modes of conceiving the body, and its relationship to global health as well as the intersections of the arts, sciences and medicine. Below are excerpts from a recently published article
written by Brett Popplewell at The Toronto Star (June 7, 2008).

"For more than a century, the physician has been viewed as a robot with a scientific mind and, for the most part, a wooden bedside manner. But with medical schools paying more attention to arts and the humanities, a new breed of doctor – one that is both scientist and artist – is beginning to emerge in hospitals and clinics. The re-emerging significance of art and the humanities to modern medicine was the central theme at last week's sixth annual global health research conference at the University of Toronto.

"We are more than just repositories of evidence-based knowledge," says Dr. James Orbanski, a family physician, former president of Médicins Sans Frontières and the keynote speaker at the conference.

"The phenomenon, to use the broadest term, of a person who is both a doctor and a cellist, or a doctor and a poet, or a doctor and an artist, demonstrates this perfectly."

Orbanski, whose work as a physician in Rwanda was recently documented by the National Film Board, says people like Vincent Lam, the Giller Award winning doctor-turned-novelist, are examples of how the interests of many physicians often transcend the barrier between the arts and sciences.

Before the medical revolution of the 19th century, the study of the human body was as connected to the fine arts as it was to medicine.

With the advent of chemistry, biology, laboratories and new technologies, the traditional art of medicine was revolutionized. Ill-advised practices like bloodletting and purging became less common as cures for everything from consumption to syphilis.

As the scientific understanding of bacteria and viruses improved, science's importance to medicine increased and the teaching of what some refer to as the art of medicine – the human communication between doctor and patient – dwindled. As art and the humanities became less important, doctors with poor bedside manners proliferated.

Until recently, Canadian medical students had to learn their human touch during residency (medical school's version of an apprenticeship) by watching the interaction between senior doctors and their patients.

Dr. Peter Singer, a published poet and professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, says when he went through medical school 25 years ago, the curriculum was so focused on science that doctors would graduate without ever having been taught about medical ethics and other humanities.

"(I)t was very much focused on science and technology and the scientific understanding of anatomy, physiology (then)," he says.

"We would be taught in lecture halls filled with 200 people and have information thrown at us on medical science.

"I think we've come a very great distance in medical education in the last 25 years on the issues of balancing science and humanistic concerns," he says.

But beyond the humanities, what role, if any, do the fine arts have in modern medicine?

Singer says a doctor's knowledge of poetry and music helps them to understand the human suffering often involved in medicine.After all, a physician well versed in science and technology who also understands poetry is likely more in touch with the humanistic side of life and death, and thus better suited to care for patients on their deathbeds.

Visual art and music have also been recognized for their therapeutic powers and are used in some clinics where patients improve their mental health through painting and where the music of composers like Bach is used to reduce stress."

It is encouraging to see more universities and medical schools incorporating the arts and humanities into health programming. At this blog, "Arts and Health Crossing Borders", you will read many posts and stories about progressive programming at the intersections of the arts and medicine/health currently underway across the country. I was pleased to read this article in the Toronto Star. Such news is an indicator that the work continues to gain momentum.

CM

For full article read more at:
http://www.thestar.com/article/438989

Creative Arts and Bereavement , University of Western Ontario Distance Education Course Becomes Learning Community

"Reclamation" photo by C. McLean

Creative arts and bereavement education over the internet.

Twenty five women from across the country.. nurses, counsellors, mental health professionals, qualitative researchers, artists, teachers, social workers, ministers, chaplains and caregivers are connecting in a unique distance education course at The University of Western Ontario with the help of instructional technologies (Web CT Owl) and learning together about creative responses and the arts in death and bereavement work. Course content explores “the creative response” and the interplay of creativity and the arts such as writing, drama, ritual, narrative, poetry and visual arts in healthcare.

This academic course, “Creative Responses in Death and Bereavement” is part of the Grief and Bereavement Certificate Program, Continuing Studies, University of Western Ontario, London and is taught by Cheryl McLean. “This is more than a course. It’s become a community as we have had an opportunity to share rich and meaningful stories while learning about the many applications of the creative arts in health, education and training."

The course will close with a week-end of arts and bereavement presentations, performances and experiential workshops reflecting the theme “Remembering the Story of a Life” to be held at King’s University College July 5 and 6.

Art as Medicine Books of Note

Art as Medicine Creating a Therapy of the Imagination A Book by Shaun McNiff
"Whenever illness is associated with loss of soul the arts emerge spontaneously as remedies, soul medicine." Shaun McNiff

For those interested in art therapy approaches I would like to recommend the book, "Art as Medicine, Creating a Therapy of the Imagination" written by Shaun McNiff and published by Shambhala Publications. Shaun McNiff is a Past President of the American Art Therapy Association and Dean of Lesley College and a university professor at Lesley University, Massachusetts. He is also a board member for CCAHTE, The Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal.

One of the many progressive ideas put forward in the book, "Art as Medicine Creating a Therapy of the Imagination" is the suggestion that one can have an "image dialogue" with art and artworks, actively engaging with the subjects present in the art while opening the way for inner discovery.

From the book (pg. 145):
"Image dialogue is a mode of the creative process that follows picture making and creates yet another series of expressions. This therapy of the imagination was anticipated by Jung, who introduced all of the creative arts therapies to psychotherapy through his practice of active imagination, an inner drama involving the full spectrum of artistic expressions."

"My use of dialogue has emerged from a desire to deepen psychological engagement with images and amplify the spectrum of expression." S. McNiff.

As the book moves toward these rich and intimate dialogues and exchanges through art, I am taken to the place of dream, a soul place of symbol and metaphor, that sacred world where the many and varied sides of the self are made manifest and given voice. CM

More information about this book at: http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/author/164.cfm/

Cancer Connections Offers Comfort and Grace Through Photography

Today I would like to share with you news about Cancer Connections a photo exhibit launched on May 20 at Nathan Phillips Square with 300 black-and-white photographs by Canadians each with a story to tell about cancer. The idea was conceived by Andrew Stawicki, co-founder of Photo-Sensitive, and was put together in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society. The exhibit is dedicated to June Callwood, who died of cancer in 2007.

There was an excellent article in The Toronto Star, on Saturday May 17 written by Francine Kopun featuring powerful photographs and their stories of strength, dignity and survival. The article reported that the plan is to bring the exhibit to 10 Canadian cities ending in Ottawa in 2010 with 1,000 photographs.


I invite you to see a slide show of photos from Cancer Connections at ctv.ca

Arts and Health Resource Listing, Death and Bereavement

Creative Responses to Death and Bereavement. A helpful resource listing.

Books

Bertman, S. L., (1999), “Grief and the Healing Arts Creativity as Therapy” Baywood Publishing, New York.

Morgan, J.D., (2000), “Meeting the Needs of our Clients Creatively”, Baywood Publishing, New York.

Neimeyer, R. A. (2006), “Rainbow in the Stone”, Selected poems by Robert A. Neimeyer, Mercury Publishers, Memphis.

Morgan, J.D., (1997), “Readings in Thanatology”, Baywood Publishing, New York.


Literary Arts

Charon R. (2006), “Narrative Medicine: Honouring the Stories of Illness” New York Oxford University Press.

Horowitz HW. (1996), “Poetry on Rounds: A Model for the Integration of Humanities into Residency Training”, Lancet, 347, pg. 447- 449.

Leggo, C., (2007), “Living Poetically A Pensées on Literacy and Health,”Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 6, Sept. pg. 3 - 12. (see http://www.cmclean.com/ Sept. 07 issue)

McNiff, S. (1992), “Art as Medicine: Creating a Therapy of the Imagination,” Shambhala Publications Inc.

Novosel, J. (2007), “The Death of My Young Husband from Cancer, A Love Story” (a personal story and autobiographical narrative), Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 6, Sept. pg. 26 - 32. (See http://www.cmclean.com/ Sept. 07 issue)

Rappaport, M. (2006), “The Poetry of Practice”, Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 3, Sept. pg. 3 (see http://www.cmclean.com/ Sept. 06 issue)

Serviss, S., Pointe, S. (2006), “The Artists-on-the Wards Program” Arts Programming Integral in Healthcare at University of Alberta Hospital, Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 3, Sept. pg. 8 - 9 (see http://www.cmclean.com/ Sept. 06 issue)

Viva Davis Halifax, Nancy (2006), “Things that matter, Stories about Living with Colorectal Cancer” Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 2, June, pg. 3 - 4. (see http://www.cmclean.com June 06 issue.)

Visual Arts

Pope R. (1991), “Illness and Healing: Images of Cancer”, Lancelot Press.

Wikstrom B. M. (2001), “Works of Art: A Complement to Theoretical Knowledge When Teaching Nursing Care” Journal of Clinical Nursing, 10, pg. 25–32.

Drama in Health/ Education and Training

Crowshoe L, Bickford J, & Decottignies M. (2005). Interactive Drama: Teaching Aboriginal Health Medical Education. Medical Education, 39, pg. 521–522.

Gold, M. (2000), “Therapy Through Drama: The Fictional Family,” Charles C. Thomas Publishers.

Lewis, P., Johnson, D.R., (2000), “Current Approaches in Drama Therapy” Charles C. Thomas, Springfield.

Lorenz K.A., Steckart M. J., & Rosenfeld KE. (2004). End-of-life Education Using the Dramatic Arts: The Wit Educational Initiative. Academic Medicine, 79, pg. 481–486.

McLean, C. L. (2006), “Performing the Field,” (drama in research and therapeutic work in aging/ health, education and training, creating an ethnodrama based on field work), Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue l, March, pg. 3 - 5. (reports on this research here

McLean, C.L. (2005), “Remember Me for Birds” An Ethnodrama about Aging, Mental Health and Autonomy, script book published by Ravenquest Inc., Cochrane, Alberta/ also on DVD, inquire ccahte@cmclean.com

Mitchell, G. (2006), “I’m Still Here!” A research based performance about living with dementia, Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue l, March, pg. 7 - 8. (see http://www.cmclean.com March 06 issue)

Nisker J. (2008), “Theatre as a health-policy research tool” in: Knowles JG, Cole AL. Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications,

Saldana, J. (2005), “Ethnodrama an Anthology of Reality Theatre,” Alta Mira Press.

Shapiro J, & Hunt L. (2003). “All the World’s a Stage: The Use of Theatrical Performance in Medical Education” Medical Education, 37, pg. 922–927.

Music/Dance

Blasco P. G., Moreto G. & Levites M. R. (2005). “Teaching Humanities Through Opera: Leading Medical Students to Reflective Attitudes” Family Medicine, 37, Pg. 18–20.

Cantelo, B. “Carry Me Home a Choreographed Film Portrayal of the Patient Moving from Fear to Security” (a dance project based on research in palliative care) Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 3, pg. pg. 10 - 12. (see http://www.cmclean.com/ September 06 issue)

Hutcheon, M. Hutcheon, L. (2007), “Medicine in/as Culture: The Teachings of Opera” (giving voice to the drama of the suffering person) Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 5, March, pg. 4 - 7. (see http://www.cmclean.com/ March 07 issue)

McLaren, C. (2007), “The Nurse’s Foot: A Phenomenological Exploration” (the story of the dancer as nurse), Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal, Issue 5, March, pg. 8 - 11.(see http://www.cmclean.com/ March 07 issue.)


Film

Shapiro J, Rucker L, & Beck J. (2006). Training the Clinical Eye and Mind: Using Films to Teach Nursing. Medical Education, 40, pg. 263–268.

WIT (2001), script by Margaret Edson / more info: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1804849838/details

Humanities/Medicine

Levine M. (1999). “On the Humanities in Nursing” Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 30, pg. 213–217.

Mayne P. (2005, January 20). “Medicine and Dentistry Reveals Artistic Side” Western News. Retrieved from http:// communications.uwo.ca/western_news/ story.html?listing_id=17297.

Newell G.C, & Hanes D. J. (2003). “Listening to Music: The Case for its Use in Teaching Medical Humanism” Academic Medicine 78, pg. 714–719.

Social Science/performance ethnography

Denzin, N.K. (2003), “Performance Ethnography a Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture”, Sage Publications.

Organizations and websites:

Seasons of the Heart Bereavement Services Directory
http://www.licc.on.ca/season/

Bereavement Ontario Network links
http://www.bereavementontarionetwork.ca/links.html

Arts Informed Research and Education

Artography, University of British Columbia

OISE, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Arts in Humanities in Health and Medicine Program, University of Alberta
http://www.med.ualberta.ca/education/ahhm.cfm

Dalhousie University Medical Humanities http://humanities.medicine.dal.ca/

Online accessible resources:

(Canadian)
Arts and Health Crossing Borders BLOG http://www.ccahtecrossingborders.blogspot.com
(over 200 posts on arts and health)

(U.S.)
Literature Arts and Medicine BLOG http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/blog/

Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal http://www.cmclean.com

Youtube Videos Related to Arts and Health

Arts and Disability
“Shameless” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQlYt_eVmdM

Music Therapy
Oliver Sacks Musicophilia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nnLTPPDRXI&feature=related

Medicine and Literature
Vincent Lam interview, “Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures”
http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/author_videos_lam.htm

Visual Arts as Creative Response
Toby Jones, “Breast Cancer the Indestructible Bust and an Artist’s Tribute to his Mother”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZrThINhaY

Music in Medical Education
Music, Medicine and Arts, Longwood’s Symphony / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMoyt35_wkk

Dance in Conveying Suffering
Panic! (an example of the power of dance to convey suffering)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFm8wL1yjKs

Oliver Sacks, Music Therapy and Parkinson's Disease

Tonight 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

Arts, Mental Health and Autonomy

"Socialized fences, isolating human beings behind "us" and "them" notions, confining individuals behind ideas such as "the elderly" can be cleared in the act of learning as one becomes the other fully animated and performing the "stories" of life. A performance can raise awareness educating well beyond the podium conveying "lived experience" in action with elements visual, emotional, physical and spiritual. In this field process we are told and we tell stories engaging in one of the most primal, meaningful and universal of human connections."

C. McLean

Click here for more information about the performance "Remember Me for Birds"

Youth and Homelessness, Toronto Youth Use Arts to Express True Stories of Life on the Streets

We heard recently from CCAHTE subscriber and researcher Katharine King about the Youth Pathways Project http://www.tyss.org/process.html , a youth research project at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, which took place in collaboration with the University of Toronto. This research helped offer an opportunity and a place for youth to share their voices and express true stories about living and surviving on the streets of Toronto.

In a recent email Katharine reported, " I've been a subscriber to CCAHTE for several months; it is a valuable resource for those of us doing interdisciplinary work in the arts and health,education and research."



In this post we share with you information about the Toronto Youth Street Stories project.

YPP Dissemination Team

Patricia Erickson

Katharine King

Tara Fidler

Christine Wong-Chong

Nora Ottaway

"Toronto Youth Street Stories (TYSS) grew out of the YPP, Youth Pathways Project http://www.tyss.org/process.html conducted by researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Toronto. The YPP study focussed on issues of ethnic and sexual diversity, drug use, and mental health faced by youth living in high-risk environments on or close to the street. The study generated new knowledge about the quality of life experienced by street-involved youth, as well as factors that influence their pathways into either a more stable and healthy adulthood, or a continued existence on the street. The YPP findings are critical to informing policy related to substance abuse treatment, child protection, mental health promotion, and violence prevention in street-involved youth.

The insights and anecdotes that the young people shared gave an extra dimension to the data and statistics generated by the surveys and interviews. These youth obviously had a desire to share their stories, but often lacked the means and opportunity to do so.

TYSS was created as an innovative way to collect these stories, disseminate some of the knowledge gained from these studies, and paint a multi-dimensional picture of the realities experienced by youth living on or near the streets of a major Canadian city.

In the summer of 2007, a team of researchers and facilitators organized a series of writing workshops at different youth agencies in downtown Toronto. With the assistance of peer facilitators, local authors led the workshops by sharing their writing and challenging the youth to create their own characters, rhythms, and writing styles.

The youth wrote stories, poems, and short essays dealing with issues one might expect from a street-involved population, such as physical and sexual abuse, drug use, and violence. But they also wrote about pregnancy, parenting, work, money, family, love, music, beauty, religion, sexuality, isolation, and joy."

Pitiful

Curse us for the cards that life has dealt us

You hate us because we portray a “bad image” of your streets

Yet right in front of us you discard your empty coffee cups

Polluting the very streets you accuse us of destroying.....

I’m addicted to the streets now
To the rain that pours and washes away the scars and pain
To the snow that falls and smothers my flame of anger
To the winds that blow and clear away the debris of hurt...

From the poem "How Dare You" By Poet/ "No Compromise"
see more TYSS youth contributions at http://www.tyss.org/poetry.html

Dance DVD Explores Key Issues in Palliative Care

News about new projects in arts and health from our CCAHTE subscribers

DVD "Carry Me Home" Uses Movement to Explore Illness, Healing and Consolation

We heard recently from Brenda Cantelo Ph.D., Department of Religion, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg about her dance film, “Carry Me Home.” Brenda specializes in religion and the arts with an emphasis on dance. She choreographed and filmed a dance performance which developed out of a project for Manitoba Artists in Healthcare inspired by her volunteer experiences in palliative care at St. Boniface Hospital. The performance interprets key issues in palliative care such as fear, loneliness, struggle, love, caring and family.

Brenda reported the dances in the video were influenced by authentic movement techniques. She explains, “only after being witnessed or having one’s own experiences validated is one able to see oneself authentically and find one’s voice.”

She describes the work as a journey from fear to security. “By portraying the patient as transitioning from fear to security, the video allows the audience to move vicariously with the patient through illness to a deeper sense of self and connection to others. When one recognizes one’s situation, story and place, even in the re-constructed world of the imagination, one’s sense of self, both in the social and personal sense is reclaimed.”

For more information or to contact Brenda Cantelo about the DVD “Carry Me Home” cantelo@ms.umanitoba.ca

The poem "Coming to My Senses" by award winning Manitoba poet Laurie Block is also featured in the performance.

Read more about Laurie Block and his poetry at:

http://ccahtecrossingborders.blogspot.com/2007/04/in-conversation-with-manitoba-poet.html

Choral Singing Beneficial for Body and Soul

Cheryl McLean


It's been reported in research that choral singing is beneficial for both body and soul.

In one study, a health educator and music professor teamed up for a study published in England’s Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, in which they reported choral singing promoted not just physical health, but offered emotional and spiritual benefits as well. Using their own choir as a basis for their study, Dr. Stephen Clift and Grenville Hancox developed questionnaires to document physical and emotional feelings while singing. Singers reported improved lung capacity, high energy, relieved asthma, better posture, and enhanced feelings of relaxation, mood, and confidence. In a follow-up questionnaire, 89 percent of the singers reported intense happiness while singing, 79 percent felt less stressed, and 75 percent experienced heightened adrenaline and wakefulness.

From Chorus America http://chorusamerica.org/vox_article_singinghealth.cfm

Music today is playing an increasingly important role in many professional education programs. Dalhousie University Medical School, for example, has several performing choirs and choral groups.

Excerpt below from the website at http://www.musicinmedicine.com/WhoWeAre.htm

"medical students, physicians, professors, alumni and friends of the medical school are united by a common love of music and a desire to make our medical lives a little more rewarding, our grand adventure in life-long learning a little lighter, and the community in which we live, work and study a little better for our efforts. ....up to 25% of medical students in the first three years of their undergraduate medical training are registered in one of these performance groups. In addition, we have members who work in the fields of medical education, endocrinology, general surgery, paediatrics, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynaecology, emergency medicine, biochemistry, ENT, pathology, family medicine, and laboratory sciences."

It's not surprising that more medical schools and schools of business are incorporating music into their professional programs. Choral singing is a highly disciplined and creative team activity. Harmonizing with others in community fills the heart with a renewed sense of promise and optimism. In the rehearsal hall every voice offers something invaluable to the whole. Simply put, singing is good for the soul.

P.S. I know of what I speak. It had been a very busy year at the office here and we had experienced a major move. With deadlines looming and changes underway I was feeling I needed a positive outlet for my "nervous" energy. I joined The Canadian Celtic Choir this September.

CM

"If I cannot fly,
Let me sing. "

STEPHEN SONDHEIM from "Sweeney Todd"

Other related posts: "Jazz Brings Creativity to Business"

http://ccahtecrossingborders.blogspot.com/2007/12/jazz-brings-creativity-to-business.html

Music, Medicine and Arts/video

Front row seats at Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMoyt35_wkk

Performing Stories About Aging, Mental Health and Autonomy

Cheryl McLean ,Editor, Publisher, International Journal of The Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice IJCAIP
Editor, "Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change"

With a degree in the Social Sciences from The University of Western Ontario, London, Cheryl McLean worked for close to twenty years in publishing, corporate communications and adult education. She also had an ongoing interest in the performing arts producing and directing regional theatre in Ontario. Returning to graduate school at Concordia University, Montreal, she worked for two years (01 - 03) as a researcher and group therapist conducting group sessions with older persons at Maimonides Geriatric Hospital and The Rene Cassin Institute of Social Gerontology of Quebec "Over 60 Mental Health Program".

To help raise awareness about issues related to aging, mental health and autonomy, as her thesis presentation, she wrote and acted in a one woman performance called "Remember Me for Birds" based on this research and these experiences.

This work in its early stages had been influenced in field work by therapeutic approaches drawing from theoretical models and techniques utilized in current approaches in drama and expressive group work and drama therapy (Current Approaches in Drama Therapy, 2000), theatre for social change, Augusto Boal, (Theatre of the Oppressed) drama with special populations..realism and Stanislavski influenced acting approaches while working in projects for two years under the direction of Dr. Muriel Gold (Therapy Through Drama: The Fictional Family,2000) and, later, qualitative/narrative and performative approaches, writings by Dr. Norman K. Denzin, (Performance Ethnography, Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture, 2003) and developments in the emerging playwriting and research performance genre, ethnodrama, Johnny Saldana, (Ethnodrama An Anthology of Reality Theatre, 2005).

Working with her Jewish clients, some of them Holocaust survivors, Cheryl had an opportunity to help individuals express their stories (through storytelling, poetry, enactments, other dramatic and expressive methods as well as through one on one interviews). These accounts became the basis for a performance script as did transcripts, oral histories, witness accounts, historical material, topical news stories and current events taking place in Montreal at the time. ( The real names of participants were not used, nor were locations mentioned. In some cases compilation characters were created to protect identities but the authenticity of the stories remained.)

"There is a paternalism with regard to "the elderly" (older persons). This often results in their autonomy being assumed to be less than it is or taken away against their will. I learned I am inappropriately detached from people. I attended because I was curious and I am glad I came. I learned about others but it (the performance) taught me about myself." Researcher, Elder Abuse

The original 30 minute performance was directed by Dr. Muriel Gold , formerly Artistic Director of the Saidye Bronfman Theatre, Montreal. Cheryl had a special opportunity while in Montreal to work as an actor with Muriel in projects for two years studying acting.. (Stanislavski influenced approaches/realism) and training approaches. On April 14, 2003, a solo performance was held for social workers and clinicians at The Rene Cassin Institute of Social Gerontology. Over the next two years following the original performance, the work as an "ethnodrama" advanced through several development phases as more personal and historical narratives were added, as well as written contributions from professionals who worked in aging and health, for example, an audio taped narrative written by a nurse (herself 76 years old) who had directly experienced work with the aged in mental health and palliative care settings.

See video clip

In later performances symbol and metaphor became more important and objects were presented in a "collaged" back drop drawing on significant items identified on site and from true stories. These objects along with news items etc. were used to visually juxtapose and contrast concepts and ideas from past and present.

The research performance in its final form had evolved to become a full one hour ethnodrama. (For more on this genre see, Saldana, J., Ethnodrama An Anthology of Reality Theatre, AltaMira Press) Acting solo in multiple roles, as well as performing personal narratives, Cheryl presented "Remember Me for Birds" for hundreds of academics, healthcare professionals and students at universities, health organizations, medical schools and national conferences in Canada and the U.S.

In follow up discussions and through feedback questionnaires, many audience members commented on the authenticity of what they experienced as witnesses to the stories in the ethnodrama with reflective comments about the value of such work in helping to "re-illuminate" the importance of re/membering the "patient" or "client" as a person with a life, a past history and a unique story.

"Remember Me for Birds" was featured in May 2005 as the keynote performance at The Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work Conference held in conjunction with The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at The University of Western Ontario, London and later that year for the McGill Interdisciplinary Geriatric Seminar, McGill Medical School, Montreal.

The performance was produced independently as an educational film in 2007.

See a video clip from the performance "Remember Me for Birds"

____________________

"Ethnotheatre employs the traditional craft and artistic techniques of theatre production to mount for an audience a live performance event of research participants' experiences and/or the researcher's interpretations of data. This research..meaning to investigate, in its broadest sense, can be conducted by artists, scholars or even by the participants themselves in such diverse fields of study as sociology, anthropology, psychology, education, health care, women's studies, justice studies, ethnic studies, cultural studies, political science, journalism, human communication, performance studies and theatre. The goal is to investigate a particular facet of the human condition for the purposes of adapting those observations and insights into a performance medium..."
Johnny Saldana, from "Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre, AltaMira Press, 2005, (pp. l-2)

"Ethnoperformances are postmodern often building a type of narrative collage that critiques culture. Speakers can "leap forward and backward in time" from present to past, presenting real news accounts against dramatic historic enactments of the past, using poems, monologues, dialogues, voice-overs and interior streams of consciousness."
Norman K. Denzin, from "Performance Ethnography, Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture", Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California, 2003.

_______________

References:

Boal, Augusto, "Theatre of the Oppressed", Pluto Press, London, 1979.

Denzin, Norman K., "Performance Ethnography, Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture", Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California, 2003.


"Current Approaches in Drama Therapy", Penny Lewis, David Read Johnson Editors, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, 2000.

Gold, Muriel, "Therapy through Drama The Fictional Family", Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 2000.

Saldana, Johnny, "Ethnodrama An Anthology of Reality Theatre", AltaMira Press, 2005.


Other references creative arts interdisciplinary practice:

"Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change", Cheryl McLean, Editor,
Robert Kelly, Associate Editor, Detselig/Temeron Books, Calgary (in process for release 2010) see website:
http://creativeartpractice.blogspot.com/2009/05/available-in-2010-published-by-detselig.html

International Journal of the Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, IJCAIP, Cheryl McLean, Editor/Publisher, open access peer reviewed international journal, website: http://www.ijcaip.com/

contact: CherylMcLean@ijcaip.com

posted July, 2009

Vincent Lam, Winner of 2006 Scotia Giller Prize, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, Video

Tonight I share with you a short reading and video featuring Dr. Vincent Lam, emergency room physician, author and winner of the 2006 Scotia Giller Prize for his book "Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures."

See video at:

http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/author_videos_lam.htm

More about the Scotia Bank Giller Prize http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/home.htm

Breast Cancer, The Indestructible Bust and an Artist's Tribute to his Mother

When I came across Toby Jones and his work on Youtube I was moved by the sensitivity of this young artist and son who had coped with the loss of his mother to breast cancer through his artistic process and powerful work. In a statement about the resiliency, beauty and strength of human beings, Toby Jones creates "indestructible breasts in a metaphorical fight against breast cancer."

I asked Toby if I might share his work with you at "Crossing Borders" and he willingly agreed.
CM

Toby's Story

"My mother died of metastasized breast cancer in February of 2001 after valiantly struggling with the disease for five years. After her death, in the years that followed, a large part of coping with the emptiness in my life was my art. I first started what I now call the "Fiberglass Busts Project" driven by subconscious motives I wouldn't understand until much later. It began from a need to create something out of the emptiness in my life, a time consuming project to fill my days with errands and give me a reason to get out of bed in the morning."


"Being a mother is one of the hardest jobs anyone could undertake-- she came to understand that all mothers, coming from a place of love for their children wished they could be better... and that all mothers do the best they can. They learn and love and grow and make it up as they go along if they have to. My mother was not Martha Stewart or Julia Child-- but to this day, I realized she taught me lessons that I have used every day in life. She taught me in showing me the things that she knew and in allowing me to do the things she could not.

She never expected me to be anything but what I was, and never gave me a reason to lie. She never withheld her approval. She is the mother I asked God for. She will always be with me.
I Love You Mom. " Toby.

"It all became clear to me, one morning as I labored in my garage with a power sander, trying to smooth out the bondo. With beads of sweat trickling down into my eyes, I started to wonder what exactly was I doing? This sculpture is way too thick! Why the ballistics grade fabric? Why the over kill? It finally dawned on me what my subconscious motive was. I was attempting to create breasts that were indestructible. This was the gift I wanted to give to my mother and my metaphorical fight against breast cancer. This insight was the catalyst I needed to move forward. I envisioned dozens of sculptures, auctioned off for Breast Cancer Charities. Building Breasts Impervious To Cancer...it would be a tribute to mother. "

See Youtube Video about Toby Jones, Breast Cancer Art Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZrThINhaY

TV Report Ch. 11 NEWS

and other Press stories:

http://www.tobyjones.com/press.asp

More about Toby Jones and his work: http://www.tobyjones.com/art.asp

"Fifty percent of sales generated from my work has been donated to organizations that focus on breast cancer awareness, outreach and hospice care. "































--->

Music and Healing, Video

Tonight under the crescent moon I share with you from Youtube an inspiring video tribute celebrating the joys and healing potential of music therapy through pictures, quotes and song.
Video by Brandon Moore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPRkgkZHjqI

The Sufferings of Panic and the Physical Diagnosis two Themes in Video Performances

PANIC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFm8wL1yjKs

PXDX http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSnYR22fKpQ

Focus on health and film, movement, rhythm, dance and sound

I would like to share with you today two contrasting Youtube Video clips (above) both on health themes.

Panic Portrayed in Brilliant and Unsettling Dance Performance

In the first unsettling clip (see above) panic is embodied and portrayed in this brilliant dance and film animation work by young 21 year old UK filmmaker Megan Kieran. Warning, you may want to "stop it" and so you should, this is how effective the dance is in conveying its message.

Choreographing the Physical Exam with Sound, Movement, Rhythm

The second video, PXDX , combines sounds and movements in a choreographed and rhythmic statement about the physical exam. PxDx (medical shorthand for "Physical Diagnosis"), a collaboration between medical students Mark Goldin and Dana Kotler, weaves the sounds and images of the physical exam with rhythm and choreography to create a unique performance of physical diagnosis in action. Score created by Mark Goldin, entirely using recorded sounds of the physical exam. Also starring Ari Gladstein and Evanthia Roussos.

The physical exam in action, a serious subject about an important diagnostic process delivered with rhythmic style and more than a little humour. CM

Arts and Cancer, Wellspring Helps Support Cancer Patients and Caregivers

Wellspring Offers Supportive Programs and Art Therapies

I recently heard from Daniel Lockwood, Program Manager at Wellspring, the cancer support centre in London, Ontario. Wellspring has opened an additional new location in Stratford, Ontario on the premises of The Quilt Project, 55 Downie Street in Stratford. The centre offers Peer Support daily from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Yoga and Journaling as well as a Resource and Lending-Library.

The History of Wellspring

"Wellspring founder Anne Armstrong Gibson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Along with all the other fears about treatment, survival and the future of her husband and two young children, she experienced something more, an overwhelming sense of isolation. She quickly realized that this was an all-too-common experience among cancer patients, and became determined to fill the void. With the help and encouragement of some of the leading experts in the field of oncology, Anne worked with family, friends and supporters to establish Wellspring, a non-profit organization offering psychological, emotional, social, spiritual and informational support to individuals and families living with cancer.Anne's vision for Wellspring was to create a Canada-wide network of community-based centres that would provide people with the tools they required to cope with cancer. In 1992, Wellspring opened its first centre, The Coach House, on Wellesley Street East in Toronto. In 1999, Wellspring launched its second centre, in north Toronto, on the campus of Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre. Over the following two years, centres serving the regions of Halton-Peel, Niagara and London, Ontario all opened their doors. Although Anne died in 1995, her vision still guides the organization toward achieving a network that will one day span across Canada."
excerpt from website at http://www.wellspring.ca/home.html

Wellspring offers many helpful and supportive programs such as a coping skills program, discussion series as well as expressive arts programs among them Art and Music therapy.
The organization critically evaluates all programs and conducts research into broader topics in supportive care. The programs and centres are guided by The Wellspring Model, which is based on the goal of effectively meeting the diverse supportive care needs of as many cancer patients and caregivers as possible.

Wellspring is able to provide comfort, support, education and coping skills to a growing number of men, women and children who are living with cancer. Their network registered over 30,000 visits last year, and that number continues to grow. All programs are free of charge for individuals and families living with cancer, and Wellspring receives no core or government funding.

Wellspring offers:

• High-quality supportive care programming for people with any type of cancer

• 
  Programs for children whose parents have cancer

• 
  Support, coping skills and information for the partners, sibling, friends, parents, and other caregivers of cancer patients

• 
  Childcare and transportation services for families seeking cancer support at Wellspring Halton-Peel

• 
  Specialized programs for people facing cancer in the Chinese, Aboriginal, Gay and Lesbian communities

• 
  Volunteer development and support

Read an article about Wellspring, London at

http://www.fims.uwo.ca/newmedia/newmedia2004/therapy/therapy_laidler_wellspring_d4_p.htm featuring interviews with Wellspring, London Executive Director, Shelley Markland and
London Art Therapist, Wanda Sawicki

Website: http://www.wellspring.ca/home.html
If you would like to support Wellspring, information about donations can also be found at the website.

"Art, because it's a creative thing, pulls something out of you that is really life-giving and life-promoting," says Sawicki, "and that's a moving thing to see at a time in your life when you are facing possible death."
Wanda Sawicki, Art Therapist

Dance Helps Transform Grief, Performances Healing Journey for Lata Pada

Today in London, Ontario at the Wolf Performance Hall, 251 Dundas at 4:00 Lata Pada and her Toronto troupe and Indian guest artist Satyanarayana Raju will perform a program titled Kshetram (Dancing the Devine). Kshetram fuses devotional poetry with the music and dances of India. A celebration of classical Indian dance, kshetram is comprised of seven pieces that include solos performed by Lata Pada.

In an article this morning in "The London Free Press" James Reaney tells Lata Pada's story of loss and healing and how she has used traditional dance and her own performances as forms of autobiographical expression. Reaney reports, "Lata Pada, of Toronto, lost her husband and both daughters in the 1985 air India terrorist bombing. She transformed her grief into an autobiographical performance that uses music and classical Indian dance to recall her horror and her healing."

"At its heart," says Pada, "Kshetram is based on a spiritual journey, on the notion that our life

on Earth here is only a journey to ultimate realization."

In addition to Kshetram, Dancing the Devine, Pada has performed other personally transformative dances. At the website, Dancing our Stories Personal Narratives from Dance Animation, http://people.uleth.ca/~scds.secd/dos/lpprinter.html , she writes, " Due to my personal history and tragedy in my life, I have experienced the value of dance and art as an important tool to overcome some terrible things that happen in society. Through repeated performances of my work, Revealed by Fire, I have understood the value of the work and seen how people have been transformed by it, how they have been moved to make some positive changes in their lives. This work has not only given me a new meaning in my life, but it has provided a great understanding of the transcendental value of art."

excerpts included from James Reaney, London Free Press Article, "Dancing the Devine a Sunday Delight",Sunday, June 17, 2007, London Free Press

Dancing our Stories Personal Narratives from Dance Animation

http://people.uleth.ca/~scds.secd/dos/lpprinter.html

More information about Lata Pada http://www.sampradaya-dance.com/about_director.html

Medicine and Arts, The Teachings of Opera in Health and Education

"If we accept the premise that medical practice occurs within a larger cultural context, then it is a short step to the realization that the larger cultural context is going to inform and influence the understanding of disease and those
who suffer from it-inside and outside medical circles-"

About "Medicine in/as Culture:
The Teachings of Opera"
by Michael Hutcheon MD ,
Linda Hutcheon, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Hutcheon, Professor of Medicine and Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Education at the University Health Network and Linda Hutcheon Ph.D., Professor of English and Comparative Literature, work collaboratively across disciplines at the intersections of medicine and culture ..theirs is truly a marriage of medicine and the arts. In a recent article in CCAHTE Journal Michael and Linda Hutcheon wrote about opera and its potential applications in medical education.


"...opera offers medical insights not only through its revealing cultural representations. The actual experience of watching and listening to opera with its determined combination of verbal narrative, powerful music and dramatic performance is an intense one. Opera directly and movingly deals with themes ranging from the terror of death...to the longing for death (in Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde)..."

"..in educational terms studying this high impact kind of story in a medical setting not only teaches empathy and sympathy with the dying and the bereaved but is also helping those in the healing arts to come to terms with their own inevitable end."
"..our modern narratives of science and technology can only
go so far in teaching us about the death we must all finally face."

Quotes from the article Medicine in/as Culture,
The Teachings of Opera by Michael Hutcheon, MD and
Linda Hutcheon, Ph.D. , in CCAHTE Journal, March 07
Access complete March edition of CCAHTE
The Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal at
http://www.cmclean.com




Michael and Linda Hutcheon have published a
number of articles and three books, Opera: Desire, Disease, Death,
Bodily Charm: Living Opera, and Opera: The Art of Dying
see website http://individual.utoronto.ca/hutcheons/books.html


Access the full article and complete CCAHTE Journal March 07 issue free at http://www.cmclean.com subscribe to CCAHTE journal free with an email ccahte@cmclean.com "please subscribe"

I thought you might appreciate watching and listening to this youtube video
Robert Alagna and Leontina Vaduva (La Boheme)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNSyvPN7EPQ

Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolade (final scene, orchestra) with Leonard Bernstein conducting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XlmJtnzwkY



"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 M.D. and Linda Hutcheon Ph.D.