“Art encompasses the breadth of human experience; it takes our joys and burdens and sorrows and transforms them into something beautiful,” says Dr. Ann Loewen. “Healing, medicine, and the arts all work together to contribute to the wellness of the whole person.”
Mar 08
Arts and Global Health Conference, April 2015
- Keynote Address: “Art as Force of Nature” by Lesley University Professor, Shaun McNiff
- Artistic response by Stan Strickland
- Panel with afternoon workshop presenters John Burt, Angelica Pinna-Perez, Kelvin Ramirez, Abraham Sussman, Halima Sussman and Marian Brown
- Choice of Workshops:
- “The Arts Transform Post-Conflict Societies: A Case Study of Cultural Revival in Cambodia” with John Burt
- “The Progressive Therapeutic Paradox: Struggling with Internalized Narratives of Race when Working Internationally” with Angelica Pinna-Perez and Kelvin Ramirez
- “Dances of Universal Peace: An Example of Activist International Peacemaking Through the Arts” with Abraham Sussman and Halima Sussman
- “7 Dresses 4 Health: An Arts and Health Advocacy Campaign” with Marian Brown
- Keynote Address: “Cambodia, 40 Years Out: Cultural and Artistic Resilience Then and Now” by Co-Founders of Cambodian Living Art, Arn Chorn-Pond and John Burt
- Panel:
- David Alan Harris, Director of Global Wellbeing, counselor and dance/movement therapist
- Louise Pascale, Founder and Director of Children’s Afghan Songbook Project and Professor in Lesley’s Integrated Teaching through the Arts Program
- Michael Kemeh, Coordinator of Lesley’s Creative Arts in Learning in Early Childhood and Elementary Programs, specializing in integrating drama into the classroom
- Yousef AlAjarma, Program Director in MSPP’s Expressive Arts Therapy Counseling Program, specializing in trauma and resilience in Palestine
- Choice of Workshops:
- “Buffering Suffering: Integrating the Arts in Building Resilience in Regional and Global Contexts” with Vivien Marcow Speiser and Phillip Speiser
- “Peace Train Journey in South Africa” with Sharon Katz
- “Healthy Tomorrow and African Dance” with Wyoma
- “Rwanda: A New Age of Learning Creating and Sharing” with Alan O’Hare and others
- Also featuring Boston Poet Laureate Danielle Legros Georges and Cambodian poet and artist Piersath Chath
- General Public: $195 (single day: $125)
- Lesley Alumni, Faculty and Sponsors: $165 (single day: $95)
- Students: $45 (single day: $25)
Dec 02
Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is finally here!!! Artists in Healthcare have published a campaign to raise funds for music at Health Sciences Centre.
Please visit Canada Helps or our website and donate, so we can build a major program at HSC. Every $30 donation brings an hour of live music to a patient.
HSC has participated in the Service Canada Student jobs program since 2005. The student musicians playing in the summer program have had incredible experiences there. One staff asked the musician if he would come and play for a bone marrow transplant, so Danny Kroeker did.
The procedure was about 45 minutes and he played and sang the entire time. When it was over everyone told him that having him play had made an uncomfortable process so much easier … the patient had something positive to focus on, as did the family and the staff thanked him for helping out …
HSC is a very big hospital. At the present moment we have one physician donation which gives Kris Ulrich 50 hours a year. HSC could probably use 40 hours a week of live music, just to try to cover all the different programs.
We’ve applied for funding to Foundations and participated in other campaigns and we’re simply not giving up.
There ‘s a lovely quote by Robert Browning that speaks to the importance of music .. everywhere but uniquely in healthcare: “Who hears music feels his solitude Peopled at once.”
We can make a difference 🙂
Nov 04
CKX Summit, November 20, 2014
Toronto, Ontario.
From; http://ckxsummit2014.sched.org/event/902453a2215de9b03c2d00cf99390d24#.VFk5oIdmNSX
How can we assess and understand the value and consequent impact of arts and cultural participation on citizens and communities of all sizes across Canada?
Are the intrinsic and intangible benefits and impacts on the human spirit, creativity, education and other socio-cultural factors the most important to understand? How do we best capture, frame and share these benefits and impacts?
Or, are the benefits and impacts best served by a deeper understanding of the economic and data-driven metrics of a thriving arts and cultural sector?
Presented by CAPACOA and Culture Days, this provocative Oxford-style debate will be moderated by Simon Brault, Director and CEO, Canada Council for the Arts, and pit Alain Dubuc, award winning economic journalist from La Presse up against Shawn van Sluys, Executive Director of the Musagetes Foundation.
The debate will generate profound insights and ignite discussion on how we understand and assess the value and consequent impact of arts and cultural participation on citizens and communities of all sizes across Canada.
Jul 25
Myron Kurjewicz. Accordion Master
“I had finished playing @ Rehab and was on my way to the General Centre when I came in contact with a group of children what appeared to be from day-care.
There were probably 6-7 walking all in a row, holding a rope, guided by their supervisors. They stopped when they saw me walking with my accordion, and
we started to chat about my “big piano” that I was carrying, asking how it worked and if I could play them a song. Well, you don’t think that another 6-7
youngsters, same as the first batch, came on the scene. Again, asking questions, and wanting me to play something. I made them a deal, that I would play
only if they all agreed to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. They got ready, I got ready, and we did it! If you can imagine 12-14 kids, belting out Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star near the elevators at a busy intersection at the hospital. People/patients/staff stopping, taking pictures with their phones, smiling, filming, laughing, and clapping.
That was certainly a memorable “Kodak” moment for us all.”
A Virtuoso of the accordion, Myron has been featured at the Winnipeg New Music Festival, twice, and has been volunteering at the Health Sciences Centre for three years, and spreads joy through the halls!
“All in all things are good playing at HSC. As you may recall, I started playing at 2nd floor and 5th floor at the rehab. That has expanded
now to the 6th floor as well at the rehab, and also to the 5th floor and the 7th floor @ the General Centre. Sometimes feel like I need
running shoes, extra vitamins, and Gypsy blood, because I have to move quickly to see all of the patients. The stories and experiences
are wonderful, and as much as people seemingly enjoy the music, I share with them that those warm words and feelings work both ways.
There certainly is a huge sense of self satisfaction and gratitude for me in many respects, and for that, I am truly grateful.
That’s about it for now…have to go practice.
Be well. TakeCare”
Myron
May 11
Over 200 Artists tackle the Illness Experience
Posted on March 31, 2014 by Zal Press in Patient Commando Blog
““Mira, Mira on the wall” was the refrain that came to mind when young Mira Berlin (MFA) presented her idea 3 years ago for an art show representing the personal illness experiences of artists. After she left my office, I thought about whether the refrain’s connection to the fairy tale was applicable to the concept.
Three years later, the fairy tale reference can be discarded. A collective of European academic, art and industry leaders has produced a vivid expression of illness through the eyes of artists working in collaboration with patients.
‘Perspectives – Art, Inflammation and Me’ is an initiative designed to add a different dimension to the current understanding of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) and their impact on patients and society. The exhibition debuted at the 9th Congress of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 20 with more than 100 unique pieces of art.”
Apr 21
News from Vanessa Kuzina
toward the slowly approaching spring. Although it has been one of the hardest winter’s we’ve known there was beauty and stillness in the many short and cold days. I am very excited to announce an upcoming solo show to help bring in the Spring. Summer will be here before we know it!
Solo Show Friday May 2nd
It has been many a moon since I have performed an evening of my solo material in my home town. I am thrilled to share an evening of songs with you at one of my favourite and most intimate concert spaces in Winnipeg. It will be my pleasure to have my good friend and colleague Marcel Desilets accompanying me on stage. I’m honoured the Winnipeg Folk Festival is presenting this show at their lovely downtown venue The Folk Exchange. I hope you can make it!
The Folk Exchange
211 Bannatyne Avenue
Friday May 2nd
Doors: 7:15 PM, Show: 8:00 PM
$10
Tickets available in advance at the Winnipeg Folk Festival Music Store in person or by phone with credit card, (204) 231-1377. General Admission, All Ages, Seating – first come, first served.
For more information click here!
Apr 10
News from St Boniface
Well I’m still getting over yesterday’s visits to the units with Sierra, it was truly an uplifting experience for me! And to end off by visiting CR4, with the lovely husband who serenaded to his wife while strumming with Sierra’s guitar and Sierra playing the fiddle…unbelievable, we were all moved by it.
Apr 09