Media Release—19 May 2003
CATALYST - Art for Parkinson’s exhibition
Catalyst is an exhibition of art works by people with Parkinson’s disease. Hosted by the Penny School Gallery, Kingston, in collaboration with the Parkinson’s Disease Society CREATE IT Millennium Awards Scheme this is the first curated show in London of work arising from art as therapy programs for Parkinson’s. The exhibition will run from Saturday 5 July until Friday 18 July 2003.
The exhibition will be opened by Sebastian Peake, son of artist, writer and poet Mervyn Peake, who had Parkinson’s, at the Private View which is being held from 12 noon till 3pm on Saturday 5 July.
The Catalyst exhibition comprises over fifty works on paper, including drawings paintings and prints, examples of silkpainting and photographs of sculpture, representing Painting with Parkinsons, Canberra, Australia, and Art for Parkinson’s programs supported by the Parkinson’s Disease Society Shrewsbury Branch and YAPP&RS (Young Alert People with Parkinson’s and their Relatives) group.
Ten Art for Parkinson’s workshops will also be held daily (except Sunday) from 10am-12noon from Monday 7 July until Thursday 17 July at the Kingston College to complement the Catalyst exhibition. For the last workshop the celebrated musician and composer, Barbara Thompson will play the saxophone for workshop participants. Art work arising from the workshops will be displayed at the wrap-up session on Friday 18 July from 2-3.30pm. The wrap-up session will end with a book launch, sponsored by Brunner-Routledge Press, to promote Arts Therapies for Progressive Illness – Nameless Dread, edited by Diane Waller, facilitator of the wrap-up session. Professor Waller founded the Art Psychotherapy Unit at Goldsmiths College, London.
The facilitator of the workshops will be Nancy Tingey, co-curator of Catalyst. Founder of the Australian group Painting with Parkinsons in 1994 she initiated Art for Parkinson’s programs following her return to England five years later. Painting with Parkinsons has held over twenty exhibitions and is still running with an average of twelve participants in Canberra facilitated by a team of art therapists, artist-printmakers, poet and sculptor.
Art as a therapy for Parkinson’s draws on the combined expertise of carers and professional art makers and therapists to relieve Parkinson’s symptoms with a combination of art making and meditation techniques. Participants record relief from stress and depression, increased social and communication skills leading to a sense of achievement and improved quality of life. Catalyst is a visual affirmation of this life-enhancing process.
Although this exhibition celebrates the product, the emphasis in art as therapy remains on the process – the calming effect of wet-on-wet watercolour, the surprising chance effect in printmaking, the magic spread of colour in silkpainting and the tactile possibilities suggested by clay- affirming the triumph of creative ability over disability.
Catalyst aims to help open doors for people with physical disabilities by showing how art activity can change the ‘can’t do’ into the ‘can do’. Details on the program including guidelines for establishing art as therapy groups will be available on the Art for Parkinson’s website which is being set up by Andy Daly, recipient of a Parkinson’s Disease Society CREATE IT Millennium Award.
For further information contact:-
Che Sutherland
Parkinson’s Disease Society CREATE IT Millennium Awards
Parkinson’s Disease Society
215 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London, SW1V 1EJ
Tel: 020 7963 9315
Email: createit@parkinsons.org.uk
Rosemary Williams
Manager, Penny School Gallery
Kingston College
55 Richmond Road
Kingston upon Thames
Tel: 020 8939 4601 or mobile 07958 501 476
ENDS – 19 May 2003
CATALYST
Art for Parkinson’s
Catalyst is an exhibition of art work by people with Parkinson’s disease. Hosted by the Penny School Gallery, Kingston, in collaboration with the Parkinson’s Disease Society CREATE IT Millennium Awards Scheme this is the first curated show in London of work arising from art as therapy programs for Parkinson’s. Over 50 works selected from groups in Australia and England demonstrate the triumph of creative ability over disability through the therapeutic combination of meditation and art activity to relieve the distressing symptoms of progressive illness. The calming effect of wet-on-wet watercolour, the surprising chance outcome of monoprinting, the magical spread of colour and the quirkiness of clay have stimulated this lively and thought-provoking exhibition. Catalyst is a visual affirmation of a life-enhancing process.
(information to be included on invitation to exhibition – Nancy Tingey- April 2003)