Okanagan Institute

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Okanagan Institute

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ArtsCare

A COMMUNITY DIALOGUE
» Thursday 22 January 2009 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing people and ideas featured in Okanagan ARTS. Join us as Karen Close, Ellen Burdett and Bev Anderson lead a lively and focussed roundtable discussion on the role of the arts in health.

» This is a free event. Refreshments will be available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE

Seminar Examines Why and How the Arts Are Good for Health

The creative arts have a significant role to play in reducing the costs of many medical treatments, in relieving stress and tension in professional caregivers, in promoting individual and community health, and thereby potentially avoiding demands on our health care system.

The Okanagan Institute conducted two the Arts and Health forums in association with Okanagan College and the BC Arts Council in the first week of December, featuring presentations by Nancy Cooley, a leading advocate. The forum allowed participants to learn more about arts and health activities across Canada and the world, meet others in the Okanagan involved in or interested in arts and health, and advance the conversation on arts and health in the Okanagan.

On Thursday, January 22 at 5 pm the ongoing weekly Okanagan Institute Express series at the Bohemian Café hosts ArtsCare: A Community Dialogue. Join us as Karen Close, Ellen Burdett and Bev Anderson lead a lively and focussed roundtable discussion on the role of the arts in health.

The presenters invite participation from all members of the community, and look forward to hearing about:

ideas for Arts and Health advocacy in the Okanagan

Arts and Health related initiatives that you have experienced or are currently involved with

ideas about how we might move together as an Okanagan group with common goals related to Arts and Health.

The creative arts have been contributing to healthcare for more than a century. Research has demonstrated their efficacy in many areas, including:

reducing anxiety and tension in cardiac and surgery patients and thus the use of mood altering drugs and painkillers

reducing pain and discomfort in individuals suffering from a wide variety of illnesses and thus reducing or avoiding other pharmaceutical use and their adverse reactions

enhancing the development of critically ill newborns, reducing their time in intensive care units and thus the costs of their care;

increasing the speed and completion rate of a variety of medical interventions, including colonoscopies

intervening to help mentally ill remain stable and thus avoid expensive hospitilization

reducing tensions and stress among doctors, nurses and other caregivers

providing more comfortable, relaxing, and encouraging physical surroundings in medical facilities for patients and their families.

Arts and cultural activities have also been shown to be exceptionally effective in reaching out to and engaging marginalized groups, youth-at-risk, and the elderly. Arts programming levels the playing field for disadvantaged youth and leads to higher levels of academic achievement and life success in youth from all socio-economic backgrounds. Arts and culture also can be used as powerful vehicles for bringing people together to address difficult and divisive social issues (such as drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, poverty), the improvement or resolution of which have been correlated with improved health in many populations.

The Okanagan Institute would like to see the creative arts fully integrated into all care environments and the community at large for the health of patients, healers, families, community members and artists. Specifically:

To innovate patient care and healing both in the hospital and community setting through the introduction of the international language of the arts

To create programs that allow staff and patients to tap into their creative healing energies

To introduce the live arts and music to hospitals and healthcare settings as a means of meditative diversion at the very least

To create opportunities for artists and musicians to enjoy paid participation in the art of healing.

Benefits to the Arts Community:

The opportunity to view their work as a valuable contribution to the health of the community

The creation of innovative employment opportunities

The opportunity to expose their work to a much wider audience.

The opportunity to share the meditative effects of their process with an appreciative audience

New performance and gallery spaces will be created

To experience and be informed by the dynamic environment of life and death.

Benefits to Healthcare and the Community:

Staff, patients and families experience the calming influence of an artist or musician

Patients have the opportunity to engage with an artist providing them not only diversion but the opportunity to tap into their own creative energy.

The body, mind, spirit connection will be made

Activities that bring joy and laughter will be brought into the healthcare system.

Karen Close has BA and a BEd (visual arts specialist). Teaching English and Art for 30 years gave Karen a deep appreciation for the healing benefits of creative expression. Retirement in 1995 gave her the opportunity to expand her knowledge and devote her time to arts and health advocacy. In 2005 she presented at the international conference of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare in Edmonton and in 2006 at the Canadian Society for Education through Art in Winnipeg. Karen is a painter and the author of Unfinished Women: Seeds From My Friendship With Reva Brooks and Spirit of Kelowna A Celebration of Art and Community. Her heART FIT classes at the Rotary Centre for the Arts teach the healing benefits of 'spontaneous process painting'.

Ellen Burdett has a BA from SFU and a LLB from UBC, and practiced law and taught at UBC Law School prior to her appointment to the Provincial Court 15 years ago. She has served as an Associate Chief Judge and presently is the Administrative Judge for the Okanagan District. She is currently on medical leave, undergoing treatment for cancer. Ellen has lived in Kelowna for the past four and half years, and resides in the Mission area with her two teenaged children.

Bev Anderson lived in the Northwest Territories where she worked with the Supreme Court for many years. While travelling with the courts she developed a sense of empathy for those going through the court system. At the same time she was taken by the profound beauty of the harsh north and began to develop her creativity. In 2002 she moved to Kelowna to pursue a formal education in visual arts. Bev Anderson graduated from UBCO in 2006 with a Fine Arts Degree, where she received the Helen Pitt Award and a full academic scholarship for two consecutive years. In 2008 Bev became the ArtWorks Studio Coordinator at the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) in Kelowna. She now offers support and instruction to studio participants in discovering and developing their creative talents as they deal with the challenges of a mental illness.

ArtsCare: A Community Dialogue is a free event, and takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 74th event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007. Since that time, the series has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet and professor John Lent, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, community activist Don Elzer, dancer David LaHay, architect Jim Meiklejohn, culinary artist and writer Heidi Noble, broadcaster Marion Barschel and others from a wide range of creative fields.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE

Where Enquiring Minds Gather. Okanagan Institute at the Bohemian Café A hearty feast of lectures, presentations, workshops and showcases celebrating our culture and community. Produced by the Okanagan Institute in association with Wheat King Publishing magazines: Okanagan Arts and Okanagan Home. Express is sponsored in part by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan, Wood Lake Publishing, UBCO-FCCS, and in support of Project Literacy Kelowna.

The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that have gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.