Art Exhibit Explodes onto the
Scene
at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 8, 2001
 (Toronto, Ont.) The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
opens its doors to the public for its second annual art show on June 27 with a new
name, more artists and the start of a permanent art collection.
Being
Scene is a juried show that will feature 85 works by more than 50 artists and
will run until June, 2002 at the Centre's Queen Street site, the Clarke site and
the Addiction Research Foundation site.
The
show (formerly called Images 2000) was well received last year and this year's show
is expected to entice and excite an even broader audience.
"We
were delighted with the interest in and reaction to last year's show," said
Lisa Brown, director of the Centre's Workman Theatre and
the show's organizer.
The
show was popular for a number of reasons she said. "Firstly, because we have
so many artists involved, we have a huge range of topics, colours, styles and medium.
For example, this year's show includes everything from small masks 3" x 5"
and pottery, dinner plate size, to larger oils and mixed media pieces 7' x 8'. Secondly,
several of the featured artists are fairly well established on the Toronto art scene,
e.g. Danae Chambers, so we're attracting a nice blend of art lovers and the general
public. As well, the Centre is ideally situated along the Queen St. strip where a
number of alternative galleries have recently sprung up.
All
artists are or have been clients of the Centre. All have been paid a fee for the
works selected and most pieces will be available for sale during the run of the show.
Being
Scene will kick off on June 27 with the opening ceremony at 12:00 noon in the
main lobby of the Queen St. W. site. Works from the permanent collection will be
on display in the Workman Theatre while Being Scene works will be hung in
the halls.
The
opening day will also feature a public lecture - Self-management of Post-traumatic
Stress, by Barry Cohen, co-founder of the post-traumatic program at the Psychiatric
Institute of Washington, D.C. Cohen will also participate June 28 in an art therapy
workshop on the history of art in diagnosis, along with Anne Mills, director of the
art therapy program at George Washington University, in Washington D.C.
The
permanent collection is a much-needed development that will collect, catalogue and
showcase a large number of works that the Centre has received over the years.
Among
the works that will be on display:
(1) Murals in the Mall -- Four artists were selected from a group of about
20 to produce a special display of four large works for the Centre's mall area where
there is a lot of traffic as well as places to sit and read or soak up the art.
(2) A year-long Millennium Project resulted in a 9 by 5 ft. piece entitled Northern
Mystery. Visual images were painted on a large canvas, representing the way we
make connections.
(3) Two quilts created for the International Women's Day celebrations in 2000. The
quilts were created to commemorate the millennium International Women's Day. Inspired
by concern for women's mental health and addictions, 50 to 60 CAMH staff, clients
and community partners created the colourful squares using a variety of fabrics.
Packages of material and instructions were handed out to clients such as those in
art therapy programs and later assembled into quilts. Finished quilts have been on
display at the main entrance of the ARF site and at Queen St.
(4) A number of works are included by Susan Schellenberg, whose earlier career as
a public health nurse encouraged her socially aware art. A mother of five who has
produced educational programming, she has created a number of dream paintings concerned
with violence against women, as well as a play, My Old Movie of Dreams, which
she also produced. In 1998, Cara Operations Ltd. purchased her Shedding Skins
dream art and text which has been displayed at BCE Place, as well as the CAMH main
lobby where it has been on permanent display since December 1999.
Being
Scene's jurors include: Megan Williams, a teacher of creative process development
as well as painting and drawing the figure at the Toronto School of Art; Brenda McCrank,
a teacher of drawing, painting and design at Sheridan College; and Brian Hladin,
a visual artist and illustrator who has taught at Central Technical Art Centre, Humber
College Design Foundation, the Sheridan College School of Animation Arts and Design
and the Toronto School of Art.
One
painting -- a portrait of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, by Danae Chambers -- is on loan
from a private collector and will hang with the Being Scene exhibit.
The
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health was created in 1998 through the merger of
the Addiction Research Foundation, the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, the Donwood
Institute and the Queen St. Mental Health Centre. The centre is a
Pan American Health Organization and World
Health Organization Collaborating Centre and is
a teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.
-30-
For further information, contact:
Cheryl Saracini
Workman Theatre Project
(416)583-4339
|
1-800-463-6273
