UK to Unveil Body Mapping Exhibit on Feb. 8

LEXINGTON, KY. (Feb. 4, 2013) — Dr. Michael Karpf and the UK Arts in HealthCare program are partnering with Dean Michael Tick from the UK College of Fine Arts, the UK School of Art and Visual Studies, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, the Ruth Hunt Wood Foundation and the Art2Be organization to hold a body mapping workshop Feb. 4-8.

Ten UK HealthCare transplant patients will be participating in the workshop, creating canvases of their bodies that describe their experience with transplantation. All patients are from Kentucky and represent a variety of donated organs and tissue.

To celebrate the culmination of the weekong workshop, the patients' canvases will be unveiled in a special ceremony at 2 p.m., Friday, Feb. 8 in the UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital Pavilion A East Gallery. The exhibit is free and open to the public and will remain on display through Feb. 24. The East Gallery also also houses the Gift of Life memorial, dedicated in 2012 to honor those who upon their death gave organs, tissues and eyes for transplantation. Currently, there are 240 donor names on the wall.

Xavier Verhoest of the Art2Be organization from Nairobi, Kenya, will be coming to Kentucky to act as the workshop facilitator. Body mapping is a creative therapeutic process that allows participants to reflect on and creatively communicate their life stories. It involves painting a life-size representation of one’s body onto canvas and using pictures, symbols and words to show the path that one has taken through life. The painting of the body maps takes place in a safe and confidential group setting and is interwoven with personal story telling, group discussions, guided visualization and body work.   

Initially developed in South Africa to address the isolation and stigma experienced by people living with HIV/AIDS, body mapping can also be used with other groups that experience social marginalization and physical and/or psychological trauma.  It provides a creative vehicle for expression that is not dependant on literacy levels, and enables participants to (re-)discover their bodies as a source of strength and healing. 

For more information on the body mapping project, visit www.art2bebodymaps.com. For more information on organ donation, visit www.donatelifeky.org. 

MEDIA CONTACT: Allison Perry, (859) 323-299 or allison.perry@uky.edu; or Whitney Hale, (859) 257-8716 or wshale0@email.uky.edu.