UK Patients' Body Mapping Exhibit to be Featured at Downtown Gallery Hop
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 15, 2013) — Several UK HealthCare transplant recipients will attend this season's downtown Gallery Hop in Lexington to showcase the work they created during a "body mapping" workshop earlier this year.
In February, Dr. Michael Karpf and the UK Arts in HealthCare program partnered with Dean Michael Tick from the UK College of Fine Arts, the UK School of Art and Visual Studies, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), the Ruth Hunt Wood Foundation and the Art2Be organization to hold a body mapping workshop and exhibition under the direction of artist Xavier Verhoest.
During the workshop, eight UK HealthCare transplant recipients created canvases of their bodies that described their personal journey of waiting for a life-saving transplant and receiving the “Gift of Life.” All patients are from Kentucky and are recipients of a variety of donated organs.
The body mapping exhibit will be on display at the Lexington Central Public Library on Main Street during the Gallery Hop on Friday, April 19, 2013. From 5-8 p.m., several of the transplant recipients will be present to discuss their unique body mapping experience. Admission to the Gallery Hop is free and open to the public.
The body mapping exhibit is one way that UK HealthCare and KODA are celebrating the 10th annual National Donate Life month. Special events throughout the month of April will commemorate those who have given, received or continue to wait for lifesaving transplants – the “Gift of Life” and encourage Kentuckians to join the Kentucky Donor Registry.
There are now 110 million registered donors in the United States, with over 1.3 million who have joined the donor registry in Kentucky. Still, the number of people in need of transplants continues to rise, with over 117,000 waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.
The Kentucky Organ Donor Registry is a safe and secure electronic database where a person’s wishes regarding organ donation will be fulfilled. Just one individual donor can provide organs and tissue for nearly 50 people in need.
To join the registry, visit www.donatelifeky.org or sign up when you renew your driver’s license. The donor registry enables family members to know that you chose to save and enhance lives through donation. Kentucky’s “First Person Consent” laws mean that the wishes of an individual on the registry will be carried out as requested.
MEDIA CONTACT: Allison Perry (859) 323-2399 or allison.perry@uky.edu