Growing Up With Cancer Project
Growing Up With Cancer Self-Portrait
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“Most young people came with an idea of what they were hoping to create, but weren’t confident that they had the skills to fulfill its promise. This made our collaboration similar to an architect or designer/client relationship. Through a very practical process of trial and error participants were able to effectively visualize and give physical form to their ideas.
Kris Smith, Project Artist and Chief Investigator |
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“We sincerely hope that you enjoy the exhibition and appreciate the self-portraits presented here. Each artwork presents an individual experience with cancer, displaying them will allow the hopes and dreams, fears and worries of these young people to be better understood.”
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Growing Up With Cancer is an innovative project using research and creative practice to understand the experience of having cancer during adolescence and young adulthood. Funded through an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP0883632), it brought together researchers, artists, advocates and clinicians at the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine at the University of Sydney, the University of Newcastle, the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, and CanTeen - the Australian Organisation for Young People Living with Cancer.
During 2010 and 2011, 27 young people participated in interviews about the nature and extent of the impact of cancer on the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Of these, 19 collaborated with artist Kris Smith or worked on their own, to produce a self-portrait that represented them and the impact of cancer on their experience of growing up.
In September 2012, we launched a series of exhibitions of these beautiful, poignant, strong, funny, and thought-provoking images. Several exhibitions have been held in the latter part of 2012, and several more are scheduled to be held throughout the country in 2013. We invite the general public to come and celebrate the creative expression of these young people’s experiences of growing up with cancer.
To download and view the Growing Up With Cancer Exhibition catalogue, please click here.
For further information:
Exhibition Dates and Venues:
- September 25 – October 15: Riverside Theatres, Parramatta LAUNCH 6 October
- October 17 – November 7: Xavier Space at Saint Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst
- November 12 – December 8: Children's Hospital at Westmead
- December 12 – January 6: The Rocks Pop-up venue, Sydney
- February 18 – 22: Fed Square, Melbourne
- March: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne
- May: Downing Centre Display Cases, Sydney