Join me at Ventfort Hall on Saturday, February 15
Come hang out with me at Ventfort Hall in Lenox, Mass., from 1-3 PM on Saturday, February 15!
Through my grant-funded Artists at Work project, I’m hosting a special reception for young adult survivors.
This event is free, but advance registration is required. We’ll meet, talk, do some artmaking, and leave with new connections and perspectives. All young adult cancer survivors—anyone diagnosed under age 45 with any type of cancer—are welcome.
Seeing the show
My show, “Witness": Sharing Cancer Stories” will be on display through March 31, and I’d love for you to drop by and see the show no matter how your life has been touched by this topic (or not).
I’m thankful to Ventfort Hall for providing me the space for this show, and to AAW for this past transformative year in art-making. It was upended by a surprise, major spinal surgery and Stage 4 diagnosis, but I managed to get this show done anyway, and for that I am very proud. I’d love to see you in person or on Zoom in February, and I’d love for you to visit VH to check out the show any time. Thanks for following along and supporting and validating this year.
Or join us virtually
For those who can’t attend in person, I’m doing a Zoom presentation on Thursday, Feb. 20 at 7 PM. This is also free—I’ll be giving an overview of my project, answering questions, and connecting with other survivors.
About “Witness”
“Witness” is a show about the experience of young adults during and after cancer treatment. It’s designed to create striking visuals that draw attention to the alarming increase in young adult cancers–while there has been an overall decrease in cancer deaths, there has been a whopping 79.1% increase in cancer rates for people under age 50 across the world. This increase necessitates new methods and practices of care.
To develop the quilts for this show, Francesca Olsen spent time interviewing 17 young adults who were touched by cancer in different ways, from thyroid to leukemia to breast cancer at all stages. Their invaluable perspective drives work about balance, re-entering the world, dealing with caregivers and the medical industry, and building community among people who have been through cancer.
Cancer is often seen as an older person’s disease, but this is changing, and we need to draw light on how to address the needs of this patient population. Younger people are starting or building their careers. They often have young children to care for, or they are in the middle of taking care of aging parents, or doing both at the same time. They have fewer financial resources and less room to make mistakes, take extended time off, or find support.
After treatment, they’re often expected to go back to “normal” without much time to re-evaluate who they are and what’s important now. Like Olsen, they live with cancer and its indefinite treatment, or the constant reminder that cancer could recur. Many of us live with daily complications and severe after-effects from treatment.
Olsen’s quilts showcase this experience– “Witness,” for which the show is named, includes embroidered quotes from survivor interviews in the style of a temperance banner or Victorian-era community quilt. “Treatment” is an embroidered wholecloth quilt that shows a chronological list of all the drugs Olsen has had to take during her cancer experience. “Ribbon” deconstructs the metastatic breast cancer ribbon’s colors (pink, teal, and green); “Verification” is a quilted floral greeting card based on the world of the online cancer community that asks “is this happening to anyone else?”
“Witness” was created as a yearlong project supported by Artists at Work, a national workforce resilience program in the spirit of the WPA that is designed to support artists and their communities through artistic civic engagement. To date, AAW has provided 70 artists and culture workers across 11 states with a salary and health benefits, leveraging their power and creativity in partnership with over 80 cultural and community organizations throughout the nation.
