ARTISTS AND HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS ADDRESS PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS

ARTISTS AND HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS ADDRESS PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS AT “LONG LIVE LA” VIDEO EVENT

The South Pasadena Arts Council (SPARC) in partnership with Freewaves, a Los Angeles-based media organization, presents a free screening of artists’ videos, LONG LIVE LA and a panel discussion about art and health/care issues, Wednesday, April 30^th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm, at the Laurie Hendricks Gallery/Burgess Collection, 1504 Mission Street, South Pasadena as part of its SPARC LAB Series.

SPARC LAB is a series of presentations, discussions, and workshops designed to bring together community members who share a common interest in the arts for inspiration, information, professional development and networking.

Along with several videos, the event will feature a discussion about art and healthcare and ways that the arts can influence, bring attention to, and contribute to community dialogue.

“ I have always believed that art and artists are one of several solutions to community issues, and must be at the table during these community conversations”, says Howard Spector, Director of SPARC.

“Our country’s public health crisis has received a lot of attention in the traditional media, yet the problem continues to get worse,” says Anne Bray, executive director of Freewaves. “We thought that artists could bring a fresh perspective to these issues and reach people in a way that conventional PSAs and news stories do not.”

 The event will feature a panel of artists and healthcare professionals discussing a variety of issues related to health and ways the arts and artists can inspire people to embrace healthier lifestyles.

The panel includes:

Cissy Brady-Rogers is a Duke University Integrative Medicine trained health coach. She brings 20 years of experience as a licensed marital and family therapist specializing in eating disorders, spirituality and women’s health to her coaching. In addition to her coaching and clinical work, she blogs on health related topics (www.cissybradyrogers.com/blog) and speaks on mental, physical and spiritual health for professional and community groups. Cissy is a clinical member of the California Association of Marital & Family Therapists and the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals. She is also a certified yoga teacher, spiritual director, and full of gratitude to be enjoying her twenty-second year of life following breast cancer treatment at age 30!

Dr. Marina Khubesrian, M.D. was elected to the South Pasadena City Council in November, 2011. She currently serves as Mayor for the 2013 term. Mayor Khubesrian values teamwork and works closely with her talented and dedicated colleagues on the City Council, Staff, Commissions and members of the community to preserve and enhance the quality of life for South Pasadena families and plan for a healthy and sustainable future for the City. Dr. Marina supports the work of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Doctors Without Borders globally, National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC), Women in South Pasadena Political Action (WISPPA), and many other "wonderfully active and dedicated" non-profit community groups in South Pasadena.  She is excited to support community efforts to increase healthy food and active lifestyle choices through programs like cooking classes for at-risk youth, health fares for seniors, and health, wellness, and media literacy promoting documentary screenings.  She recently worked with newly formed Healthy South Pasadena Community Coalition to organize a screening and discussion of the documentary, Miss Representation and is currently working with the group to organize a screening of the documentary, Hungry for Change.

Anne Bray has been working at the intersection of public space and media art as a hybrid artist and director of the nonprofit media arts organization, Freewaves.  She is a visual instigator and context provider who teaches new genre art at USC and Claremont. Her specialty is finding platforms where artists and viewers exchange ideas.  Freewaves, a grassroots yet global arts organization dedicated to collecting and connecting innovative and culturally relevant independent new media from around the world (www.freewaves.org).  Eleven biennial festivals presenting more than 3000 artists with the partnership of 125 curators and 100+ organizations have been held at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, Getty Center, Hammer Museum, on Hollywood and Chinatown streets, and have been supported by National Endowment for the Arts, MacArthur, Rockefeller, and Warhol Foundations.  Her own 2013 work involves micro projections of 2 word poems (e.g. sacred and scared) on crowds, ground, sides of moving buses during a public art event at Pasadena City Hall.

Ann Kaneko

Independent filmmaker Ann Kaneko is known for her personal essayistic videos that confer documentary subjects with personal insights. She weaves her intimate aesthetic with the complex intricacies of political reality.  The visible and invisible are entwined. Often involving subjects in other parts of the world, Kaneko poetically treats her home, Los Angeles in close relationship.  In this series inspired by Qigong, the Chinese practice of energy cultivation, she worked with Qigong practitioners and Peter Bill, a respected digital painter and regular collaborator. Kaneko's films have screened internationally at numerous festivals, and she has been a Fulbright and Japan Foundation Artist fellow.

Mark Dreskin, M.D. is a Family Physician with Kaiser Permanente since 1996. He leads numerous teams including Urgent Care Departments at the Los Angeles and Pasadena centers, Southern CA Kaiser Depression Management Protocols and regional clinical research teams.  Dr. Dreskin is an engaging speaker and participates on many national and regional teaching panels. He served on an advisory team to the Presidents' Affordable Care Act.  Dr. Dreskin is a native Angeleno who lives in South Pasadena with his wife and 2 kids. He is an avid musician and writer of skits, screenplays, and a popular twitter tweeter of humorous zingers.