Migraine Aware Art at Italian Institute

Italian Cultural Institute Joins the World Headache Alliance In Recognition Of Major Public Health Issue– With Migraine Disease Awareness Art Exhibit
       

Related Resources • Is Your Insurance Company Limiting Your Triptans? • Triptans: Overview and Profiles      Elsewhere on the Web • MAGNUM: the National Migraine Association • WHA: the World Headache Alliance

Last month's World Headache Alliance (WHA) Council meeting in Washington, D.C., coincided with an impressive and captivating Migraine Awareness Art Exhibit in the Italian Cultural Institute of the Italian Embassy. MAGNUM, the National Migraine Association hosted the WHA meeting and coordinated the exhibit. The WHA is a collaborative global alliance of headache organizations from 26 countries, with leading international health advocates from six nations including England, New Zealand, and India participating in the Washington program.

A special reception and the opening of the Migraine Disease Awareness Art Exhibition at the Italian Embassy’s Italian Cultural Institute was held on February 10, 2003. MAGNUM staff members said they are "grateful to the Embassy of Italy for the use of their beautiful Cultural Institute, as using the Institute shows generous support for Migraine disease public health issues." WHA Council considered it an honor to meet with representatives from the Italian Embassy and staff at the luncheon event.

Terri Miller Burchfield, MAGNUM’s Legislative Director, noted,

“We are grateful for the kind support by the Embassy of Italy for the use of their Italian Cultural Institute. This kind cooperation and support for a project that reaches out to those who suffer from head pain offers us a venue to reach an audience on both a national and global scale.”

The Italian Cultural Institute Migraine Awareness Exhibit features the award-winning artwork by American artists and Migraineurs Janet McKenzie and Michael John Coleman. Ms. McKenzie has been featured in MAGNUM Migraine awareness art exhibits since the mid 1990's. McKenzie is a well known New York City painter, whose stunning artwork has been a cornerstone in MAGNUM's various Migraine disease awareness art endeavors over the years. This painter, who now works from her studio in Vermont, attracted international attention from her painting "Jesus of the People," selected winner of the National Catholic Reporter's global competition for a new image of Jesus at the Millennium, which was judged by Sister Wendy Beckett, Britain's most beloved TV art critic.

Mr. Coleman's fine art photography has been featured in hundreds of juried exhibitions and various national publications. He has suffered from Migraines since the age of six, and has experienced the life altering effects of that debilitating disease. MAGNUM's use of art and media in its public health awareness efforts has allowed Coleman to divide his time between Migraine disease advocacy and his fine art career. This union of his talent cannot only be seen in the beauty of his artwork such as in this current exhibit at the Italian Cultural Center or the recent 2001 Rome Abridged Migraine Awareness solo exhibit, but also in his recent lectures on Migraine and Art in Sicily, Italy, and Istanbul, Turkey.

It's interesting to note that the concept of Migraine art exhibits has been with us for many years. The original format has been asking artists or non-artists to express the suffering of their Migraines through their art in their various mediums. The best example of this format are the well received National Headache Foundation's Migraine Masterpieces Contests. About a decade ago, leadership in the then newly formed NGO (non-government organization) MAGNUM included one of the founding officers who happened to be a well known practicing artist who was himself a Migraineur. That founder is feature artist Michael John Coleman, currently showing with McKenzie at the Italian Cultural Institute. It was at that time that the leadership at MAGNUM, drawing on Coleman's life experience with the disease, wanted to use the power of art itself, created by artists who were Migraineurs to raise public awareness about a very misunderstood disease. This strikingly different concept takes a totally different approach as it focuses on the power and elegance of art created by living artists much in the tradition of the incredible paintings of Migraineurs Vincent Van Gogh or Pablo Picasso, for example. The reason MAGNUM chose to take this approach was that they wanted to use the beauty and excitement of award winning art to bring people out to exhibits that weren't based on suffering, but rather on the positive emotion and life experience of the artists themselves as reflected in their artwork.

Following the opening of the exhibit, Susan Moeller Denny, MAGNUM's Information Services Director commented,

"Those in attendance were most impressed by Mr. Coleman's newly released images of Rome. I continue to enjoy the quizzical and awestricken nature of the comments from viewers as they discover Mr. Coleman's works are not, in fact, watercolor paintings. That they are produced directly from his remarkable talent in photographic technique makes them all the more breathtaking."

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Immediately after the opening, MAGNUM took members of the WHA Council to meet with members of the US Congress at which time Congress James P. Moran (D-VA) announced that he'll be moving forward with MAGNUM's draft Congressional resolution for a "National Migraine Disease and Headache Awareness Mont"  MAGNUM is also working with U.S. Senators Warner (R-VA) and George Allen (R-VA), who will be taking the lead on the Senate side. This is an exciting development and will bring America into a leadership position in addressing the global burden of headache disorders in the world.

This joint Migraine disease awareness event at the Italian Cultural Institute illustrates Italy’s continued medical leadership and compassion on pain issues, as Rome is the host city for the XI Congress of the International Headache Society (IHC 2003).
 

~ Teri Robert

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