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Bodies Of Work: Art & H
KETCHUM— Sun Valley Museum of Art (SVMoA) is pleased to announce Bodies of Work: Art & Healing, a group exhibition that features artwork by six contemporary artists who have used their artistic practice as a way of exploring and processing their own experience of medical illness and the experiences of others that will open to the public on Jan. 12, 2023, and will remain on view through March 23, 2024. Admission is free, and open to the public. The arts have long served as powerful medicine for both mind and body. At the beginning of the 20th century, tuberculosis patients at sanatoria often participated in structured arts and crafts programs. Wounded soldiers recuperating during World War II were taught “lap crafts,” such as beading and embroidery, as part of their medical therapy. And many artists have made their practices an essential part of their personal healing. “As we were planning for this exhibition, the Covid-19 pandemic was dominating headlines around the globe. I began asking how the arts can help us navigate the complex experience of what it is to be a medical patient facing serious illness in the 21st century – and how art can help us -50- | ExtendedWeekendGetaways ~ January 2024
heal from other kinds of social and emotional trauma,” said Courtney Gilbert, Sun Valley Museum of Art Curator. “I found that this was a question lots of artists were wrestling with in their work and identified artists for the exhibition who offer multiple ways of thinking about the topic.” Bodies of Work: Art and Healing features the artwork of six contemporary artists who have used their practices as a way of exploring and processing their own experience of medical illness, as well as the experiences of others. Working in a range of media and from widely varying points of view and experiences, these artists have made art as part of their own healing and to enable the healing of others.
Artists Katherine Shaughnessy and Heather Watkins have each made new work for the exhibition reflecting on their personal medical experiences. The exhibition includes Boise-based artist Katherine Shaughnessy’s Radiant Interlude, 20 works on wood panel made over 20 days of radiation treatment in 2021. Shaughnessy describes the work “as a way to meditate and work my way through the pain and uncertainty that is breast cancer.” In ew paintings and sculptures commissioned by SVMoA, Shaughnessy reflects on the recent cancer diagnoses of close friends and family members. Portland-based Heather Watkins’s Recordings are em-
