June 15, 2001
PRESS RELEASE
Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery and
Hope National Touring Child Mental Health Art Exhibition at
Albright-Knox Art Gallery July 7 – September 16, 2001
Buffalo, NY—Think of children you know. Some deal with depression, anxiety, a learning problem, ADHD, abuse, an eating disorder, autism, or psychosis and only one-fifth receive treatment. To raise awareness of the issues faced by such children, Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery and Hope, a touring exhibition of more than 100 artworks created by children with psychiatric, learning, family, psychological, and physical challenges, will be presented at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery from July 7 through September 16, 2001. The exhibition was created by the New York University Child Study Center to put a face on the mental health problems of ten million children in this country and to help eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness.
The general public, mental health professionals, educators, and families are invited to a community reception at the Albright-Knox on Thursday, July 12 from 3 to 6 p.m. Providers from local mental health agencies will be present to give information about the psychiatric and emotional problems represented in the exhibition. Child actors will provide voices for the descriptions written by the children who produced the art in the show. This event is sponsored by Matter at Hand, an Albright-Knox Art Gallery program that has provided hands-on art and museum experiences to special-needs children in the Buffalo–Niagara region since 1973.
Childhood Revealed offers a glimpse into the world of American children who endure psychiatric illnesses, physical illnesses, or psychological problems. The paintings, drawings, and sculptures on display will be accompanied by the children’s own commentaries and descriptions of their disorders. The works reflect the children’s struggles with suicide, anorexia, sexual abuse, manic-depressive illness, and divorce. The colorful images and striking commentaries encourage us to take a new look at how we view mental illness. "In the same way that the AIDS quilt (exhibit) put a human face on the disastrous epidemic of AIDS, we hope this will raise the profile of childhood mental disorders," says Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., founder and director of the New York University Child Study Center.
The exhibition, which opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, November 1999, is touring nationally through 2002. It has been seen coast to coast in eight major cities and is scheduled to continue to eight more cities before reaching its round-trip conclusion in New York City.
Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery & Hope, the exhibition and companion book as well as the award-winning website www.aboutourkids.org, are centerpieces of the National Child Mental Health Initiative, a public awareness campaign launched by the New York University Child Study Center. Compelled by the magnitude of child mental illness, the initiative brings together as partners the nation’s major child mental health professional and advocacy groups, in an effort to foster a better understanding of its expressions as identified in the Surgeon General’s National Action Agenda for Children's Mental Health.
The following partners are participating in the National Child Mental Health Initiative: American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Anxiety Disorders Association of America, Child Welfare League, Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, National Education Association Health Information Network, and the National Mental Health Association.
For the exhibition and the book, edited by Dr. Koplewicz and Dr. Robin F. Goodman, the Child Study Center invited clinicians and educators nationwide to submit artworks made by children ages four to 18. A prominent jury of scholars, artists, and educators, including the internationally known artist Jennifer Bartlett and architecture critic Paul Goldberger made the final selection of 103 works featured in the exhibition and book.
The New York University Child Study Center, a division of the New York School of Medicine, is made up of a multi-disciplinary team of professionals dedicated to bridging the gap between science and practice and to advancing the field of mental health for children and their families through evidence-based practice, science, and education. The Center’s vision is to change the face of child mental health by improving the practices of professionals serving children, influencing public policy concerning children, and by being the premier source of information for all those caring about children. The initiative partners and the center’s single-minded goal, as stated in the introduction of the book, "is at once extraordinary and yet exquisitely simple: to end the suffering of children with mental disorders; to reassure their parents that there is hope, and to guide each child toward a happier, richer life."
The principal sponsor of Childhood Revealed is The Gary Cohn and Lisa Pevaroff Cohn Foundation. Additional sponsors include Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Gail Furman, Ph.D., The Meadows Foundation, Brooke and Daniel Neidich, the New York University Child Study Center Board of Directors, The Quantum Foundation, The Sunny & Abe Rosenberg Foundation, with additional support from Solvay Pharmaceuticals. In Buffalo, WBFO 88.7 FM is the proud media sponsor.
For additional information about the book, exhibit, educational materials in English and Spanish for Childhood Revealed, and information about child mental health and parenting issues, please visit www.aboutourkids.org.