January 24, 2007 For Immediate Release Contact: Lisa Merighi USC Fisher Gallery (213) 740-5537 merighi@usc.edu www.fishergallery.org
ARTIST, ART CRITIC AND PHYSICIANS TO DISCUSS THE CONVERGENCE OF ART AND MEDICINE AT USC FISHER GALLERY
Artist Joyce Cutler-Shaw; Pamela Schaff, M.D.; and Robert Tager, M.D. will address the convergence of medicine and art in a discussion moderated by KCRW's art critic Edward Goldman.
Los Angeles— Artist Joyce Cutler-Shaw; Pamela Schaff, M.D.; Robert Tager, M.D. and KCRW's art critic Edward Goldman discuss the intersection of art and medicine in the symposium When Art and Medicine Converge—a panel discussion on March 21, 2007 at 12 noon at University of Southern California’s Fisher Gallery, held in conjunction with the exhibition The Bone-And-Bird Art of Joyce Cutler-Shaw and Sarah Perry. The exhibition and symposium are free and open to the public. The discussion will bring attention to the links between the arts and humanities and the practice of medicine. Edward Goldman will moderate the discussion, which will include internationally renowned Joyce Cutler-Shaw, artist-in-residence at the University of California, San Diego; Pamela Schaff, M.D., Director, Introduction to Clinical Medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine and Robert Tager, M.D., Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine. Joyce Cutler-Shaw is an intermedia artist whose work includes drawings, installations, public projects and artist’s books. She has served as artist in residence/Visiting Scholar from 1992 to the present at the School of Medicine of the University of California, San Diego. Cutler-Shaw was the first visual artist appointed as faculty in the University of California, San Diego’s Medical School. Pamela Schaff, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Family Medicine, and Director of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) program at the Keck School of Medicine at USC. She did her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and has been in pediatric practice since 1983. In addition, Dr. Schaff serves as Director of Keck’s new Program in Medical Humanities, Arts, and Ethics. Her current areas of investigation include professionalism education and the role of the arts and humanities in medical education. At present, she is pursuing her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at USC. Robert Tager, M.D. is a neurologist and Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine. He teaches Introduction to Clinical Medicine, a course
on clinical reasoning, and has been an active participant in the medical humanities program, including the student, faculty and staff art gallery and the Art and Medicine Focus Experience. A photographer and a painter, Dr. Tager served on the board of directors for the Santa Cruz Art League and Mendocino Art Center. Edward Goldman emigrated to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union where he worked as an art educator for the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Upon his arrival to Los Angeles 25 years ago, Goldman quickly found his niche in the city’s multifaceted arts community; he taught at the Art Center College of Design, curated a number of art exhibitions, and wrote for various catalogues and publications. In addition to these academic pursuits, Goldman established a career as an art advisor for major American corporations and private collectors.
About The Bird-And-Bone Art of Joyce Cutler-Shaw and Sarah Perry This exhibition examines the work of two Southern California artists using bones as the subject matter or the medium of their art. Joyce Cutler-Shaw has been exploring both clinically and imaginatively the moving, yet natural, phenomenon of death’s transubstantiation of a vital human organism into an articulated skeletal phantom of one’s essential self. Sarah Perry combs the California deserts to harvest the bones of animals, rodents, reptiles, and owl regurgitations of bone pellets, which she translates into skillfully engineered sculptures of earthly/galactic references. Curated by Max F. Schulz. From February 14, 2007 to April 14, 2007. About USC Fisher Gallery Fisher Gallery is the accredited art museum of the University of Southern California. Since its opening in 1939, Fisher Gallery has grown significantly in stature and prominence as the museum of USC. In addition to showing the permanent collection, the Gallery presents traveling exhibitions and organizes its own successful exhibitions, offering the campus and community, as well as the greater Los Angeles area, a wide variety of changing exhibitions. Fisher Gallery offers programming to support its exhibitions such as lectures, artist’s talks, film screening, concerts, and poetry readings. General Information For general information, press information, images, or to schedule an interview, call (213) 7405537. Press images can be downloaded at http://fishergallery.org/index.php?page=press Museum Hours and Admission Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 pm; closed Sunday and Monday. Admission to the exhibition and all related events are free. Call (213) 740-4561 or visit http://www.fishergallery.org for more information.
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