Casey+House,+Art+with+Heart+and+Aids

CCT205H5 Natalia Bernatek Michael Jones & Gail Benick 05.02.09 Individual Assignment: **         HIV/AIDS is a relentless disease. “The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV attacks the immune system, resulting in a chronic, progressive illness and leaving infected people vulnerable to opportunistic infections and cancers. The median time from infection to AIDS diagnosis now exceeds ten years. AIDS is fatal. There is no cure.” It has been more than twenty years since HIV/AIDS was first diagnosed in Canada. AIDS is deadly; there is no vaccine to prevent infection. In contrast, HIV infection is more preventable. HIV is transmitted through: “unprotected sexual intercourse (vaginal, anal, oral), shared needles or equipment for injecting drugs, unsterilized needles for tattooing, skin piercing or acupuncture, pregnancy, delivery and breast feeding (from an HIV-infected mother to her infant) and occupational exposure in health care settings.” Because there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, every two hours another Canadian is diagnosed with HIV (Casey House). Before, the public were disgusted by HIV/AIDS individuals; did not give them the time and day, calling them dirty unnecessary names. When HIV/AIDS was on the rise, there were no clinics supporting the infection because many believed it was the black ethnicities fault that made the virus spread through unprotected sex, drugs and being prostitutes, gays and dirty. This social crisis is referred to as //AIDS-related stigma //: the prejudice and discrimination directed at people living with HIV/AIDS. This discrimination is a rejection from their community and even physically hurt (Avert). Now, t his discrimination as a social issue of no acceptance has changed to the better. //Casey House// was the first-free standing facility hospital in Canada that helped in changing the way the world came to view people living with HIV/AIDS (Casey House). Casey House is a Canadian hospital located in Toronto which has not given up on people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Casey House was founded in 1988. It was the first hospice established internationally dedicated to HIV/AIDS patients. It is a unique, compassionate program delivering excellent treatment, support and soothing care for these people and their families. Since 1988, it has supported and cared for over ninety thousand various occasions. Because Casey House is still guided by their founder’s values and an international respect has been acknowledged and expressed. They also have international respect for their highly developed skills, remarkable staff and volunteers and for their collaborative approach in treatment, support and calming care for their patients. Casey House helps individuals who have complex mix of physical, social and emotional needs, including chronic health and mental health issues as well as the challenges associated with poverty, substance, abuse and homelessness. Casey House is related to the Hospice Philosophy: a specialty hospital, where care is provided through programs for individuals and their families infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Moreover, living rather than dying is stressed more, therefore emotional, social, spiritual and physical health care needs are provided. Overall, a person is valued as the central focus. Hospice care may not be appropriate for everyone. Sometimes, however, HIV/AIDS conditions are not suitable for a persons needs. But for many, Casey House will offer a valuable option. Its cultural values are to celebrate life, be compassionate with generosity of spirit, trust and respect, embrace diversity, communicate and be accountable. Inside the residential house, it has thirteen beds for soothing care while it supports over three hundred individuals in the Toronto community providing such services as: in-home nursing care, the Sherbourne health bus, which provides assessment and care to those who are homeless or under housed. Also, the women with HIV health care services that have a partnership with voices of positive women. Lastly, the child care program which takes care of children while HIV/AIDS parents attend their appointments. All these various offered community programs are almost entirely supported by charitable donations. Donations are done with partnership of Richie’s Auctioneers. Richie’s is a Canadian auction house offering people to donate their antique furniture, jewellery, paintings, silver, ceramics and other fine and decorative art into a tax-deductable contribution benefiting people living with HIV/AIDS. All proceeds from this sale support the Casey House community program to help people with HIV/Aids live better and healthier lives. The most popular and successful auction at Richie’s is //Art with Heart// (Casey House). It is organized by Casey House that celebrates the recognition of beauty and the demonstration of compassion. All donations are contributed to Casey House. Art with Heart has finished celebrating their 16th anniversary and still growing stronger and planning for future anniversaries. Thousands of individuals across Canada submit their contemporary artwork, however only eighty are chosen by the curatorial committee. The committee members before deciding on an artwork ask themselves: how committed is this artist to their art? Can we detect an evolution in the artist’s practises? What is their exhibition history and do they have exhibitions coming up? What is the gallery’s reputation? Art with Heart has several sponsors: TD Waterhouse (eight years of support), concord City Place, Urbacon, The Globe and Mail, 96.3 FM, Epic Reality and CBRE. GE Monogram, The Carlu, Ritchie’s Auctioneers (Art with Heart). Moreover, Casey House and Art with Heart have different directors/organizers that work as a team. Casey House Board of Directors is  Sandra Cruickshanks, while the Vice Chair is  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Bruce Lawson (Casey House). Additionally, the Honorary Chair and the main Curatorial Chair representative for Art with Heart is Matthew Teitelbaum (Art with Heart). Sandra Cruickshanks has more than twenty years communications experience to the Ontario Trillium Foundation. She now is a communications and public relations consultant and leads “corporate communications teams at a Toronto teaching hospital, a major telecommunications firm and a global pharmaceutical company” (Trillium). Sandra also has a broad range of communication experiences from employee and stakeholder communications, media relations, event management, crisis and issues communications and strategic communications planning. Because of her astonishing experience and knowledge, she has become an active community volunteer serving as Chair of Casey House Hospice and Foundation (Trillium). Bruce Lawson, on the other hand, was involved with a project team at Foresters, “a member-based financial services organization, to provide meeting planning and corporate communications services.” He was also an event planner, located in London, England (Uc). He now is the Vice Chair because of his different working positions in the past, compared to Sandra. When speaking of the representatives for Art with Heart, Matthew Teitelbaum has stated, “it is my privilege to champion this enduring event, the health care facility and services it supports, and the remarkable staff and volunteers of Casey House, who bring humanity and compassion to so many lives that have been touched by HIV/AIDS." (Angell Gallery). Briefly, Matthew Teitelbaum is the AGO director, CEO and Chief Curator (AGO). Because of his astonishing experience, knowledge and talent, he represents the Curatorial and Honorary Chairs for Art with Heart. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"> Most importantly, the founder and honorary director for Casey House since its establishment in 1988 was  <span style="line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">June Callwood. She was a former successful Globe and Mail writer and activist who died in 2007 at the age of 82. She was a proud representative of Casey House. Her goal for Casey House was to establish a place of medical excellence in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and a place of love and compassion. Briefly, she was awarded the Harmony Award in 2003 for her work in fighting discrimination. She was a board member for over eighty different events and organizations and served as a judge for numerous literary and media awards. June Callwood also lectured at numerous Canadian universities, and received seventeen honorary degrees. Till now, Casey House is run by her values, rules and orders she has once established on her own, in respect and memory of her (Casey House). <span style="line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Because of June Callwood, Casey House would not have occurred and would not have changed the social discrimination issue for HIV/AIDS individuals without June’s help. The public now knows the real reason behind HIV/AIDS and knows that any ethnicity can become diagnosed. In addition, because of June Callwood, many have better knowledge about HIV/AIDS due to several nurses and volunteers at Casey House working and dealing with HIV/AIDS patients constantly. Briefly, thanks to June Callwood, the social issue of HIV/AIDS discrimination has stopped. Instead, society accepts and tries to do anything in its power to help them live a better, stronger and longer life. Every society tries to follow June Callwood’s footsteps, especially the current chairs and directors of Casey House and Art with Heart. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">“Bruce Lawson.” 2008. 26 Jan. 2009. < <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; text-decoration: none; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; text-underline: none;">http://www.uc.utoronto.ca/content/view/336/1852/ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">“Casey House”. 2009. 26 Jan. 2009 < <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; text-decoration: none; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; text-underline: none;">http://www.caseyhouse.com/en/home/ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">“HIV & AIDS discrimination and stigma.” 2009. 26 Jan. 2009 < <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; text-decoration: none; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; text-underline: none;">http://www.avert.org/aidsstigma.htm <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">“Matthew Teitelbaum, Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO.” 2008. 26 Jan. 2009 < <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; text-decoration: none; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; text-underline: none;">http://www.ago.net/matthew-teitelbaum-director-ceo <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">“News.” 26 Jan. 2009 < <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; text-decoration: none; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; text-underline: none;">http://www.angellgallery.com/news/?newsletter=45 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">“Sandra Cruickshanks Director Communications and Public Affairs.” 2008. 26 Jan. 2009. < <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; text-decoration: none; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; text-underline: none;">http://www.trilliumfoundation.org/cms/en/about_directorCPA.aspx <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">“TD Waterhouse presents Art with Heart October 28, 2008.” 2008. 26 Jan. 2009. < <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> http://www.artwithheart.ca/ <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">>.
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 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> Casey House & Art with Heart **
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