Exhibit to ‘create awareness’ about fighting cancer. Relay For Life, Attleboro arts museum plan joint event Feb. 18
NOTE: This story appeared in the Feb. 7 edition of The Sun Chronicle of
Attleboro, MA. Here’s the link to that article: https://www.thesunchronicle.
BY LARRY KESSLER
For The Sun Chronicle
ATTLEBORO --- The Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro and the Attleboro Arts
Museum will continue their ongoing partnership by teaming up on an art exhibition
during the city’s 2023 Winter Night Festival from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb.
18.
The festival will be returning to downtown Attleboro for the first time since
2020, when it was held weeks before the coronavirus pandemic lockdown halted
all large gatherings and closed the museum for a while.
The art exhibit inside the museum, one of the festival’s organizers, will be
one of several events going on that day. Hayrides, a giant bonfire, food
trucks, illuminated jugglers and stilt walkers will be among the activities featured
during the festival.
The museum and the relay, which raises money for the American Cancer Society, held
a week-long art exhibit three years ago entitled “Luminaria.” That exhibit
ended on the night of that year’s festival.
This year, the organizations will
team up to hold a live artmaking exhibit to support the 25th
anniversary of the local relay, which will be held June 16-17 at Norton High
School.
The exhibit, “Creating Awareness --- Artists Work to Illuminate and Support,”
is the brainchild of Museum Executive Director and Chief Curator Mim Brooks
Fawcett.
The exhibit will feature several museum-affiliated artists using the cancer
society’s luminaria bags to create art in various styles. The bags are
traditionally lit during the relay to pay tribute to cancer survivors or to
memorialize cancer victims.
That exhibit will share gallery space with a community art show titled,
“Influencer --- An Exhibition of Permanent Collection Work and Contemporary
Impressions.”
Fawcett described the luminaria-creating exhibit this way: “Artists will use
the white paper luminaria bags as their canvas and make their mark on the bags
in their own style. Artists will be working live in the gallery during the
festival, using their chosen artmaking technique --- acrylic painting,
illustrating in pencil/marker, collage, printmaking, ink wash --- to embellish
one or more bags,” she said.
The artists will leave a section blank on one side of the bag to be filled in
with the name of a survivor or cancer victim.
“Through the creativity of participating artists, festival visitors to the
museum will view real-time artmaking techniques from local talents, become
aware of the 2023 Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro and its critical mission
and can help support the cause by sponsoring a unique artist,” Fawcett said.
Those bags will be auctioned off during this year’s relay and will be displayed
at the June event. Blank luminaries also will be offered for purchase in
exchange for donations to the cancer society.
Raising awareness about cancer and the need for people to get screened
regularly --- a vital tool toward detecting cancers at treatable early stages
that sharply declined during the pandemic --- are also key aspects of this
exhibit.
That’s why the Relay For Life is particularly pleased to continue its
partnership with the museum, said Brianna Apruzzese, a senior development
manager for the society’s Northeast region and the liaison to the local relay’s
organizing committee.
“At the American Cancer Society, we work on improving the lives of people with
cancer and their families through advocacy, research and patient support to
ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat and survive
cancer,” Apruzzese said.
“With the help of community partners just like the Attleboro Arts Museum, we
have seen a 33 percent decline in cancer mortality since 1991, which attributes
to 3.8 million fewer cancer deaths, but there is always more work to be done. We
could not be more excited to be partnering on the Winter Night Festival again
this year to work together on ending cancer as we know it, for everyone,” she
said.
The art exhibit will double as the official kickoff for this year’s relay, and
all teams and individuals, both returning and new, are invited to attend.
Members of the local organizing committee as well as representatives of the
relay’s community partners, the museum and the Attleboro Public Library, will
be on hand to discuss the relay and answer any questions.
The Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro draws teams and participants from most
area communities, including Attleboro, North Attleboro, Mansfield, Norton,
Plainville, Rehoboth, Seekonk and Wrentham, but interested people from any
community are encouraged to attend both the Feb. 18 art exhibit and the June
relay in Norton.
If you’d like to form or join a team or volunteer for the relay, go to: www.relayforlife.org/greaterattleboroma
Larry
Kessler, a retired Sun Chronicle local news editor, can be reached at larrythek65@gmail.com.
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