MEDIA CONTACT: Terri Berns
561-297-1164, tberns@fau.edu

FAU Libraries Presents Art Exhibit “Healing Thru Arts”
September 1 – 30 at Wimberly Library

Seventy-five Drawings and Collages by Broward County Women’s Correctional Facility Inmates Depict Life in Prison and Out in the World

Boca Raton, Fl (August 30, 2005) – Florida Atlantic University Libraries present an exhibit of seventy-five works-of- art by incarcerated women of the Broward County Women’s Correctional Facility. Drawings and collages depicting various facets of life and emotion of the women participating in the Healing Thru Arts workshops at the prison are to be on display from September 1 – 30, 2005 at FAU’s Wimberly Library, Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. The exhibition and a September 8 reception from 6 – 8 p.m., with guest speakers, are free and open to the public.

“Healing Thru Arts is a non-profit organization committed to healing the effects of abuse through artistic expression,” said Colleen Dupont, president of the organization. “We believe that the act of creation, even very simple creation, can bring healing and beauty. By expressing, without words, the pain, shame, rage and more, which these experiences leave in their wake, people are able to release the emotions that block them from feeling and knowing the love and affinity available in their lives.”

Healing Thru Arts is a volunteer group which has been serving women in Miami-Dade and Broward for four years and more than two years in Palm Beach County. The art workshops, with free supplies included, are held at the prison every Sunday. All participation is voluntary – both by prisoners and workshop art instructors.

“This is a return visit to FAU by the volunteer support group, to exhibit current works-of-art by women prisoners. Last year’s display was very successful in that there was great interest in the striking and emotionally powerful images,” said David Penna, acting head of access services, FAU Libraries. “The colorful and dynamic drawings and collages, expressing a multitude of feelings, were dramatic and emotional as well as whimsical and fantasy.”

Dupont suggests, “The exhibit and upcoming community workshops are of importance to anyone who has been affected in any way by sexual abuse. We invite students and others who have been affected to participate in our upcoming community Arts Workshops. There is no charge to attend. We will provide art supplies for participants to create whatever they choose. This is not art therapy. These are not art classes. The art will not be judged or evaluated. We will not discuss the pieces created. There is no right way or wrong way to participate. Just create. We ask that pieces created in these workshops (signed or unsigned) be available for display at a public candle light march in Boca Raton in November 2005.”

For more library exhibit information, contact Malti Turnbull at 561-297-3772 or visit www.fau.edu/library. For Healing Thru Arts, contact Colleen Dupont at 561-272-5198 or colleen@healingthruarts.org.

- FAU-

FYI: Healing Thru Art community workshops

What: Art Workshops

When: Saturdays, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., October 1 to November 5, 2005

Where: 455 N.W. 35 Street; Boca Raton (Offices of Planned Parenthood)

Why: To experience healing by expressing through art; anyone may attend