Consortium Partners with Tracy's Kids to Bring International Art Show to Ireland

Isabel Otero, program director for the Ireland-Northern Ireland-National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Consortium and program officer for the NCI Office of International Affairs, initiated collaborations with Tracy Councill, director of Lombardi's Art and Play Therapy Program, and Jennifer Gorman, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Visitor Center, to bring the Tracy's Kids International Art Exchange Show to the NIH in 2009.

The exhibit, a cooperative effort between the Tracy's Kids Pediatric Art Therapy Program, the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC), and the NCI, highlights artwork created by pediatric cancer patients and their family members at cancer centers in the United States, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Turkey. Artwork is based on the theme, "The day I will never forget."

As a result of the exhibit's success at the NIH earlier this year, the exhibit traveled to Ireland in early May. Beginning May 12, 2009, the show was spotlighted as part of the CANCER 2009 International Cancer Conference, facilitated by Professor Mark Lawler, director of Post Graduate Teaching and Learning at St. James's Hospital in Dublin and chair of the Consortium's Scholar Exchange Working Group, and the Consortium. Aziza Shad, MD, Lombardi's chief of pediatric hematology/oncology, blood, and bone marrow transplantation, as well as Tracy Councill, were guest speakers at the CANCER 2009 International Cancer Conference.

Following its stop in Ireland, the Tracy's Kids International Art Show will tour the Middle East. Dates to be determined. For more information, please contact Ms. Isabel Otero at isotero@mail.nih.gov.