University Park, PA -- "Artist Always," an exhibit by Erin Brady Worsham, is on display June 9 through August 25, 2003, in the Diversity Studies Room, 109 Pattee Library, University Park.

Worsham, an ALS ("Lou Gehrig's disease") patient, was trained as a classical artist and actress before her diagnosis. Although confined to a wheelchair and dependent on a respirator and feeding tubes, she spends from 60–200 hours designing and creating each "electronic painting," using special software that allows her to interface with her computer and move the mouse.

Because ALS makes it physically difficult to laugh, Worsham transfers much of her humor into her work. Her art has been praised as "celebratory, ironic, joyful, and intelligently thought out."

The nine-print traveling exhibit of The Society for the Arts in Healthcare is co-sponsored by the University Libraries and the Arts and Health Outreach Initiative (AHOI) of Penn State. AHOI is a partnership-based collaboration devoted to demonstrating and documenting the interrelationships between the arts and health, supported by Penn State's colleges of Arts and Architecture, Health and Human Development, and Medicine, and Penn State Outreach and Cooperative Extension.

The "Artist Always" exhibit will move to the Penn State College of Medicine at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for display throughout September 2003.

For more information on AHOI, call 814-865-8230. Exhibit is open during regular library hours, call 814-865-3063.

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Editor's Contact:
Catherine Grigor, 814-865-0401