Painting with Parkinsons is an art group for people with Parkinson’s and their carers. Founded in 1994 by artist, curator and lecturer Nancy Tingey, the group has been meeting on Friday mornings continuously for 17 years in the Botanic Gardens, Canberra, Australia. The program has been inspired by Nancy’s research into art as a therapy for Parkinson’s on a Churchill Fellowship in 1996.
Recently this has become the role model for groups in Melbourne led by Anne Atkin who featured on the Parkinsons Recovery Radio Show last year.
Although Nancy’s husband Bob Tingey who has had Parkinsons 25 years is the only surviving member of the original group, Nancy’s group currently has 17 participants, five facilitators and a team of volunteer helpers. This semester she is collaborating with the Canberra School of Music on a program in which musicians play live in the classroom to inspire paintings. A selection of these will be exhibited in a local arts centre with film and photographic documentation in December, 2012. The exhibition will tour Australia in 2013.
The amazing art work you see displayed to the left was done by three of the participants in Nancy’s Painting with Parkinsons class: Jock, Norma and Bob.