Sydney Occupational Therapy School students as aspiring artists

Cumberland campus played host to aspiring artists recently at the annual Occupational Therapy Art Exhibition.
Art by final year Master of Occupational Therapy and Bachelor of Applied Science (OT) students was displayed at the event that saw almost 200 students, their families and faculty staff in attendance.

Students were asked to think about the occupational nature of communities and consider how people experience inclusion and participation in everyday life and present their findings as art.
There were three winning artworks as decided by popular vote:
10 kilometres, 5 hours, 20 kilograms: Walking for Water – Is it worth it?
Artists: Rebecca War and Sarah Rickard
This artwork depicts a girl’s quest through the mud to collect water in Sub-Saharan Africa
Medium used: Canvas, acrylic paint, impasto additive
One Click Saves Two Lives
Artists: Shi Yi Heng and Subahari Ravindran
This artwork depicts a telephone app that can save lives and support education for teen mothers in Zambia
Medium used: Samsung phone, stethoscope, plasma globe, blu tac, paper and color pencils
Diaspora: frustrated by a future in limbo
Artists: Rosie Beadman & Katy Goura
This artwork depicts the disruption to typical occupations of children, such as education and play due to civil unrest in Syria.
Medium used: Mixed Media (canvas, fabric, plastic, cardboard, wood, string, collage, lit inside)
Professor Patrick Brennan, who opened the event, spoke about the importance of this assessment and the contribution of activities like this to support learning about culture.
His sentiments were echoed by event organiser Dr Michelle Villeneuve: “This course component is an important part of the development of professional competence as an occupational therapist and would not be possible without the support of the Learning and Teaching team, especially the Associate Dean, Dr Corinne Caillaud.”
All of the artwork demonstrated the dedication that University of Sydney occupational therapy students put into researching the occupations of a community and communicating their findings creatively through a visual medium. The abstracts that accompanied the each work provided insight into issues of everyday participation in occupation of a community.
“In some instances, artwork explored how occupation united a community; in other instances artwork explored disruption to everyday occupation. In both instances, our students examined the impact on inclusion and participation of a community. It was wonderful to see how students learned about different cultural contexts and translated that learning into artwork and abstracts,” said Dr Villeneuve.