REARRANGED

In Conversation: Kathleen Watt and Mark Gilbert, Ph.D.

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Friday, March 29th at 6:00 pm 

How is an artist transformed by a catastrophic diagnosis? What is the meaning of a life transposed? KANEKO is proud to share this opportunity to think differently about the relationships between art and artist, devastating illness, medical practice, and recovery.

Join us at KANEKO for a stunning In Conversation program, featuring Kathleen Watt and Mark Gilbert discussing Rearranged, Watt’s memoir of her harrowing journey from operatic stage through a horrific bone cancer that changed her face and the life-altering medical odyssey that transposed her life.

A former painter and opera singer, Kathleen Watt is now a writer. As a cancer survivor she has collaborated with doctors and artists on a range of projects, including an appearance on a BBC-4 series about facial disfigurement. Watt is joined by Mark Gilbert, Ph.D., an artist, teacher, and researcher who has worked on several high-profile art-based research projects using portraiture to illuminate the patient and caregiver experience of illness, recovery, and care.

FREE. Registration requested but not required. Of particular interest to medical professionals, narrative medicine practitioners, performing and fine artists. The program includes a reading, discussion, and extended opportunity for Q+A. 

In partnership with The Bookworm. Copies of Rearranged: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed may be pre-paid & reserved at the time of registration.

Doors open at 5:30 pm at KANEKO (11th and Jones St.). Parking available at Omaha Park Four (1011 Jackson St.).

For accessibility needs or inquiries, email membership@thekaneko.org or call 402-341-3800. Don’t miss this transformative event!

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Kathleen Watt

Sang principal roles with Boston Lyric Opera, Utah Opera Company, Springfield Regional Opera, and others, and in the Extra Chorus of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, before her singing career was summarily ended by osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) in her face.

Since retiring from performing, she has written frequently on performing arts and cultural issues, including features, profiles, and essays. As a writer and cancer survivor Kathleen has collaborated with doctors and artists on a range of projects, including an appearance on a BBC-4 series about facial disfigurement.

Formerly an assistant art director in publishing, Kathleen attended Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and Brigham Young University (earning a double BFA, in Art and Music), with postgraduate studies in opera performance at Boston University.

Kathleen now writes from a windswept hay farm in the Catskill Mountains of New York, where she resides with her partner, ten chickens, three dogs, and on occasion, her two grown stepchildren.

 

Mark Gilbert

An Associate Professor with The School of Art and Art History at The University of Nebraska, Omaha, where he is a participating faculty on UNO’s Medical Humanities program. As an artist, teacher, and researcher, he has worked on several high-profile, art-based research projects using portraiture to illuminate patient and caregiver experience of illness, recovery, and care. These studies include Saving Faces at The Royal London Hospital and Portraits of Care at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. His work has been exhibited widely in venues across Europe and the US, including the National Portrait Gallery in London.