#Cinderblocks4 Coming May 18-20, 2017!

#Cinderblocks4:The Walking Gallery Gathers is a patient led medical conference held in the beautiful mountains of rural Western Maryland.  This is a destination event and the spirit of the conference is Burning Man meets healthcare.

Now some of you may not know why I use the hashtag #Cinderblocks4, so I thought a refresher might be in order."When I was a child I went to an elementary school that had few resources.  In fifth grade, someone donated a large amount of books to our class.  We were very pleased to have them, but we had no bookshelves on which to place them.  My teacher contacted the local lumberyard and requested they donate some 2x4's and cinderblocks so we could make shelves.  The lumberyard manger said yes, with one caveat, we would have to pick up the supplies.

That year our fifth grade class had a field trip.  

We left the school as a class and walked to the lumberyard.  Some of us grabbed the 2x4's and some of us grabbed cinderblocks.  We walked all the way back to school and up three flights of stairs.  Then we assembled those shelves and placed the books upon them.  We stood back and looked proudly at our work.  I cannot believe there was a class anywhere else in the entire nation who cherished their bookshelves as much as we did ours.  We loved those shelves because we overcame adversity and made that which we needed.  It wasn't pretty, it wasn’t perfect, but it was ours."

So the really cool thing about this event, is that it isn't in the grand ballroom of some four-star hotel. We meet at a restaurant that was an inn on our nation's first highway.  We meet by a bridge that was built over 200 years ago, and like that bridge we are connecting people that are separated by economic class, geographic distance, and cultural divide.  

We are patient and provider as partners. 

You can become a sponsor for the event through our crowdfund here:

https://www.gofundme.com/cinderblocks4-art-and-medicine

You can register to attend here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cinderblocks4the-walking-gallery-gathers-tickets-30699789898

How will you get to Grantsville, MD?

By Car:

The location is about 1 ½ hours by car from Pittsburgh or 2 ½ hours from DC/Baltimore.

By Train:

The Amtrak train from DC has a daily stop in nearby Cumberland, which is about 20 minutes away.

Where do we stay?

Meshach Browning's Cabins on the River.  These cabins are right next to Penn Alps and come in variety of styles and sizes that allow for 2-6 guests.    

The Casselman Inn This hotel is in the heart of town and in walking distance to most of our activities.  It is a historic drover's hotel and has more space in a motel addition.   

The Comfort Inn This hotel is right off 68 and is about three minutes away from town center by car.

Please let Regina Holliday know if you would rather be placed with a local host family.  We also have a few rooms available in Salt & Pepper Studios. 

Who will be there?

We expect to see a very diverse crowd at this event. There will be people who work in the government, healthcare, crowdfunding and technology.  We expect to see patients, patient advocates, activists and caregivers.  Artists, performers and dancers will be attending as well as local individuals very interested in the intersection of art, policy and health.

Who are our Speakers?

So far we have:

Esther Fischer, Adult Protective Services Specialist, Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Enid, Oklahoma
Jessica Gada, Art Therapist, Bethesda, MD
Brandon Kling, Head Cheesemaker at High Country Creamery, Grantsville, MD

Joleen Chambers, founder of Failed Implant Device Alliance, will present on Failed Medical Devices and Patient Safety, Dallas, Texas

Robb Fulks, Patient Speaker focusing on patients falling through the cracks in our current political climate, Reading, PA
Jessica Wilhelm, Field Representative for Woodman Life, Avilton, MD
Jay Roberts, Working on being kind to everyone, Charlotte, South Carolina

Mark Boucot, CEO Garrett Regional Medical Center, Oakland, MD

Paul Edwards, Garrett County Commissioner, Grantsville, MD

Ladd Everitt, One Pulse for America, Washington, DC

Julia Musselwhite, Park Ranger, Flinstone MD

Courtney Mazza, Walking Gallery Artist and Singer in the Threshold Choir, Silver Spring, MD

Felicia Schrock, Registered Nurse, Grantsville, MD

Andrew Yoder, Life Coach, Grantsville MD

Mary Anne Sterling, Co-Founder Connected Health Resources, Ashburn, Virginia

Julie Arnheim, Wellness Thinker, Pittsburgh, PA

Christopher Elliott, Residential Advisor Lead for the State of Maryland, Grantsville, MD

Donna Jo Brenneman, Executive Director of Garrett County Hospice, Oakland MD

Mark Scrimshire, Entrepreneur in residence at HHS, Baltimore, MD

Kimi-Scott McGreevy, Director of Grant Development Garrett Regional Medical Center, Oakland MD

Angela Radcliffe, FCB Health, Philadelphia, PA

Alex Fair, Medstartr, New York, NY

Ashley Elliott, Patient Speaker focusing on addiction, Grantsville, MD

Joshua Rubin, Program Officer for Research and Development, Learning Health System, University of Michigan School of Information

Charles Wilt, Mountain Laurel Medical Center, Oakland, MD

Sharon J. Burton, Reiki Practitioner and artist, Washington DC

Abby Bott, Healthcare Advocate, Washington, DC

Erika Hanson Brown, Founder of Colontown, Washington, DC

Matthew Listiak, Filmaker, Los Angelos, CA

Mélanie Péron, CEO and Founder, L'Effet Papillon, Laval France

Performers:

Terah Crawford, Oakland, MD

Marsha Goodman-Wood, Washington, DC

Aaron Smith, Finzel, MD

What is the agenda?

Pre-conference: Wednesday, May 17, 2017

PechaKucha Accident Visits Grantsville! 7-9pm, The Cornucopia Café

Pechakucha is a fun & concise presentation style. PechaKucha nights have 8-12 speakers who follow a 20 slides 20 seconds pattern. 

Conference Day 1: Thursday, May 18, 2017

We will meet at 8:00 am at Penn Alps Restaurant for breakfast and our general sessions.  Then we will do breakout sessions until lunch.  The afternoon will also be filled with breakout sessions. The formal sessions will end at 5:00pm.

6:00pm to 8:00pm Salt and Pepper Studios: Home of the Walking Gallery

On Thursday, May 18^th at 6:00pm Conference attendees are invited to come to 189 Main Street in Grantsville and see the art center that Regina Holliday has created.  Refreshments will be provided and the event is free and open to the public.  

Conference Day 2: Friday, May 19, 
2017
Another conference day begins!  At 8:00 am meet at Penn Alps Restaurant and Meeting Center for breakfast and our general session.  Then we will do breakout sessions until lunch.  At Lunch time we will have a field trip to High Country Creamery and watch cheese being made.. The afternoon will also be filled with breakout sessions at Penn Alps.

The Big Tent in field in the Little Crossings Field by the Cornucopia Cafe
3:00-4:00 Facilitated Art Project by the Lilly Clinical Innovation team
4:00-5:00 Additional educational presentations.

The Walking Gallery Gathers 6:00-10:00pm 

At 6:00 pm we will gather at the Casselman River Bridge for a group shot of The Walking Gallery and the conference attendees.   We will then walk across the historic bridge to the Little Crossings field by Spruce Artisan Village.   

There we will have our evening event under the big tent; this portion of the conference event is open to the public and does not require tickets. Local musicians will play as well as performers from around the country.  We will also honor Jess Jacobs and Jerry Matczak, the members of the Walking Gallery that died since our last gathering.  We also honor Dave Wilt who helped build Salt and Pepper Studios: Home of the Walking Gallery. 

Conference Day 3: Saturday, May 20, 8:00-12:00 

8:00 am meet at Penn Alps Restaurant and Meeting Center for breakfast and our general session.  This day we will break into small groups to work on mentoring and individual coaching sessions.  General Conference close at noon.   Little Crossings will also host juried artists and local food venders for an Artisan and Epicurean Faire on this day.  Shuttle service will be available from town to the Penn Alps Campus.  

Cinderblocks 3 is coming!!!

Cinderblocks 3: The Partnership with Patients Continues is an art and medical conference that will be held in Grantsville, MD at Penn Alps Resturant and Little Crossings by The Cornucopia Café May 19-21, 2016.   I founded this event with the help of several other epatients and I am happy to see it enter its third year. I am known in healthcare circles as the artist that founded the international patient right’s movement called The Walking Gallery.  I and 43 other artists paint patients stories on the backs of jackets that people wear to medical conferences.  I see Cinderblocks 3 a continuation of the message of The Walking Gallery and as venue that prizes the patient and provider in equal measure.  We will use our days at this conference to focus on improving health care everywhere.

Presenters during the regular conference sessions include Dave deBronkart, an internationally renowned patient rights advocate and cancer survivor and Mary Camp, a patient experience strategist at Memotext, presenting on the user experience in healthcare and Ontario's Colin Hung co-founder of Healthcare leader chat will present also.  Local speakers include Garrett Regional Medical Center, President and CEO, Mark Boucot as well as Garrett County Commissioner Paul Edwards. I will post a full conference agenda soon.

Conference tickets are available online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cinderblocks3-the-partnership-with-patients-continues-tickets-19821171658 for any individual wanting to attend the event.  There are a variety of ticket levels for all who want to take part.  The conference sessions will run from 8:00 am to 3:00pm each day. 

On Thursday, May 19^th at 6:00pm a dedication will be held for Salt and Pepper Studios: the new home for the Walking Gallery.  Conference attendees are invited to come to 189 Main Street in Grantsville and see the art center that I am creating.  Refreshments will be provided and the dedication is free and open to the public.  

On Friday, May 20^th the conference will host a free concert at Little Crossings field behind the Cassleman Bridge. The Walking Gallery will gather at 6:00 at the Casselman Bridge.  Several local acts will perform starting at 6:30 pm.  At 8:00 pm country and western singer, Wade Hayes will perform both old and new songs and he will explain his cancer journey.  The final performer will be fire dancer and physical therapy student Aaron Smith.

Saturday, May 21st, is the last day of Cinderblocks3 and on this day the content will be live-streamed to Switzerland.   There will also be artists displaying their work at an Art in the Park event at Casselman Bridge State Park. We highly encourage attendees to walk through the park and see all the art on display.  Little Crossings will also host juried artists and local food venders for an Artisan and Epicurean Faire.  Shuttle service will be available from town to the Penn Alps Campus Friday night and Saturday during the day.

The Walking Gallery Year 5: June 4-2015- 2016

This is the fifth year of the Walking Gallery of Healthcare.  

We now number over 300 members walking around the world with patient story paintings on our backs. 
This "walking wall" is changing minds and opening hearts. 
We are attending medical conferences where often there isn’t a patient speaker on the dais or in the audience. We are providing a patient voice, and by doing so, are changing the conversation.

An artist or artists interviews medical professionals and lay individuals to form a patient centric narrative. The artist then creates representational imagery and paint that picture story upon the business jacket of the provider of the narrative account. The provider of the patient story aka “Walker” wears the jacket to medical conferences and events in order to disseminate the patient story to a large group of policy minded attendees and to represent the individual patient voice in venues where they are underrepresented. Further, both artist and walker will support the spread of the story and image via social media.

As of June 2016, 392 unique Walkers have joined the Gallery wearing 430 jackets.  The Gallery has representatives on five continents, but the majority of Walkers reside in the US. One artist creates the majority of the art, but new artists are frequently joining the movement.  The Gallery is promoted heavily on twitter, facebook and personal blogs.   Its widening appeal within the health conference community is creating a new space for patients at such events.

The names of the Artists of The Walking Gallery followed by the quantity of jackets they have painted:  

1. Regina Holliday, 372 jackets

2. Isaac Holliday, 1 jacket

3. Becca Price, 1 jacket

4. Miriam Cutelis, 1 jacket

5. Ess Lipczenko, 1 jacket

6. Ben Merrion, 1 jacket

7. Courtney Mazza, 8 jackets

8. Michele Banks, 1 jacket

9. Megan Mitchell,1 jacket

10. Robert J. Filley, 3 jackets

11. Anita Samarth, 1 jacket

12. Mary Welch Higgins, 2 jackets

13. Richard Sachs, 2 jackets

14. Jonah Daniel,  1 jacket

15. Fred Trotter, 1 jacket

16. Leela, 1 jacket
17. Gayle Schrier Smith, 1 jacket
18. Moira Simms, 1 jacket
19. Joan Holliday, 1 jacket

20. Adalyn, 1 jacket
21. Chris Chan, 1 jacket
22. Amy O'Hanlon, 1 jacket
23. Vera Rulon, 1 jacket

24. Jessica Nicula, 2 jackets

25. Nikai, 1 jacket
26. Deonm, 1 jacket

27. Daquane, 1 jacket

28. Olivia Dias, 1 jacket

29. Donnell Bonaparte, 1 jacket

30. Hazel F., 1 jacket

31. Rachel Fields, 1 jacket

32. Zoe Carr, 1 jacket

33. Thomas Richardson, 1 jacket

34. Tamela Mack, 1 jacket

35. Julia Anderson, 1 jacket
36. DJ Hamilton, 1 jacket
37. Jenn Toby, 1 jacket
38. Camala Walling, 1 jacket
39. Jordan Lanham, 1 jacket
40. Josh Miller, 1 jacket
41.  Te'j Matthews, 1 jacket
42.  Tony Zieger, 1 jacket
43.   Shannon Shine, 2 jackets
44.   Melody Smith Jones. 2 jacket
45.  Kay Seurat, 1 jacket 

For more information about joining the movement please scroll to the bottom of this post.

The Walking members who joined in Year Five:


430. "Family" a jacket for Mia Sampson

429. "Green Drops" a jacket for Leigh Anne Naas

428. "The Path to Patient Empowerment" painted by artist Kay Seurat for Jan Oldenburg

427. "Healthcare:Paddling up hill with a paddle" a Frances Grace

426. "Building this Bridge" a jacket for Bridget Duffy

425. "The Woman at the Well" a jacket for Bettina Experton

424."Coding for Humaity" a jacket for Randa Perkins painted by Melody Smith Jones

423. "Cellular Migration" a jacket for Deb Maskens

422. "Hands of Time" a jacket for Mary Dixon Drake

 

421. "Too Much Loss" a jacket for Kim Bock

420. "No Map for This" a jacket Bill Fisher

419. "Game Face" a jacket for Kendra Wickizer

418.  "Polypharmacy Pinball" a jacket for Cindy Fisher

417. "#50" a jacket for Brenda Foose 

416. "Targeted Therapy" a jacket for Wanda Cronrath

415. "The Side Show" a jacket for Aaron Smith

414."Using all the Colors in My Box" a jacket for Jenn Lonzer

413. "The Free One" a jacket for Francisco Grajales

412. "Winning the Science Fair" a jacket for Steph Hanzl

411. "V is for Victory'' a jacket for Glen Lanteigne

410. "Trees as Far as the Eyes Can See" a jacket worn and painted by artist Melody Smith Jones

409. "Falling Through the Cracks" a jacket for Mary Jo Shields

408. "Preconceived Notions Set in Stone" a jacket for Christine Kurtz

407. "I see clearly now" a jacket for Michael Bennick

406. "Determination" a jacket for Tamara StClaire 

405. "Too Many Saints" a jacket for Lori Etheridge Nerbonne

404. "This Final Song" a jacket for Robin Strongin

403."A Masters at Work" a jacket for Teresa Masters

402. "I Hear You" a jacket for Melissa Phipps 

401."The Ups and Downs, and Downs, and Downs" a jacket for Liz Boehm

400. "Data Flight" a jacket for Stacey Conklin

399. "This is my first rodeo." a jacket for Joe Lavelle

398. "DNR" a jacket for Brandon Jones

397. "Double Major" a jacket for Leslie Rott

396. "Healing this Wound" a jacket for Kenyon Crowley

395. "The Light Within" a jacket for Geri Lynn Baumblatt

394. "Concealing and Revealing" a jacket for Ramin Bastani

If you are interested in joining the Walking Gallery here is the info:

Here is a short film about the movement: http://vimeo.com/80009527

Read: http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/2011/04/walking-gallery.html 

to understand the origin of the idea.

http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/2011/06/walkers-oath.html to understand the sacred nature of this path

To view the jackets in year one 1-162

http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/2011/06/welcome-to-walking-gallery.html

To view the jackets of year two 163-251

 http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/2012/06/walking-gallery-walks-on-year-two.html

To view jackets of year three 252-328

http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-walking-gallery-year-three.html

To view jackets year four 329-393

http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-walking-gallery-year-iv.html

The Rules of The Walking Gallery:  What you need to do to be a member: 

1.  Promise that you will wear this jacket to conferences and public events at least 2-3 times per year in order to spread awareness of the power of the patient voice.

2.  Send a business jacket. Please do not send jackets made of seersucker, corduroy, knit, denim, leather or stretch fabric, as they are hard to paint on. Absolutely do not send stretch fabric.  I cannot paint on stretch fabric, as the painting will shred.  You can check if a jacket is stretch by trying to pull at the fiber on the horizontal. Also this is a business jacket on purpose, we are painting on the “uniform” of the conference attendee.  Fabrics that work well are poly-blends, linen, cotton and wool. Also you might want to by a jacket a size larger than you usually do as the painting will stiffen the back and make it harder to close the buttons. 

3.  Tell me your life/patient story, your patient-centered concept that is the center of why you work in health and medicine. Please include personal details of your life so I can more fully realize your image.  You can tell me which story elements you do not wish to publicly disclose in text, but it does help to know the underlying experiences and conditions that are the source of your mission. Please send via email with some pictures if possible of yourself or the people in your story.  If you don't want to provide a picture, that’s okay, I have a vivid imagination.  Also please print it out and send with jacket so I can keep track of jackets and their stories.

4.  Artists can participate by painting their own jacket or another's or both.

5.  This movement is spread and organized through social media.  You will need to use twitter, Facebook, etc. to support the mission.  I am using Twitter hash tag to link us all together so please tweet about your jacket appearances under #TheWalkingGallery

6.  You are free to use the image in your own advocacy mission; I also retain the right to reproduce the image for advocacy purposes and write about your mission in areas you are comfortable with disclosing. 

7.  Donations are welcome to offset the cost of paint and shipping, but are not required and you cannot buy a jacket painting.  You are joining a movement and this is a sacred oath to walk the walk and spread the word.

Welcome to the Gallery.

Any questions?