LOVE&JHD (acronym for Language Of Visual Expression & Juvenile Huntington’s Disease) is a comprehensive creative program dedicated to the JHD community.
Keeping in line with the mission of the association, we believe that art is a universal language capable of translating the complexities of JHD into something visible and shared.
As an all-encompassing initiative, this program facilitates a wide spectrum of artistic projects, including but not limited to, expression through crafts, painting, reading, writing, and collecting. We emphasize creating art for, and by, JHD patients and young adults impacted by Huntington’s Disease. For these young adults, helping others is key to finding purpose and recognizing self-worth.
We collaborate with professional artists and we encourage other artists to get involved as well, and allow us the honor of exhibiting their work, to bring awareness to JHD and HD as a whole.
The first project “Carolyn” is a photographic exhibition by visual artist, Nadia Markiewicz, documenting a collection of death-related objects assembled by Carolyn Josephine Goracy in the final years of her life, as she approached death from JHD. For more details, please click here.
As well as exhibitions, LOVE&JHD will organize and manage art breakout sessions at association conferences, using varying topics that attract these young adults.
The goal is to bring awareness to JHD specifically, form new bonds between JHD patients and young adults, and provide all with a sense of pride, accomplishment and much deserved levity. We want to remind JHD patients and their families to have fun, and that they are surrounded by a caring, loving community.
We welcome all ideas, so please share yours!
The possibilities are endless, the joy is invaluable, and the smiles are free!
Upcoming Projects
LOVE&JHD is currently working on new creative projects, to raise awareness and celebrate community.
• “What is a ‘Zine?” This is a breakout session to create small magazine style booklets (called ‘zines), using scanned images of the “pages” created by participating young adults. Participants will use whatever means will be provided them in this session (ie. bits of colored tissue, assorted shapes, small bits of dried flowers…whatever is decided on at that time) to create a page each. Afterwards, the creations will then be labeled, scanned, printed, collated and bound, and sent to the participants as a fun reminder of the day they spent bonding with old friends, and hopefully new ones as well.