Exhibition Catalogue: Growing Up with Cancer: Self-portraits by young people growing up with cancer.

Abstract

Growing Up with Cancer (GUWC) is an innova�ve project using research and crea�ve prac�ce to understand the experience of having cancer during adolescence and young adulthood. Funded through an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, it brought together researchers, ar�sts, advocates and clinicians at the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine at the University of Sydney, the University of Newcastle, the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, and Canteen. During 2010 and 2011, 27 young people par�cipated in interviews about the impact of cancer on the transi�on from adolescence to adulthood. Of these, 19 collaborated with ar�st Kris Smith or worked on their own, to produce a self-portrait that represented them and their experience of growing up. Twenty two self-portraits are represented in this exhibi�on, including one suite of music. A cancer diagnosis and treatment had ongoing and complex social and personal consequences for these young people. Life did not turn out the way they imagined. These beau�ful, poignant, strong, funny, and thought-provoking images shout at us to pay a�en�on. We acknowledge and celebrate the crea�ve expression of these young people’s experiences of growing up with cancer.