Michele Angelo Petrone

Photograph by
Lucinda Beatty

WHAT WE DO

The MAP Foundation uses the creative arts to express and communicate complex and painful issues relating to serious illness and dying. It builds on six years of work conducted by artist Michele Angelo Petrone, a former cancer patient. Michele’s Emotional Cancer Journey, a series of paintings depicting his journey through illness, has promoted high level discussion and insight amongst professional carers into the experience of life threatening illness.

By providing creative space for people to contemplate their feelings of fear, pain, sadness, anger, hope and love the MAP Foundation creates a visual and verbal dialogue around the issue of illness.

MAP Foundation, a registered charity set up in 2002, is run by a board of Trustees supported by a group of professionals who advise on strategic direction. The Foundation is dependent on grants, donations and sales of publications in order to extend its work to the wider community.

Vision

Creative expression can help break down communication barriers and contribute towards a healthier society and workplace. Arts based activities that promote emotional and spiritual well-being, help reduce isolation and marginalisation and change public and professional attitudes to the emotional impact of life threatening illness.

MAP Foundation objectives:

• Develop arts based workshops using trained facilitators for patients, carers and health professionals to explore and promote expression of the emotional and spiritual aspects of serious illness and dying.

• Foster emotional literacy in healthcare professionals and other relevant groups. Communicate the learning and insights from arts based activities through conferences, workshops, exhibitions, publications and the dissemination of educational material.

• Promote the importance and value of expressing feelings in the face of life threatening illnesses and the role art can play in this process to the wider community.

• Maintain links with academic institutions and other organisations involved in similar work both nationally and internationally to contribute to the growing body of research into the effect of art and communication in patient care.

MAP Foundation provides:

• Regional and local workshops using trained facilitators for cancer patients, carers and health professionals
• Books, pictures and accounts of people’s experiences
• MAP Foundation website
• Touring exhibitions
• Talks and lectures
• Educational training materials on the patient’s experience for medical and nursing
  education

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