Long Wharf Theatre
Global Health & the Arts 2012:
Understanding and Tackling Mental Illness in the 21st Century
The sciences are built on the belief that the causes of most things are ultimately knowable. Science is rational, objective, and verifiable. The arts are intuitive, subjective, and deeply personal. It is not irrational to dislike the work of Stephen Sondheim or Mark Rothko. But it would be difficult to find a sane and sentient being that does not appreciate the value of penicillin or believe in gravity. This conference is built on the faith that science and the arts have something to say each other. We swim in different waters, and often pray to a different God, but we all believe that if we do our work well, we can improve the quality of people's lives.
– Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director, Long Wharf Theatre
Global Health & the Arts, 2011
Long Wharf Theatre’s Global Health & the Arts Initiative is built on the premise that scientists and artists have something to say to each other, bringing them together to examine a pressing global health issue of our time. Leaders from the worlds of academia, scientific research, the pharmaceutical industry, patient care, and the arts take part in a day-long exploration of the disease, through panels, lectures, artistic presentations, and open discussion. Last year’s event, Understanding and Tackling Cancer in the 21st Century, was the third annual Global Health & the Arts, preceded by programs on Alzheimer’s Disease in 2010, and HIV/AIDS in 2009. Long Wharf Theatre’s Global Health & the Arts initiative has, in just a few short years, established a national reputation, in both the scientific and artistic communities, for its uniquely enlightening and inter-disciplinary approach. Our next Global Health & the Arts event, scheduled for May 17 - 18, 2012, puts the spotlight on mental illness.
Global Health & the Arts is chaired by David Scheer, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at Long Wharf, along with a Co-Chair, who is a well known thought-leader in the particular scientific field addressed in the Event.
David has been a serial entrepreneur and advisor in the life sciences field for over 30 years. He has founded and was involved in the advancement of, and served on and Chaired the boards of, a range of companies involved in innovation in areas such as anti-infectives, antivirals, cardiology, regenerative medicine, neurology, rare diseases, and oncology, to name a few. He has also been actively involved in the global health field, serving and leading volunteer initiatives in the neglected diseases such as malaria, TB, and HIV, and in new challenge diseases in collaboration with the Harvard School of Public Health.
We are privileged to have Dr. John Krystal, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale Medical School as this year’s Co-Chair. Dr. Krystal is a leading expert in the areas of alcoholism, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorders. His work links psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, and molecular genetics to study the neurobiology and to develop novel treatments for these disorders. He serves on the National Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Advisory Council (NIAAA), the Department of Defense Psychological Health Advisory Committee, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and he is president-elect of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness defines mental illnesses as “medical conditions that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to relate to others. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.” The National Institute of Mental health estimates that one in four adults—approximately 57.7 million Americans—experience a mental health disorder each year. Globally, mental disorders account for four of the ten leading causes of disability in the U.S and other developed countries. And by 2020, Major Depressive Illness will be the leading cause of disability in the world for women and children. In every country throughout the world, mental illness has an immeasurable, growing impact on individuals, families, health care systems, and society at large.
The Global Health & the Arts initiative, through exploration of the scientific and human aspects of mental illness, inspires participants to look beyond the disease’s ravaging effects to the incredible progress being made in understanding and treating mental illness of all kinds. Throughout the day, leading scientific minds, influential thinkers, and renowned artists all share in a level of creative and innovative thinking that fosters our understanding of illness as part of the human condition and inspires the quest for medical treatments and cures.
Global Health & the Arts has, from the start, attracted participants from the highest levels of academia, industry, and the arts to explore common and not-so-common themes of identifying fundamental, unmet public and global health needs, and defining paths for solving these problems from personal accounts of case studies, through to perspectives of how solutions can be achieved through vibrant, creative, entrepreneurial minds willing to tackle profoundly difficult challenges. Woven into the discussion is an evaluation of the impact of these unmet needs not only in the developed world, but also among those afflicted and impacted in the developing world. We have had high profile speakers from both domains interacting in a unique venue.
True to its name, the arts are central to the Global Health and the Arts experience. The connection between mental illness and the arts is exceptionally rich. From the music of composers like Robert Schumann, who suffered from manic depression, to the writings of authors like Kay Redfield Jamison, David Foster Wallace, William Styron and many others, mental illness has been both a curse and a muse to countless artists throughout history. These artists’ stories, and the work they produce provide real insight into the effect of mental illness on the brain and on the culture at large.
Long Wharf Artistic Director, Gordon Edelstein, a nationally-recognized figure in theatre, provides the perspective and overview of the arts in relation to the subject of the event. His comments each year are among the most prized, thought-provoking experiences of the day.
Long Wharf Theatre, with its long history of producing world-class, evocative theatre is the perfect setting for this unique event which intertwines two domains often considered unrelated. The setting for Global Health & the Arts leverages the region around New Haven which is a hotbed of medical and scientific activity, with units of pharmaceutical and medical device companies, innovator biotech companies, financial institutions, and the extraordinarily rich resources of Yale, UConn, and leading healthcare delivery institutions. Together, Long Wharf Theatre and New Haven create the ideal environment for a profoundly relevant, resonant, sweeping exploration of this critical issue.
Global Health & the Arts 2012 Sponsor Benefits
$50,000 Level:
- Logo Placement on Forum promotional materials including invitation, posters and postcards
- Inclusion of company representative as speaker at event
- Recognition as sponsor in press releases
- Corporate bio in event information packet
- Logo placement on sponsor sheet of event information packet
- Logo placement on event signage including lobby signs, projections in theatre lobby and event space
- Logo placement on Global Health & the Arts landing page and listing on sponsor page of LWT website
- Full page support ad in spring production playbill
- Corporate Bio in spring production playbill
- Listing in donor pages of playbill for one (1) year
- Eight (8) tickets to Global Health event
$25,000 Level:
- Logo Placement on Forum promotional materials including invitation, posters and postcards
- Inclusion of company representative as speaker at event
- Recognition as sponsor in press releases
- Corporate bio in event information packet
- Logo placement on sponsor sheet of event information packet
- Half page ad in spring production playbill
- Corporate bio in spring production playbill
- Listing on donor pages of playbill for one (1) year
- Logo placement on event signage including lobby signs, and projections in theatre lobby and event space
- Logo placement on Global Health & the Arts landing page and listing on sponsor page of LWT website
- Six (6) tickets to Global Health event
$10,000 Level:
- Listing on Forum promotional materials including invitation, posters and postcards
- Inclusion of company representative as panelist at event
- Recognition as sponsor in press releases
- Corporate bio in event information packet
- Company name on sponsor sheet of event information packet
- Quarter page ad in spring production playbill
- Listing on donor pages of playbill for one (1) year
- Company name on event signage including lobby signs, and projections in theatre lobby and event space
- Company name on Global Health & the Arts landing page and listing on sponsor page of LWT website
- Four (4) tickets to Global Health event
$5,000 Level:
- Listing on Forum promotional materials including invitation, posters and postcards
- Recognition as sponsor in press releases
- Company name on sponsor sheet of event information packet
- Listing in donor page of playbill for one (1) year
- Company name on event signage including lobby signs, and projections in theatre lobby and event space
- Company name on Global Health & the Arts landing page and listing on sponsor page of LWT website
- Two (2) tickets to Global Health event
For information on participating in, or sponsoring the event, please contact:
Eileen Wiseman
Director of Development
Long Wharf Theatre
203.772.8237
eileen.wiseman@longwharf.org