Waterford Healing Arts Trust

PRESS RELEASE
Waterford Healing Arts Trust Presents its Inaugural Fundraising Fashion Show

The Waterford Healing Arts Trust (WHAT) Ireland’s leading Arts and Health programme is delighted to announce details of its inaugural Fashion Show which will take place in Waterford Institute of Technology on Friday 20th March 2009 @ 19.30.

The show will feature fashion by renowned boutiques Satina in Tramore, The Hanger in George’s Street, Waterford and Fitzgerald’s Mens Fashion in Waterford. The fashion will be modelled by models from the leading Celia Holman Lee Agency. With live music and refreshments for an audience of 200 hundred people, this high profile event promises to be a highlight in the social calendar of Waterford.

In tandem with the Fashion Show, a fashion-themed raffle offer a range of glamorous prizes including a hat by renowned Irish Designer Philip Treacy, a bag by Orla Kiely as well as a cookery demonstration and lunch at Ballymaloe and an original painting by Waterford artist Mary Tritschler.

All proceeds will go towards the running costs of the Waterford Healing Arts Trust. Based in Waterford Regional Hospital, the Trust brings live art experiences to the bedside of patients as well as to visitors and staff of the hospital as a means of improving the hospital experience for all.
The Trust has recently developed the new WHAT Centre for Arts and Health, the first of its kind in Ireland. This facility is an integral part of Waterford Regional Hospital and brings a long-standing relationship between arts and healing in this acute hospital to a new level. It features a multi-use studio space which will accommodate workshops in the Arts of all disciplines for a range of groups. This groundbreaking initiative will allow for greater integration with the community by providing a space for use by outpatients, inpatients, staff, visitors, artists, and community-based initiatives that is not institutional but is conducive to creative experiences.

In the words of Mary Baxter, Chair of the WHAT fundraising Committee, “This is the first Fashion Show of its kind that we have organised and already it is generating considerable interest among people in Waterford. It promises to be a glamorous and fun-filled event that will raise much-needed funds to support the ongoing good work of the Waterford Healing Arts Trust.”

For further information contact Mary Baxter/Mary Grehan at 051-842664 or e-mail mary.grehan@hse.ie