WINSTON-SALEM – Recovery. Resistance. Emotional Liberation.

What have you overcome?

Stories of resistance, recovery and emotional liberation from being “labeled” are largely absent within contemporary culture. Students and staff at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) hope to change all that.

“UNBOUND: Celebrating Emotional Liberation” is a multimedia art installation and performance showcasing the heroic narratives of people transcending labels, recovering after psychiatric diagnosis, and reclaiming their lives.

Currently, UNCSA is calling for submissions, through March 22, that tell these stories. All art forms will be considered – from visual art to performance art to written work.

The installation will be on display in Eisenberg Social Hall in the Hanes Student Commons on the UNCSA campus, 1533 South Main St., from April 8-15.

UNBOUND is open to the community.

“Psychiatric labeling and other forms of social labeling can be oppressive to some,” says Tom Murray, Ph.D., director of UNCSA’s Counseling and Testing Services. “Artists often have been marginalized for their differences, how they look, how they experience and express emotion, and as a consequence have had negative experiences within the mental health system. We wanted to create a venue for UNCSA students and the Winston-Salem community at large to interact experientially with those who have transcended these labels.”

“UNBOUND: Celebrating Emotional Liberation” is a joint effort by UNCSA’s Counseling and Testing Services and Office of Student Success. This is its second year.

For more information, contact Gwen Frisbie-Fulton at 336-631-1223;
visit UNBOUND on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=350261308550&v=info;
or find out how to participate here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDVVd0RPN2RWbmFMdGpxZHRLN2xTZlE6MQ.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from high school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.