A celebration of the Arts and the Mind A review by Patricia Bailey staff writer Well-known and new artists of major genres were celebrated for their creativity as well as their perseverance in the struggle against mental illness, in a production Friday night at the Moody Music Concert Hall on the University of Alabama campus. Compeer, founded nationally in 1973 and in Tuscaloosa in 1989, is designed to build a link of support between the person with mental illness and their community.
Volunteers spend time with people with mental illness who are isolated and fearful.
In this year's show, local artists offered a first-class performance of recognized pieces by such composers as Schumann, Beethoven and Andrew Lloyd Webber. They also re-enacted portions of television programs, read from published work and danced to jazz and classical music. Opus Posthumous 56, no. five. Poems and journal entries from the book record her desperate battle with mental illness and her conviction to win. Accompanied on the piano by her mother and University faculty member, Amanda Penick, the two provided familial harmony.