July 28, 1-3pm
Please join us for a gallery talk featuring Michael K. Paxton and Robert Cohen, M.D where art and science will come together to explore the nature of black lung disease.
Michael K. Paxton’s many awards include a grant from the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Inc., New York; Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Visual Art Award and two Professional Development Grants; Fellowships with both Air le Parc, Project and Research Center, Pampelonne, France and Jentel Artist Residency Program, Banner, Wyoming; a Marshall University Alumni Award of Distinction; five Professional Development Grants from Columbia College, Chicago and the documentary film “Work at Hand, Michael K. Paxton” Official Selection of the 17thAnnual Great Lakes International Film Festival. Major one-person exhibitions include Miami University Museum of Art, Oxford, Ohio; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; Linda Matney Gallery, Williamsburg, VA.; Heuser Art Center, Bradley University, Peoria, IL, Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, IL; Laura Mesaros Gallery, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV. He has been published in New American Paintings; featured artist/educator in issue 8 of Line Work; been the subject of both radio and television features on NPR, Chicago and WVPBS and selected and published in Art and Soul, highlighting fifty of the most noted West Virginians in the Arts.
He is an adjunct faculty member of Columbia College, Chicago since 2005 and has BA in Art from Marshall University, 1975 and an MFA in Drawing and Painting from The University of Georgia, 1979.
Dr. Robert Cohen is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Occupational Lung Disease Program at Northwestern University. He is also Clinical Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois School of Public Health.
His major research interests are occupational lung disease, particularly mineral dust exposed workers. He has served as a consultant to several agencies of the United States government in areas of mining related health issues including the Respiratory Health Division of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, MSHA, the Division of Coal Mine Workers Compensation of the US DOL. He is the principal investigator on the Black Lung Center of Excellence as well as the Black Lung Clinics Program funded by the Office of Rural Health Policy of the Health Resources and Services Administration. He also serves as the medical director for the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease, the organization of federally funded black lung clinics. He has served on several government oversight committees including the Mine Safety Research Advisory Committee and the US National Academies of Science and Institute of Medicine committee to review Personal Protective Technologies.
He has worked extensively internationally in the area of medical surveillance for coal mine dust and silica exposed workers. He has worked on projects in Ukraine, Colombia, Argentina, and most recently has been working with Queensland State Government agencies to review and improve their coal mine workers health scheme.
