Paint it orange! – Canberra – 2019

Leading Organisations: Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation & Advocacy

We held an exhibition of artworks created by women who use drugs on the Global Day of Action. All artwork was produced by CAHMA service users and supporters.

We are building on the great success that the exhibition “Paint it Orange” has had. We decided to participate in Orange the World Action with having the Orange Art Group monthly meetings on every 25th, where we will continue to create artworks and stories that will help raise awareness about issues that women who use drugs face on daily basis.

We invested in building a website where our Orange Art group members can exhibit and sell their artworks. We already sold majority of the artworks and buyers are mainly employees of Alcohol and other Drug, community and medical services who are buying paintings for their offices, waiting areas and counselling rooms. Many paintings have accompanying personal stories that services exhibit together with the artworks.

We’ve got a new platform to tell a different story about people who use drugs, a story about their talents, passion and strengths. We now have an independent platform for using art to fight stigma and stereotypes about people who use drugs. Its popularity is constantly growing – even mainstream services are referring their clients to the CAHMA Orange art group.

Contacts: http://www.cahma.org.au/GDOA.html