Cardiff & Vale Health Charity unveil 'Dance Together' - a vibrant, textual celebration of Pride

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Cardiff & Vale Health Charity are proud to unveil ‘Dance Together’ — a vibrant piece of art designed by Welsh artist Karen O’Shea. 

Through its Arts for Health and Wellbeing programme, Cardiff & Vale Health Charity commissioned Welsh-born textile artist Karen O’Shea to design a special piece of artwork as part of our Pride 2022 celebrations. 

‘Dance Together’ is a colourful Maypole which champions and celebrates the LGBTQ+ community with 400 individual pieces of colourful fabric creating a rainbow of vibrant ribbons. It has been installed ahead of the Pride Cymru parade on August 27th, where colleagues from across the Health Board will join NHS Wales in the first in-person Pride march since 2019.  

Karen has a passion for sustainability and the fabric used is recycled from shirts, blouses and muslin to represent how our diverse origins, characteristics and strengths enrich the fabric of society and bring colour to the world.  The fibres used are mainly natural cotton, silk and linen joined together with a variety of stitches. 

Speaking about the meaning of ‘Dance Together’, Karen said: “Whatever type of ribbon we are, we begin individually, dancing proudly. We gradually interweave as we co-operate and respect everyone as an equal dancer. 

“Sometimes — especially as we fall ill or grow older and our edges fray, we or another dancer will miss a step, trip or snag on something unexpected and become tanged. With kindness, care and help the tangle can be easier to fix to get us moving in the right direction again. With a smile on our faces and spring in our steps, it is heartening knowing that we matter to someone. We realise how much we care about them despite our differences. 

“The interwoven ribbons at the top of the pole remind us of the happy time we spent dancing together with others in our community when teamwork, love, friendship and laugher helped us through.” 

To find out more about Karen’s inspiration and her work, visit karenoshea.co.uk

 

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