The sixth annual Chronic Illness Symposium at DePaul University on May 12 will explore how the arts can be used to help people cope with and understand chronic illness.

“Artists reach past our logical mind and show us verbal, musical, visual and theatrical images of chronic illness and its effects that touch our hearts, make us angry, show us different kinds of truths and expose realities we may shy away from in our ordinary lives,” said Lynn Royster, director of DePaul University’s Chronic Illness Initiative, which provides students with chronic illnesses with the assistance they need to manage school while struggling with debilitating illnesses, relapses and hospitalizations.“It is hard sometimes to grasp the very different world of someone who lives with this issue – our presenters open it up for us.”

The symposium will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the third floor of the DePaul Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Chicago. Open to the public, admission is $25 and includes lunch and a reception; attendees must register in advance. For complete program details, visit snl.depaul.edu/cii.

Titled “Chronic Illness & The Arts,” the daylong symposium includes workshops and speakers covering a number of topics, among them finding meaning in illness through artistic expression; using “illness drawings” to lead discussions about living with chronic illness and detect poor adaptation to illness; medical art therapy; and windows on illness. Highlights of the symposium include:

• At noon, keynote speaker Michael Rohd, founding artistic director of Sojourn Theatre in Portland, Ore., will look at how art can affect community discourse on chronic illness. Rohd, who is a faculty member at Northwestern University’s theatre department, will share examples of his work and some thoughts from almost 20 years in the field of applied theatre. At the heart of his work is the belief that imagination makes possible vision, and vision is the heart of hope.

• “When Illness Tears Your Soul, Art Gives It Back: Finding Meaning in Illness Through Artistic Expression” at 9:30 a.m. Patricia Fennell, president of Albany Health Management Associates Inc., will discuss how the arts can help people accept their illness and find meaning in their experience.

• “Medical Art Therapy: Healing Through Creativity in a Pediatric Inpatient Setting” at 2:45 p.m. Michelle Oldford and Richard Flynn, art therapy interns at Children’s Memorial Hospital, will discuss how the creative process of art can improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages. Both are master’s-level art therapy graduate students, Oldford at The Adler School of Professional Psychology and Flynn at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

• Performances by “Erasing the Distance” at 3:45 p.m. The Chicago non-profit group that sheds light on mental illness through theatre will share the stories of adults with different types of chronic illness to create a forum for dialogue.

The only program of its kind in the United States, the School for New Learning’s Chronic Illness Initiative provides students with the assistance they need to manage school while struggling with debilitating illnesses, relapses and hospitalizations. Now in its sixth year, the program has grown to serve more than 200 students.

For more information about the symposium, call (312) 362-5079, e-mail lroyster@depaul.edu or visit snl.depaul.edu/cii.