PWS Rare Aware Art Share
We are excited to announce the launch of PWSA | USA’s brand new initiative – The Rare Aware Art Share! This virtual art show aims to spotlight the voices of individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome. We hope to learn more about each individual, their lives, and their experiences as someone with PWS. Our hope is that through this art show, our community and beyond can gain a deeper understanding of our loved ones with PWS, while offering them a space to be seen and heard. We plan to take this art show to the world outside of the PWS community, thus expanding the opportunities for support, education, advocacy, and appreciation for those living with PWS.
This art show will last for the entirety of 2024 and will be separated into three distinct themed sessions. Each session will have a specific date range for when we are accepting submissions. Submissions will be accepted in digital format only. Please scroll past the artwork submission form to find an FAQ section that explains the art share in more details.
Between July 1 - August 15, 2024, we are collecting artwork for Theme 2, International Art Show/Conference. Create your artwork using the prompt:
"What's Something Unique About Where You Live?"
When we gather together at the 2025 International PWS Conference (June 24 – 28, 2025 in Phoenix, AZ), coming from homes around the world, it will offer us an opportunity to learn more about the world outside our own. Think about where you live. Look out your window or take a walk in your neighborhood or town. Describe what you see in your art piece. Show us what your world looks like. If you can, include yourself in your artwork. How do you fit into the world you live in?
We welcome anyone living with PWS to participate in this art share no matter where you live and regardless of whether you will be attending the 2025 Conference or not. We also encourage those who submitted artwork for Theme #1 to submit artwork for this new theme as well! Once you have completed your art piece, please submit a digital image of your artwork using the form below.
PWS Rare Aware Art Share Submission Form
PWS Rare Aware Art Share FAQs
Anyone diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome in any part of the world is welcome to submit. We will accept submissions from all ages and all skill levels.
Digital submissions only please. Create your art, take a photo, then submit the image to PWSA | USA’s website form (above). For text art, like poems or song lyrics, please submit a word document rather than a photo, unless they are handwritten.
To respond to the prompts, artists may decide to:
• Paint a picture
• Use crayons, markers, or pencils to draw and color a picture
• Create a sculpture out of clay or any molding materials
• Create a video
• Take a picture
• Knit, crochet, embroidery, cross stitch
• Make a collage (use pictures of you, or pictures you cut from a magazine)
• Make a mandala
• Write a short story or play script
• Write a poem
• Write a song and send us the lyrics
Artists may submit as many pieces as they are inspired to.
Theme 1: PWS Awareness
Theme 1 Prompt: “What is your superpower? What are you capable of?”
Theme 1 Submission Dates: Thursday, February 1, 2024 – Friday, March 15, 2024
Theme 2: International Art Show/Conference
Theme 2 Prompt: “What is something unique or special about where you live?”
Theme 2 Submission Dates: Monday, July 1, 2024 – Thursday, August 15, 2024
Theme 3: 50th Anniversary of PWSA | USA
Theme 3 Prompt: “What is a favorite birthday memory?”
Theme 3 Submission Dates: Tuesday, October 1, 2024 – Friday, November 15, 2024
We ask that artists submit for the specific theme only during that theme’s submission period. We will not accept artwork on a past theme once the submission period is over.
Submissions will be shared on our social media platforms, Pulse newsletter, and website. They will also be uploaded to a print-on-demand (POD) website (Print Your Cause) where people may choose to have the artwork printed onto a product (e.g. t-shirt or coffee mug). We will provide a link to utilize the Print on Demand site soon.
Some of these submissions will be displayed at the 2025 PWS Conference and in communities around the country. They will not be displayed with the intention of making a profit, but will be displayed freely as a tool to spread awareness, education, and appreciation for PWS. If possible, we ask that you hold on to your original artwork to have it be displayed in these various locations. We can also print them for you to have them be displayed.
We hope to share and display every submission that we receive. However, please note that submissions must be appropriate for an all ages audience. Submissions will be reviewed by PWSA | USA Staff and Board members and our discretion will be used to determine the eligibility of artwork for display.
Art submissions can be uploaded to PWSA | USA’s Rare Aware Art Share submission form (above).
If you have any trouble uploading your artwork to this form, please email your artwork to communications@pwsausa.org. We also ask that you fill out the few questions included on the submission form, as your answers will help explain your artwork, and in turn, spread awareness for Prader-Willi syndrome.
Do you work in a doctors office, group home, clinical trial location, or another space where individuals with PWS gather?
Here’s how YOU can help!
Individuals with PWS spend a lot of time in waiting rooms, whether for therapies, doctor appointments, blood draws, x-rays, or clinical trials. If you work in a space where these individuals may be waiting, we have a simple tool for you. Our art share worksheet will help spread the word about this program and offer a positive activity for patients’ time spent in the waiting room. We also encourage group homes in our network to print and share this worksheet!
The instructions are on the worksheet document, which can be downloaded at the button below. We are not asking you to collect these pages, simply to hand them to your families and/or individuals with PWS. We would be grateful if you are willing to provide crayons, however, pen and pencil drawings will be accepted.
These pieces will be gathered from individuals with PWS from around the world and displayed at various events, including the 2025 International PWS Conference, and on our social media platforms. They will also be available on a Print on Demand website for those looking to put the art on coffee mugs, t-shirts, etc.
We are grateful for your support of our loved ones with PWS, and for helping spread the word about this exciting new project!
Jennifer Bolander has been serving as a Special Education Specialist for PWSA (USA) since October of 2015. She is a graduate of John Carroll University and lives in Ohio with her husband Brad and daughters Kate (17), and Sophia (13) who was born with PWS.
Perry A. Zirkel has written more than 1,500 publications on various aspects of school law, with an emphasis on legal issues in special education. He writes a regular column for NAESP’s Principal magazine and NASP’s Communiqué newsletter, and he did so previously for Phi Delta Kappan and Teaching Exceptional Children.
Evan has worked with the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (USA) since 2007 primarily as a Crisis Intervention and Family Support Counselor. Evans works with parents and schools to foster strong collaborative relationships and appropriate educational environments for students with PWS.
Dr. Amy McTighe is the PWS Program Manager and Inpatient Teacher at the Center for Prader-Willi Syndrome at the Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh. She graduated from Duquesne University receiving her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Education with a focus on elementary education, special education, and language arts.
Staci Zimmerman works for Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of Colorado as an Individualized Education Program (IEP) consultant. Staci collaborates with the PWS multi-disciplinary clinic at the Children’s Hospital in Denver supporting families and school districts around the United States with their child’s Individual Educational Plan.
Founded in 2001, SDLC is a non-profit legal services organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the legal rights of people with disabilities throughout the South. It partners with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Protection and Advocacy (P&A) programs, Legal Services Corporations (LSC) and disability organizations on major, systemic disability rights issues involving the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the federal Medicaid Act. Recently in November 2014, Jim retired.