While our campaign, “Connect Through Creativity Now,” highlights teaching artists, arts and service organizations working within the traditional Creative Aging model (sequential learning, skill-building, social-engagement) while stay-at-home orders prohibit in-person social gatherings, there are a number of other efforts emerging that warrant mention.
Below are several examples of others working outside the traditional model, who are using arts education as a catalyst for social engagement and expression during the challenging COVID-19 era.
Baton Rouge Sewists 55+ Create Surgical Gowns for Local Hospitals
In response to the regional shortage of personal protection equipment, The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) collaborated with the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge to launch The Sewing Safe Project to engage local sewists with the equipment and skillset to create surgical gowns and other on-demand items for local hospitals.
The Sewing Safe Project consists of sewists mostly from the 55+ community. “Although engaging this population was not at the forefront of the project’s origin, it was a rewarding endeavor to connect with people, as well as provide essential equipment to medical staff during the shortage,” said Leea Russell, Director of Education for the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. Photo credit: Leea Russell
Teaching Artist Keeps Her Students Moving via Online Therapeutic Workshops
Linda Chodolenko, a Lifetime Arts Roster Artist and certified TimeSlips Teaching Artist, has been teaching therapeutic movement and music classes to older adults with dementia for the past year at 80th Street Residence and 305 West End Avenue Assisted Living in New York City. After the crisis, Linda successfully transitioned her classes to online via Zoom with the help of assisted living staff. Linda is also a Teaching Artist for Lincoln Center Moments and is in the process of transitioning her work there to online platforms as well.
Older Adults Share Expertise on “What’s Worth Knowing” in Storytelling/Radio Program
Laura Nova is a Public Artist in Residence (PAIR) in the NYC Department for the Aging whose work focuses on social isolation and re-envisioning the senior center in a post-covid world.
Through her SU-CASA Residency, she connected with the Phipps Plaza Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) in the Kips Bay neighborhood, and began teaching a storytelling and radio arts class called “Hear Here.”
At the onset of shelter-in-place, she invited volunteers from the performing arts community to be matched with an older adult for weekly conversations, via webcam or telephone, guided by a list of topics that encourage the older adult to share their expert advice. Laura is also offering weekly telephoned creative calls that include 30-minute performances by NYC artists and dial-in offerings featuring conversation, activities, and games.
Ten Poems, Ten Minutes, Ten AM: Free Video Workshops with Dave Johnson
In March, Lifetime Arts Roster Teaching Artist, Dave Johnson, hosted a free, 10-minute poetry workshop series for 10 weekdays at 10am for teens and adults.
In each video session, Dave read a poem by a famous poet and prompted viewers to create their own in 10 minutes that followed the style and structure of the example poem. All of these recorded sessions may be accessed on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the Poets House website.
Facebook Live Songwriting and Sing Along Lessons with Alice Leon
Alice Leon, teaching artist and award-winning singer/songwriter, specializes in school and library songwriting workshops as well as mentoring programs for children and older adults in the NYC area. Her songwriting company, Thesongs4u.com, offers various songwriting and music classes, including two sing-along and songwriting workshops for older adults. Since the crisis, Alice has livestreamed daily songwriting lessons for children, families and older adults on Facebook Live where she displays a fun title prompt on a whiteboard and encourages viewers to create lyrics for a new song and sing along.
We will update this post with new items going forward.
