Patricia, the site director was always very pleasant. She was juggling a lot of events and classes. She had contractors teaching other art classes as well as Tai Chi and Computer class, as well as the popular afternoon bingo sessions. When we first met, she was a little leery of my program since it didn't seem to fit a traditional senior art class, but was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the elders took to the variety of subjects and projects.
At the beginning, we had agreed on a schedule, but weeks later, after the ad cards were printed, she found that she needed to change my program hours to accommodate her longtime contract teaching artists and the bingo schedule. Of course I was not too happy about this, since I had juggled my own teaching schedule and meticulously printed cards for the center. I could not do another set because I would go over budget. I was also nervous about class attendance since I had observed that most of the seniors came for long and stayed afterwards. I was pleasantly surprised that the seniors spread their thoughts on my class and quickly developed a regular following of early seniors.
We also changed the space. Patricia wanted me to be in the cafeteria to fold in arriving seniors. Again, not having the art room as a regular space made me worried, since the cafeteria was so large and the tables so spread out... but I quickly adapted to setting up the projects and introducing folks to the projects in waves. This also helped me adapt to different personality types, and how to approach them. Soon the cafeteria became my preferred teaching space as I could juggle different islands of people at different times and produce some interesting results.
I had plenty of help from Giselle, the director's assistant. who would set up my laptop and project early in the day. She also had great insight into methods of approaching different people.
The center was also very accommodating of my travel schedule as I attended and presented at several conferences this Spring. Luckily the seniors never lost their place in the projects and always picked up from where they left off.
The Center was on point with scheduling the trip to the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and used their van (which could fit 9 seniors) for transport. It was a lovel day as they enjoyed the museum's galleries and got to do an outside art exercise.
Early in June, I realized that I had done more hours than originally planned. Typically, an art session lasted 2 to 2.5 hours, and I already done more than 60 hours. The seniors, sad to see me go, discussed taking a collection to have me come in the Summer time. I promised them two more Monday sessions as part of the program so we could do a final art project and prepare them for the show. I was genuinely sad to stop working there.
PROJECT: ARTOPIA’s dynamics changed quickly. I intended to separate each class in different components of the program design (i.e. Filmlandia, TVlandia) but realized that the flow between projects was more natural and was really guided by the seniors’ interests and abilities. I managed to do a multi-media approach and blend in film, tv, history and even mythology in a more holistic approach. While the projects themselves kept to a theme, much of the multi-media ended up spurring ideas in the art work. They were provided with their own sketchbooks and idea journals to work in class and at home.
I tweaked the themes to include memory projects (including ‘their favorite dress, best monsters and heroes, and best moments of certain times in their lives) as well as themes inspired by different decades especially including the fantastical images of their childhood stories and playtime.
After introducing them to my own work and asking them for help and tolerance of my style, they seemed very warm and willing to try new things. e.
So I began with CARTOONIA, a look at animation and cartoons from their generations, including Betty Boop and Popeye, and had them design characters that fit into that cherished art-style. Afterwards we did a bit of FILMLANDIA, where they looked at the icons of the Golden age of Hollywood. They informed me of who their favorite actors were, and I would show them and lead them in sketching designs and hairstyles of designing clothing or hairstyles for them while using acetate layers and studio photos.
Another project was having them recreate a happy day of their childhood with collage and paper cut outs. They also repeated this task with a life journal where they could illustrate and write about the best days of their teens.
One class involved creating happy images on ‘get well’ cards and delivering them to the Children’s unit at Montefiore.
One class included blank vinyl dolls that they could turn into their favorite magical characters with markers and paints. This worked well with images and videos of fantasy films of the 40s and 50s.
We talked about civil rights and the olden days when segregation was the norm and showed them films (i.e Patch of Blue, Imitation of Life). They would do art based on the themes they discussed. I showed them Kung Fu film from the old days of the Bronx theaters, and they did watercolors based on the colorful imagery. During one 70s themed week, they were taught how to create proper Graffiti art using 'Words of power’. I showed them female icons of television and had them break down the stereotypes and sexism in the way they were presented in variety shows and comedies. The discussions while we did the art was always lively.
I made sure they were xposed to many different art materials (i.e. charcoal, markers, china markers, pastels, paints, inks) and was sure to demo each one. They soon found their favorite media and would request projects with them. Some classes would have seniors working with different media, but on the same theme.
Every few weeks, the programs would end with trivia questions related to theme and small prizes. They also enjoyed doing abstract art in collage and painting, using color and form to recreate feelings and good memories. All in all we were very busy and produced an astounding amount of art.
For the few seniors that sometimes felt a little overwhelmed by the projects (a few needed longer times and smaller tasks because of vision and dexterity issues), smaller projects like coloring books were provided, which they could pull out at any time. A few seniors requested homework or more advanced projects and they were provided with more sketchbooks and sculpting projects to work on at home.
I took a smaller group to an outing at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, where they had a studio tour complete with an art project, which they enjoyed very much.
For the final show, the seniors took pride in the amount and quality of their work. The room was just packed with art. I also had a guitar player come and lead them in a singalong, something they had requested for a while. Music was always inspirational.
