Art with Elders
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Art With Elders (AWE) was begun in 1991 to provide quality arts education for isolated, frail elders. If you are interested in AWE’s history, please download the article featured in the magazine Works & Conversations found in PUBLICITY on this website.
Classes
Awe places professional artists in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. These artist-instructors teach residents how to paint in two-hour classes each week, fifty weeks of the year. It is often the only really stimulating activity offered to residents. While learning to paint in classes that emphasize skills-building and that are small enough to offer individual attention, residents also socialize with their peers and form friendships they might not otherwise enjoy.
Artist-instructors are hired because they are themselves professional artists with their own practice and careers, because they are experienced teachers and because they are adept
at adapting their teaching to students who suffer from chronic illness including depression, dementia and sensory deprivation.
Public Exhibits
AWE considers the public exhibition of art from AWE classes to be as important to the development of the artist as the class work. Each year, ELDERGIVERS selects work from the classes and gathers it into an Annual Exhibit which features the acrylics, pastel oils, crayon, pen and pencil drawings and collages of the more than 350 frail elders who participate in the classes.
The Annual Exhibit is then introduced to the public at a major art and/or civic venue with a Gala Reception for the artists. Feedback from a live audience can be as instructive and encouraging as the artist-instructors’ lessons in AWE classes.
Following the inaugural exhibit and reception, the Annual Exhibit travels to a different public site at 3- to 4-week intervals. Conservative estimates indicate that more than 100,000 see the Traveling Exhibit during the course of a year.
Visitors to the Traveling Exhibit are encouraged to fill out evaluation cards and more than 300 do each year. Viewers often add spontaneous comments to the multiple choice format and are lavish in their praise. ELDERGIVERS shares the cards with the artists, providing yet another way that elder artists have feedback from the exhibit. Being part of the exhibitions, and reading comments of viewers, offers otherwise isolated elders a real sense that they are still very much a part of their communities.
The next Annual Exhibit and Reception, and the locations of the Traveling Exhibit may be found in the EVENTS pages of this website. PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE NOVEMBER RECEPTION of the 15th Annual Art With Elders Exhibit!!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
ELDERGIVERS will launch its first eBay Marketplace site for the sale of art from the AWE program on Monday, October 2nd. PLEASE TAKE A LOOK and BUY !
Long-term Care Facilities Supporting AWE Classes: 2006-2006
| San Francisco City and County | Central Gardens Convalescent Hospital |
| Alameda County | Alameda Hospital – sub-acute unit |
| San Mateo County | Belmont Vista |
| Santa Clara County | Lytton Gardens Health Care Center |
| Contra Costa County | Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living |
MANY THANKS TO THESE FACILITIES THEIR OWNERS, ADMINISTRATORS AND STAFF RECOGNIZE THE LIFE-AFFIRMING POTENTIAL OF A PROFESSIONAL ARTS PROGRAM AND ARE WILLING TO MAKE ART WITH ELDERS AVAILABLE TO THEIR RESIDENTS. ADDING IMMEASURABLY TO RESIDENTS’ QUALITY OF LIFE !!
Sample Comments from Exhibit Evaluation Cards
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“More of this wonderful art and in more places, please!”
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“How about a permanent AWE exhibit here?”
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“I enjoyed the exhibit so much. How do I volunteer?”
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“It’s an amazing exhibit; if anything, expand it.”
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“This is very encouraging. I’m getting to the point where I need to think about a nursing home for my dad. He’d be a prime
candidate for your program.” -
“This is truly great and the work is so full of life!”
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“I can’t draw a straight line but seeing what your program has done for these wonderful artists gives me hope.”