Creative Aging
Intergenerational projects and programs that engage youth and staff with older people assist in building community. Engaging the senior in a meaningful activity which increases the older person’s sense of self-worth, well-being has an affect on lowering cortisol levels. When institutionalized, older people rely heavily on the attention of the career – the nurse, the aide, the kitchen staff, and the porters. However, hospital staff are often so busy caring for the physical well being of the patient they are disconnected to the character of the individual. In some instances, the ‘inside’ knowledge they gain from talking to patients, can assist in understanding and meeting the needs of the patients. It is vitally important to offer the opportunity to the caregiver to engage with the patient on a human level, not just a clinical one.
An arts project entitled Cuimhne an tSaoil (Life Memory) saw students, patients and staff create a permanent art exhibition at Clonakilty Community Hospital earlier this year.
Ribbons of Life, an award-winning curatorial initiative that involved four artists, three schools and twelve residents of a long-term care centre to create works of art based on their lives. Partnering institutions included the Burnaby School District, Vancouver Foundation, Shaw Cable TV, and the Burnaby Art Gallery.
ArtsWay - Health Arts Society
Imagine having an illness or physical limitation that prevents you from attending live music, theatre and dance performances. ArtsWay is a non-profit organization that gives the sick and the elderly a front row seat to professional arts performances.
“I really love when they bring the concerts here” says Barbara Curmi, care-home resident.
ArtsWay’s principal goal is to respond to the well-understood need for arts in healthcare. In 2006 Vancouver Foundation provided a grant which supported the Health Arts Society's efforts to securely establish ArtsWay and expand its reach across BC.
The works on exhibit here are not only works of art created collaboratively by people who have, in some instances, over 70 years separating them in age. A Life’s Work is primarily about process, about memory, about relationship building, about community and about quality of life. The long-term residents of St. Patrick’s Hospital, Waterford, remember a time when extended families lived together and cared for each other as they aged or were sick. Increasingly families tend to become isolated from one another and if health issues arise, older people are placed in long term care separate from their families and familiar surroundings. There is less and less time for people to listen to their stories. Young people are also cut off from the older people’s wisdom and caring.
Over a period of thirteen weeks, a group of 14 residents of St. Patrick’s and 28 young people met for 45 minutes once a week to work together and share stories. The young people, all first year students at St. Angela’s Ursuline Convent, took their lunch time to visit St. Patrick’s Hospital. What you see here are works of art created out of the relationships developed over this brief period of time.
Projects such as this are reciprocal in nature. They involve interviewing, listening and negotiating skills along with art techniques. None of the residents of St. Patrick’s who worked on this project had ever had any formal art training, yet they were courageous in their willingness to experiment with art materials and to share their stories with these students.
Sarah Dobbs
May 2003
