Lifetime Arts & NYPL

Countee Cullen Branch Library (Manhattan), 3-time grant awardee, teaching Life Maps, collage, drawing, and folded/altered books.

Sheepshead Bay Branch Library (Brooklyn), Watercolor

Lifetime Arts encourges creative aging by promoting the inclusion of professional arts programs in organizations that serve older adults, preparing artists to develop the creative capacity of adult learners, and fostering lifelong arts learning by increasing opportunities for intergenerational and community-based programming. (Lifetime Arts Website)

Programs included balanced lessons with formal and technical approaches to conceptual and imaginative play. I included within the lesson a life review aspect, so as to create more opportunities to investigate and engender personal and shared meaning.  Additionally, I encouraged usage of a variety of art forms as a means of expressing commentary on issues of societal and cultural importance.

Life Maps

Washington Heights Library (Pro Bono)
Countee Cullen Branch – Harlem (Lifetime Arts Grant)
Collage and Beginning Drawing Classes

Maps are tools that help to guide and give direction, and Life Maps can show us where we have been and where we might like to go, in the form of a personal geography.  By examining the appearance of maps through the lenses of line, texture, color, and point-of-view, students were introduced to the elements of design and the art of collage.

I included a variety of historical and present day maps with relevance to New York City (cycling maps, bus and subway maps, walking tour maps, etc.). We considered each of these for both their functional aspects as well as their metaphorical qualities. Students then integrated maps for collage making while also drawing upon their life experiences and memories to inspire their work.

I use a disciplined-based art education approach so as to include related activities in the realm of art history, art criticism, and aesthetics, as well as a studio component. Students studied how artists like Romare Bearden and Mark Bradford drew upon city life as a source of inspiration, using collage to express their experience of urban living.

For more information about Lifetime Arts, click to here.

Collages at SPARC

“The most important attitude that can be formed is that of the desire to go on learning.”

— John Dewey

Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide (SPARC) is a community arts engagement program that places artists-in-residence at senior centers across the 5 boroughs of New York City.  Developed in 2009 in as part of the Mayor’s Age initiative, SPARC is a collaboration between the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department for the Aging, and the city’s local arts councils within each borough.

 In the Spring and Summer of 2013, SPARC brought together 50 different artists to provide seniors at over 40 centers with creative programming including access to free public events displaying a diverse array of projects.  The curriculum, which I entitled LIFE MAPS, grew out of my interest in understanding the unique meaning and process of providing art instruction to older adults.  My interest lies in assessing the kinds of creative activities with which older adults may be engaged, so as to establish new possibilities for what aging can mean in the context of art education.

 The artwork displayed in this exhibition titled PROFILED! was created as a result of the collaborative efforts of participants of the weekly LIFE MAP collage class, and myself as their instructor. 

 The collages were created over several months and were based on weekly class assignments. In order to demonstrate the importance of composition, I placed a cut out silhouette of their profile over the existing work, bringing new meaning to the objects and images that make up the collage, and allowing them to frame their work in an innovative and meaningful way.  

The resulting body of work is entitled LIFE MAPS, and can be thought of as “personal geographies.” Maps are tools, subjective in nature, which help to guide and give direction, often to pre-selected destinations. LIFE MAPS can show us where we have been and where we may hope to go.  

The resulting body of work is entitled LIFE MAPS, and can be thought of as “personal geographies.” Maps are tools, subjective in nature, which help to guide and give direction, often to pre-selected destinations. LIFE MAPS can show us where we have been and where we may hope to go.  

Over the course of several months, we examined the appearance and design elements of maps, focusing on line, texture, point-of-view, and color. Participants were asked to select a theme by either reflecting on a significant moment in their lives, thinking of an individual who might have made a deep impact upon them, or exploring an aspect of their personality. Within their profile, they were to map out their chosen topic and create a collage that creatively expressed this theme.

Collage and more at Countee Cullen Harlem SAGE Older Adult Center

Masks. More about the work here. More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.

Art of Food

Masks. More about the work here. More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.

Self-Portrait Collages

Masks. More about the work here. More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.

Collage Animals

Masks. More about the work here. More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.More about the work here.