In May JMHS will offer art classes for adults age 55 and older. Using money awarded from Aroha Philanthropies Seeding Vitality Arts grant, the workshops will foster learning and meaningful social engagement. Classes will first be offered to residents and tenants of JMHS, with any remaining spots open to community members.
On April 5th teaching artist, Lauren Carlson did an exercise with residents to demonstrate how her class would work. Lauren asked the group to come up with any word that came to mind. Once all words were written on a whiteboard, the group pieced the words together to create a story about a wedding. This exercise opened the door for memory sharing amongst the group including personal wedding stories and funny pranks made on the bride and groom.
Carlson’s Life Event Poetry class will be held for ten weeks beginning Friday, May 4th. Students will learn to write free verse, lyric and personal narratives as forms for sharing memories and experiences. The end goal is to craft a meaningful written legacy that can be shared with friends, loved ones, family and perhaps strangers in the form of a published and printed collaborative chapbook. To celebrate our artists’ work, a culminating event will be held in July at the new Care Center.
Future classes include Creative Aging Drawing with Cindy Demers beginning in June and ArtSpiration Drawing & Painting by Tami Montgomery-Henriksen in September. If you have any questions about the workshops or would like to register, please contact Jess Wollschlager at 320.312.2102 or email [email protected].
