Author: Salem Spinelli
What is your role at Aging Wisdom?
Creative Engagement Specialist Lead
What made you want to work in the field of aging? …
The arts and art-based engagement are powerful tools for fostering connection, supporting self-expression, and improving mental stimulation. In our experience as Creative Engagement Specialists, we recognize that making art is more than its outcome; it’s engaging our senses, cultivating purpose, and encouraging creativity. When you add community, you allow opportunities for giving and receiving encouragement and joy.
The participants we’ve come to know through our Art of Connection program exemplify this with a motivating, “Almost there!” or a celebratory, “You’ve done it!”
What is Art of Connection?
It is one of Aging Wisdom’s newest Creative Engagement programs. Art of Connection brings curated art experiences to older adults living together in Adult Family Homes. …
The ways we connect with each other contain both small moments and lasting lessons. Together we can celebrate how we build connections through different methods of communication between people living with and without Alzheimer’s dementia. Without the many unique individuals living with dementia, including the three individuals in the stories below, our appreciation for connection is less full.
This is written with gratitude to them. …