The Arts and Older Adults

Avy Loftus

Visual Arts

I am a dynamic art educator who believes in teaching and learning with compassion and empathy. I have been privileged to teach art for adults from different backgrounds/walks of life. I have also facilitated hands-on art workshops with older adults. Whether they have previous experience in arts or not, it’s always nice to see the creativity that shows up when the workshops are completed. Making art with seniors sometimes helps reveal how their life experiences and journeys have unfolded – it’s a way for them to reflect, be present and unleash their inner thoughts and feelings in a creative way.

Sample workshop:

The workshop allows older citizens to engage in activities based on the expression of compassion, through the creation of textiles, inspired by the technique of batik and shibori. The participants draw on a sheet of paper with the theme of Peace, for example. They then transfer their drawing onto cloth and apply batik or shibori technique to block their design for the coloring process. After a drying period, participants use the batik or shibori process to apply a variety of colors to their creations. After a final drying period, the artist oversees the removal of the flour/strings from the artwork.

Materials:

Batik:
– Some flour of tea light candles
– Batik colours (in small packages, in different colours)
– Gold or silver colour for fabric
– Cotton fabric
– Some brushes

Shibori:
– Shibori dyes
– Strings, rocks and buttons*
– Tubes*
– Cotton fabric
– Needles*
– buckets (for the dyes)
(*artist can lend these materials)

Listed with:

ArtistsInspire, Culture in Schools

Available for:

In-person workshops, On-line workshops

Language(s) of facilitation:

English

Contact:

paixpeaceproject@gmail.com

514-282-9111

http://avy.ca/

Land Acknowledgement

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtià:ke, the original name for Montreal in Kanien’kéha, the language of the Mohawk—also known as Mooniyang, which is the Anishinaabeg name given to the city by the Algonquin. While we are based in this city, our projects have also taken place in many regions across Quebec.

We acknowledge the colonial origin of English and French in Canada, and recognize that both languages benefit from official status throughout the land. The province that we know as Quebec is an amalgamation of the traditional territories of the Innu and Inuit nations, Algonquian nations, as well as the Mohawk nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Kanien’kéha and Anishinaabemowin are but two of the original languages of this province; Atikamekw, Cree, Inuktitut, and Innu-aimun are also among the many Indigenous languages spoken across Quebec as majority languages, all well before French and English.

ELAN acknowledges the important work being done by First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to revive the traditional languages of these territories, and their advocacy for the official status of Indigenous languages.

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