Before the Let’s Look meeting yesterday, JoAnn Sanditz spoke with me about her experience with the program so far. Having worked with the Alzheimer’s Association and as a docent for the St. Louis Art Museum for over twenty years, she was a perfect candidate to instruct the workshop and has enjoyed pairing her two interests. She told me about the development, challenges, and joys of the program. She hopes there will be more St. Louis programs, which incorporate Art, for people with Alzheimer’s in the future, noting that with the growing number of aging baby boomers, creating social opportunities for those with dementia is an increasing issue for the nation.

Catch, then, O catch the transient hour; Improve each moment as it flies!–St. Jerome

Let’s Look was on hiatus last week, due to the Easter holiday, but the crew reunited this past Monday for the second meeting with Cole Elementary students. The pairs of buddies started the day in the Entrance Gallery and moved to the Lower Main Gallery, jampacking two hours with a string of activities:

1) To warm up the conversation, Carol prompted the group with a cardboard sign, which read, “Tell your buddy about something really good in your life.” She chimed a bell, and the chitchat ensued. She chimed it again, and the group rehashed their conversations as a whole. 

Christina reported that Tom has twenty-seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Everyone spontaneously clapped to that. JoVaughn said that his buddy, Joe, told him the Lord is what’s good in his life. Two men mentioned their wives. Bill discovered that TreVahn practices magic. It also turned out a few April birthdays were present, so the group sang the Happy Birthday song, interjecting the names of Bob, Natasha, Waiel, and Sandy.

2) JoAnn began the day’s art lesson with a weighty painting, Giovanni Battista Caracciolo’s  The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, first asking everyone to say what they observed. Arrows were mentioned. Daniel noticed Sebastian was leaning on something, which is difficult to notice in the shadows of the Caravaggio-influenced painting. “Good art detective eyes,” JoAnn would say, when someone made a good observation about the work. She then asked the buddies to talk to each other and create a story around the saint.

 ”How did Sebastian get in this position?” JoAnn asked.

Daniel, always thinking outside the box, said he thought that maybe Sebastian was being punished for stuff his evil twin did. Kameisha said Sebastian started off roaming the sky and was captured when he wouldn’t join the Devil’s side. TreVahn, versed in the saint’s story, said, “I think they killed him because they didn’t agree with what he believed in.”

“How old do you think Sebastian is?”

One dewy-eyed child explained Sebastian couldn’t be over thirty or else he would have wrinkles, to which a few people over twelve laughed. On the subject of his age, JoAnn talked about Sebastian’s muscles, which would later be compared to those of an older Saint Jerome. To underline the use of anatomy in painting, she passed out a page from the Anatomy Coloring Book.

“What bones can you see on Sebastian?” The children began feeling their ribcages.

In the spirit of the painting, two participants in the Staging Old Masters program, Travis Dean and Reuben Stewart, were invited to perform a skit they wrote, a rap about the life and death of Sebastian after JoAnn’s talk. Lisa Harper-Chang, Community Engagement Coordinator, introduced the two, and the actors performed, earning a standing ovation.

3. After a break, Let’s Look assembled downstairs in front of Jusepe de Ribera’s Saint Jerome. Waiel wore a red sheet and posed as Saint Jerome for the beginning of their talk. Carol held a paper thought-bubble over the model’s head, and asked what everyone thought was going through Jerome’s mind. Brenda said it looked like Jerome was confused and trying to make a decision. Tom, concerned about Waiel’s eyes, interrupted the discussion to ask if Waiel could move out of the sun.

“That child’s looking right in the sun,” he said.

Other thoughts suggested for Jerome were “please help me,” and “Lord, help me to get through this.” Then Kameisha told the story of how Jerome would beat himself with a rock to help him focus on translating the Bible. Her teacher had prepped them on this painting.

In a soft voice, Natasha said, “I can see his veins on his arm and chest.”

“How old do you think Saint Jerome is?” asked JoAnn.

“Ninety-nine, because he has a white beard,” said Daniel.

“His fifties, because his body isn’t as robust,” said Chuck.

Bill noticed bags under Jerome’s eyes and said sixties. Simon thought sixty-five, and JoVaghn thought specifically fifty-four. To bring back the idea of anatomy, JoAnn pointed out how thin the subject’s skin looked, and then she and Carol suggested that the buddies compare their hands to one another’s. They did this for a few moments before moving on.

4. After considering the two saints with completely different lives and ages, JoAnn asked the buddies to talk with each other about what is good about being young and what is good about being old. JoVaghn said he could jump high as a young person but he couldn’t drive a car. Kameisha, already thinking ahead, remarked that she had her career to look forward to. Chuck said that what’s good about being older is the amount of knowledge you have attained, like the knowledge Jerome must have had to translate the Bible into several languages.

Week 1 The first week of the Alzheimer’s program focused on introductions to one another and to the Pulitzer.

Week 2.Week 2 initiated our exploration of the art. To begin, Carol led a seated movement exercise that incorporated both gesture and music to warm up bodies and minds for the discussion of Old Masters. The first piece discussed was Joachim Wtewael’s Cephalus and Procris (The Death of Procris). JoAnn led a discussion on content, composition, and lines. The group participated in series of activities about the art, including “thought bubbles” and “heart bubbles” to imagine what Cephalus and Procris were thinking and feeling. JoAnn and I also acted out the scene in order to have a 3-D visual of the painting. The group also used a storyboard to understand sequential storytelling and the peak dramatic moment. The second painting discussed was Jean Baptiste Grouse’s The Laundress. JoAnn led the discussion of the content and composition, and also a dialogue about the depiction of women today versus women from the time of the Laundress. The group looked at modern magazine ads of women and compared them to the painting. Carol also reenacted the painting using a bar of soap and a bowl.
The group prepared for their meeting with Cole Elementary in 2 weeks by having their pictures taken and creating a mini bio of themselves to send to the Cole students. For the bios, participants answered these questions: What is your favorite food? What is your favorite color? What is your favorite place at home? What makes you laugh?

Week 3. The participants spent the first few minutes talking with Johnathan Loesch, the Cole Elementary School art teacher. Third, Fouth, and Fifth-graders from Cole will be coming in week 4 to join the adults with Alzheimer’s; each child will be paired with an adult “buddy.” We gave the adults pictures of the children, mini bios the children wrote about themselves, and a drawing that the children had created especially for their new buddy.

The first painting we discussed was Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife by Paolo Domenico. We discussed the content and composition of the painting, and then used the “thought bubbles” and “heart bubbles” to analyze what the subjects were thinking and feeling. Carol passed around a bag of fabrics to generate discussion about the various textures in the painting. We then discussed countenance and facial expression in the paintings by looking at a pair of Grecian masks and also looking at cartoon faces of expressions. We also acted out the painting to have a 3-D example of the art.

The other painting discussed was the Mary Magdalene by Andrea Vaccaro. JoAnn led the discussion about content and composition, and then we used the thought and heart bubbles to analyze the emotion of the painting.

On Monday morning, I felt a tad anxious. Let’s Look had progressed wonderfully over the past three weeks, but for the first time, we would be adding nine students from Cole Elementary into the class. All of the kids selected for the program are fantastic, and we had carefully planned for this day for weeks, but many unknowns still lurked in my mind. How would third-graders react to people with memory loss? Would the older adults find energetic children to be too stressful? Would the children enjoy learning about the Old Masters works? Would our activities engage both young and old?

All of my fears evaporated as soon as the children walked in the door. Each child had been paired with an adult beforehand and had received their picture and a biography, and they excitedly sought out their new friend. As we sat down in the circle, I watched the pairs begin to create bonds with each other, as if each had found a long-lost grandparent or grandchild. Tom brought a little plastic horse for his new buddy, Christina, because he knew she wanted to be a veterinarian. Joe put his arm around his buddy, JoVaughn, as they talked about their favorite foods. Everyone seemed to be taking care of each other and enjoying the experience. If our goal is to create moments of joy, then I think today accomplished just that.

Today at 12:30pm, the adults with Alzheimer’s met the Cole Elementary third, fourth, and fifth-graders for the first time. The Cole students had made special name tags, collages of cardboard, yarn, and photos, for all of the adults, which they presented to them upon arrival. Then, all of the pairs gathered together in front of the Water Court and had timed discussion, based on prompts that Carol, the director of Metro Theater Company and a main instructor of Let’s Look, provided. Two prompts were “Talk about a favorite animal or pet,” and “Talk about someone you love.”

The group then built a tower out of wooden blocks to simulate the Pulitzer’s architectural elements and to experiment with Sculpture. They came up with a variety of names for their block tower, including “New York” and “Factory.” In the following video, you can see two pairs of art buddies take their turns adding to the wooden block landscape.

http://www.vimeo.com/3926512

The group then moved to sit in front of Nicolas Regnier’s Self-Portrait with a Portrait on an Easel. JoAnn, a docent from St. Louis Art Museum and Carol’s partnering teacher, led a discussion about the content and composition of the Old Masters artwork, and then the group discussed how one would make a painting 400 years ago. JoAnn displayed a kit about making paint from minerals and plants. Then Carol led an activity that included dressing the Cole students up in costumes from the era of Nicolas Regnier, and positioning them into different poses to convey different emotions and attitudes.

In our second week of Let’s Look: Making Connections at the Pulitzer, the group participated in a warm-up of music and movement, followed by a spirited discussion of two of the Old Masters pieces. Everyone was eager to learn the history behind the paintings and create their own stories to explain what they were seeing.  Utilizing a “thought bubble” proved to be a particularly fruitful tool for exploring the scene depicted in Cephalus and Procris (The Death of Procris) by Joachim Wtewael.  When asked to put words in Cephalus or Procris’ thought bubble, some of the insightful responses from our participants included:
 “I will always love you.” – Tom
“I need to call my lawyer!” –Bill
“He might have been telling her how beautiful her body is.” –Dorothy
 “I’m sorry I doubted you.” –Chuck

Participants also had the opportunity to talk about The Laundress, by Jean Baptiste Greuze. Discussion focused on the differences in modern-day depictions of women compared to the portrayal of women in the time of the Jean Baptise Greuze.

Lastly, participants had their pictures taken and created a mini-bio of themselves to send to a child at Cole Elementary. These children will be joining their older adult “art-buddy” in several upcoming classes.

A common strength of both adults with Alzheimer’s disease and elementary school-aged children is the profound ability to live in the moment. Lets Look: Making Connections at the Pulitzer seeks to build upon this strength; our program’s fundamental goal is to create “moments of joy.” We believe that exploring art with friends from different generations and backgrounds will create these moments of joy.

Lets Look incorporates art history, storytelling, gesture, and movement to engage participants with the Old Masters works. The fresh perspective of children, coupled with the wisdom of adults, will provide new insights into the art, while creating bonds between the different generations. In the weeks to come, we hope to see many positive moments grow from these relationships and experiences!