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.

Yesterday afternoon, Johnathan Leosch’s Cole art students met their study buddies, grown-ups from the Family Partner Adult Day Center, for the first time. The Pulitzer has gotten to know Cole Elementary School over the past year. Last fall, Leosch’s students took part in The Community Light Project. After visiting their classroom then, it was clear to me that these kids were extremely friendly and imaginative-and nothing has changed in the last few months.

Before they began their lessons with Director of the Metro Theater Company, Carol North, and SLAM Docent JoAnn Sanditz, the students gave name tags that they made to their partners. You can see their creations posted on the Pulitzer’s Flickr page in addition to the few succeeding examples.

After the session was over, fourth-graders Waiel and JoVaughn gave their impressions from the two-hour interaction:

Let’s Look has so far achieved moments of joy, visible in smiles–as the kids were dressed like Regnier models, or as the group worked on the block sculpture. Another goal reached was that the youngsters were able to relate to people two generations older than themselves.

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.

Week 2 infused understanding and formal knowledge of the work while finding personal meaning and value within the paintings. The group generated discussion about struggles the figures inside the paintings may have endured that the artists tried to express.

Participants began to connect stronger with the artwork.

Exploring the content, context, and personal feelings towards these masterpieces, the program coordinators helped breakdown the symbolic elements of the paintings. Viewers discovered their own ideas and emotions with the work, finding personal ways to relate to the art.

Members of the group received letters and drawings from Cole Elementary students who they will meet next session. Eager to meet new friends, we anticipate Week 3.

Participants were enthusiastic to learn about the paintings and meet new friends.  I was partnered with a man who was eager to be a part of this group.  He was telling me about his brothers and sisters, serving time in WW2, and explaining the activities he does to keep himself in shape and healthy at this stage of his life.
     This is a group of people so excited to share and so excited to learn!  Although we did not start to examine the paintings, we started to interact with the space and explore what it can offer to those who visit this show.

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!