“Rejuvenation” – A Community Based Art Project with Senior Citizens

From November 2013 – September 2014 a community based art project was conducted with residents of a senior citizen home called “Rejuvenation”. 

The project was created in order to fill a need for change, excitement, and connection among the residents (after meeting with some of the residents this was their requests).

Throughout the months, different residents recreated famous works of art such as Henri Matisse’s The Dancers,Vermeer’s Milkmaid, Renoirs’   Luncheon of the Boating party, to more modern works such as Louis Carrols’ Alice in Wonderland, and Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party. The final “remakes” were displayed in a final exhibition displaying the process as well as the results. Mediums used where photography, sculpture, and performance.

We began with the “trial” with our group of women (10).  We re-created Degan’s Ballerinas as well as Vermeer’s “Milkmaid” with only our group, through photography, and at an end to our “trial” we recreated in the lobby of the residence Renoirs’ Luncheon of the Boating party.  In this recreation we created a “buzz” with the other residents by including people who were sitting in the lobby for their afternoon tea, in the photo shoot.  Many of these people became attached to the project from this simple act of participation.

Our ultimate goal was to include as many residents in our project as possible.

During our Pilot, we reached out to as many residents as possible. We had a “sales meeting” where we explained our project, and had the residents color in squares which together comprised the Matisse Painting – The Dancers. We had two meetings with the residents on the Nursing Floor of the residence.  We also continued with our core group to further explore the boundaries of “remakes”. For the final exhibition, we recreated Alice in Wonderlands, Madd Hatter Tea Party, in a sort of performance, in which all the residence participated.

At the final exhibition which took place in the gallery at the residential home, we displayed the final art pieces, as well as pictures taken of us and the residents while creating them; a sort of documentation of the process.

This project was created as part of a year long course at Shinkar School of arts.  The course was “Community Art” , given by Adi Yukutieli and Yali Nativ.  As part of the course the class was devided and paired with different groups at assisted living centers.  We were to create together a community based art project with the residents, with a goal to reach  and touch as many residents as possible through the project.

Debi Oulu, Hila Shefler, Aziza Diab, Rawia Aleh Abu Hanna.  created and led the pilot at Mishan Ramat Aviv in Tel Aviv.

A Hub for Social and Creative Entrepreneurship

The program offers professionals who want to use arts and the performing arts in community projects, the tools for launching and managing such projects, and for achieving the desired social goals.

The program gives its participants the theoretical and practical knowledge of art led community projectsin different social spaces. Students are trained to motivate positive social change in the communitythrough collaborative art. They learn to characterize the needs of populations and communities, to understand methods of promoting the project, and to create strong partnerships. They also learn how to implement the ethnographic community service creation process, gain the tools to build a budget, to raise funds, to develop resources and to market the project. The participants gain practical experience inthe entrepreneurial skills needed to launching and managing community projects.

This program is supported by the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation, which promotes responsibility and social entrepreneurship and encourages academic excellence. Participants receive funding to help themin the development and implementation of pilot projects, which are launched during the school year