In 2011 the California Arts Council awarded Eldergivers funds to support the addition of three MediCal facilities in the East Bay to its partner sites. The CAC was delighted by the results and asked for more information on the Art With Elders program to feature in their 2012 issue of ArtWorks!
Download the article here or from the CAC website.
_______________________________________________________________
NEWS RELEASE from California Arts Council
July 25, 2011
California Arts Council Announces Eldergivers as a 2010-2011 Creating Public Value Recipient
SACRAMENTO – The California Arts Council announces that Eldergivers will receive a 2010-11 Creating Public Value grant of $8,900. Eldergivers, located in San Francisco, was one of 87 organizations that submitted the strongest proposals to enrich their local communities through the arts.
The grant was given to forge new relationships with Medi-Cal residents of long-term care facilities in Alameda County; foster art practice through the Art With Elders Program; and promote vital connections to a larger audience for these artists by exhibiting their art in a variety of public venues in the Bay Area.
Download the full press release here.
_______________________________________________________________
Art with Elders: 2100 Franklin Street, Tower, Oakland
by Joshua Cohen, SF Art Scene Examiner
February 17th, 2011
Excerpt (read full article here)
As illustrated by the accompanying photos, each artist’s work is displayed, beneath which is a photo of the artist and a brief note explaining the artist’s
credo, some with biographical information.
One such artist is 83 year old Cass Humble of Laguna Grove – AgeSong Senior Communities. She proclaims that she’s “not really an artist.” Writing is
her thing. Cass’ husband was the poet George Barker, described by T. S. Eliot as one of the best of Britain’s young poets. Take a long look at her
drawing “Down in My Heart.”
Another piece on display is a beautiful work titled Clare Smith by Sharon Grace of the Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in San
Francisco.
Still another work, and one that intrigued me is The Angel of the Odd by Arthur Bell, also of the Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. Arthur,
who began painting when he was 14, uses his paintings to tell stories. He is a narrative painter who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the
Academy of Art in San Francisco. Despite surviving a stroke and two month coma Arthur paints 6 hours a day.
_______________________________________________________________
Akira Beard, instructor in the Art With Elders program, is in the news:
Art Review
STUDIO INVASION: Akira Beard
By EKG | Apr 29, 2010
Akira Beard is part of the Tenderloin artist community and is known for painting layered portraits of pop culture icons, and images of American currency. He teaches at the Academy of Art University and at an art center for elders, and recently created an eye-popping installation at White Walls Gallery.
Read the full review here.
_______________________________________________________________
Seniors Connect to Community Through Art
By VIVIEN KIM THORP
Nichi Bei Weekly
January 14, 2010
My Red Bird by Louise Effman
Excerpt:
Steven Akira Beard is one of the AWE’s instructors. Every Tuesday he teaches a class at the Nineteenth Avenue Healthcare Center in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset District. “Art offers a way for them to forget about harsh realities in their lives, whether physical or mental,” says Beard, a professional painter who teaches fashion illustration and fine art painting at the Academy of Art University. “We just try to create the environment. We give the materials and encouragement and then let them create what they want.”
AWE artwork is posted all around the center’s activity room — framed pieces from previous exhibits, as well as newer paintings tacked up on the activity room’s wall and hanging from a display. Louise Effman, whose “Golden Fish in Black Sea” is in this year’s exhibit, has many among them. She likes to paint watercolors as therapy for her arthritis and is currently working on a painting inspired by a picture from a calendar.
“I never did art before I came here,” says Effman, a stroke victim who, though once right-handed, has learned to paint with her left. “Now it’s going on four years.”
Originally from Arizona, the 78-year-old member of the Papago tribe moved to Northern California to join her sister in 1955. The sister soon married and returned to Arizona, but Effman stayed, finding work as a housekeeper. “I figured I would stay two more years,” she says, filling in a treetop with bright strokes of green paint, “but I never did go back."
Read the full text of the article (word doc).
Download a pdf of the article and pictures (3.7 M pdf).
|
