Artist residency: Eastcastle place retirement community
As an Artist in Residence at Eastcastle Place, I was afforded the time and space to develop the already thriving arts community within this older adult population. Working there for a year before going on to become the Program Coordinator for the entire UWM Student Artist in Residence experience, I worked with the residents to address a problem in their community through the arts.
Together we noticed that the community was separated by ability and that most often, independent living residents did not interact with memory care or healthcare residents. This would occur even when a friend or neighbor would begin in independent living and then move to memory care - communication and the friendship would usually not survive this transition.
In my year at Eastcastle Place, I held multiple workshop in varying art disciplines while simultaneously working to develop a sustainable model for inter-ability friendship in the community. We ended up creating several programs in which an independent resident would lead a creative activity in memory care or the health center. One of the programs, the “See Where It Goes” poetry group was especially successful and is still meeting regularly three years later.