In our last post about SPARC we announced the 2012 artists-in-residence. Now that it’s officially 2012, and they have just begun working on their residency projects, we wanted to tell you a bit more about them.
Amy Reid, CCNS Catherine Sheridan: Amy’s will be collaborating with seniors at CCNS Catherine Sheridan to make narrative videos based on the seniors memories. She will also be working with seniors to make unique props for the videos based on images from the seniors’ memories. Amy is currently working with Elders Sharing the Arts.
Alejandra Regalado, IRPHE (Elmhurst): Alejandara is a photographer who will work with seniors on a project that features portraits of seniors from IRPHE with personal objects of significant emotional value.
Rachel Sullivan, Florence Smith: A theater-artist, Rachel plans to create a devised theater piece with her center members. She will draw on her past experience as a teaching artist working with seniors.
Constance Gemson, NORC Forrest Hills: Constance is working on a oral history and writing project. She will begin her contact hours with the residents at her center in February! She comes to the program with a lot of experience conducting writing workshops with seniors.
Andrea Burgay, Ridgewood Older Adults Center: Andrea is a visual artist working with textiles and collage. She will work with members from ROAC to create their own collages culminating in a public exhibition of the work. Next week Andrea’s work will be featured in The Bricoleurs, an exhibition at the the BRIC Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn Heights.
Abigail Weg, Ridgewood Older Adults Center: Abby is an experienced teaching artist based in Ridgewood who will lead her students from the Ridgewood Older Adults Center on a journey through the visual arts incorporating various forms of media and techniques.
Carla E. Reyes, Selfhelp Austin Street: Carla will be leading seniors from Selfhelp Austin Street in an art-making and journaling project culminating in a public exhibition of the seniors’ works. Seniors will be asked to make work that touches on their perception of time.
Ka-Man Tse, Selfhelp Benjamin Rosenthal: Ka-Man is a photographer, and she is no stranger to Selfhelp Benjamin Rosenthal, having conducted a photography workshop there in 2011. She will be continuing her photography work with the center in 2012, and they are thrilled to have her back!
Robin Benson, Sunnyside Center for Active Older Adults: Robin will lead several performing arts workshops that deal with improvisational work and working from written scripts, culminating in a public performance.
Valerie Green, Sunnyside Center for Active Older Adults: A dance and choreographer, Valerie will conduct a series of movement classes with center members, assisted by her dance company, Dance Entropy. She has generously arranged for the members of her center to attend an upcoming performance of Dance Entropy. You can learn more about the performance (including how to buy tickets) here. Valerie worked with Sunnyside in 2010 as well.
An Image from Alejandra Regalado’s prior project, Memorabile
SPARC is being programmed city-wide, with a different set of artists and centers participating in each borough. Check in with the arts councils in Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx for information about those boroughs – and you can find a list of all participants here on the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs website.
