Silverwood Park - Christa Von Wald and Alyssa Riggs - residency - 1.75 hours
This week I was with Silverwood Park at one of their outreach programs. They have a partnership with The Legacy of St. Anthony, an assisted living facility for seniors. They have been going to Legacy for about five years now, once a month with a different talk and arts project. This month was focused on owls. Alyssa Riggs is a naturalist from Silverwood that began by speaking about owls. She explained that February is when baby owlets are being born which is why we’re talking about owl even though birth in nature is associated with spring. It was really wonderful to get to watch her talk about this outside of the context of the park. She had visuals in the form of printed (laminated) photos, feathers that could be touched and handled and a taxidermy owl and she played owl calls. The variety was good for those with limitations of different senses.
The arts portion was handled by Christa. They were making bird tiles. Everyone got a piece of clay pre-cut into the shape of a bird. They then picked pre-cut shapes like flowers and hearts to press into the wet clay. Christa, Alyssa and I walked around with a rolling pin to make sure everything was set into the clay once they were ready. Then they have a variety of colours to choose from to paint their tile any way they liked. Once done, we collected to tiles and Christa took them back to Silverwood to fire them in their kiln. So, not an immediate product but no one seemed to mind. Christa had an example of a finished bird tile to show them what they were making and she made one alongside everyone to demonstrate.
I have never worked exclusively with senior citizens before and was a bit nervous. The facility itself was really nice and all the employees there were lovely and very helpful. They kept us informed of people coming in, they gathered more people for us and helped get those with walkers or in wheelchairs situated. They also pointed out to us which participants were very hard of hearing which was good for us to be aware of. Alyssa and Christa accommodated for that by speaking instructions or doing demonstrations twice, once at the front and again at the back by those hard of hearing. They spoke louder and more slowly than they would normally. They gave space for participants to tell stories about times they’ve heard or seen owls.
There were nine participants which they said was their average attendance. The program is only an hour so the arts portion has to have minimal set up and clean up. Set up went quickly and clean up even faster. Some participants needed help writing their name on the back of the tile which was the only time one of us stepped in to hands on assist or simply do it for them. I wound up spending a lot of time working one on one with one participant. She was really lovely and eager to do some art. At the end she thanked more for being so attentive to her. Some participants were seeking a little more help and attention and others just wanted to go for it.
This experience definitely sparked some interest in me for connecting with senior communities. I’m looking forward to going back to Legacy each month this semester.
