The Memory Project: Storytelling through visual arts, theater & puppetry

  LMCC - Creative Learning Grant PUBLIC EVENT  Blog 19 8/31/2021 Today we publicly acknowledged our students’ achievements. We were joined by family and friends, supporters of our work. We welcomed from the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, Linda Hoffman, President and Amanda Forsman, Director of Programs. The Memory Project, storytelling through visual arts, theater and puppetry was founded by Spica and me in 2016 to work with older adults, telling their lives through visual art. Learning from our seniors is rewarding. We believe it’s important to pass on their legacy and are honored to document their stories. Teaching virtually is both rewarding and challenging. Although we teach them the skills required to make each project, they need time to consider the content, which they happily do for homework. One of the major challenges is not being able to see what each student is doing and as a result we cannot offer them specific help. However, our students face this challe...

                   QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY - CREATIVE AGING PROGRAM FAMILY ALBUM POP-UP BOOK MAKING It’s hard to believe that this is our last class! What a wonderful time we have had working with Queens Public Library in their Creative Aging program. Thank you to Madlyn Schneider, Older Adult/Homebound Coordinator and her assistants Willie and Kathy. Madlyn is an enthusiastic supporter of our work, and we are very grateful for this opportunity to reach out to a new audience. For our final warm up we played a theater game of openings and closings. Each student thought of something that opened and closed or just opened and mimed it for the class. Madlyn, the librarian, opened a book and began to read, while Madi shared opening a bag of potato chips or a present. She also suggested opening a box of candies to the delight of us all! Students gathered the pages of their pop-up book and decided the order. Next, they added one page at ...

  HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center Puppet Project Blog 4 8/26/2021 Building on the puppet making skills our students had already gained and utilizing the drawings they did last week as reference, we launched into making an animal head puppet. We played a word association game to warm up. I gave them the name of one of the animals they’d drawn and asked them to say the first thing that came to mind about that animal’s traits or characteristics. For “horse”, Ru Ping mentioned its spirit and how uplifting it is, while Lao Yu gave the Chinese example of a young man being as “handsome as a horse” and Stella offered a racetrack. Jing Wei thought of the trait of gentleness when I said “rabbit” and So Sim shared the cute bunny she crocheted from an internet class. For ox, our students agreed on hard - worker, devoted, and giving.  The students decided on what animal they would make, Lao Yu, the ox, Stella a goat, Pun a snake, So Sim and Sook Fong, a rabbit, Jing Wei and Hui Fen, a tiger....

  QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY - CREATIVE AGING PROGRAM FAMILY ALBUM POP-UP BOOK MAKING Blog 7 8/23/21 As Madlyn was out today she arranged for Kathy and Willie to moderate our program in her place. Thanks very much Kathy and Willie! We had fun warming up our imaginations by thinking of words that best describe us then using gestures to express the word. The final page of the pop-up book is a self-portrait, so this activity helped fire up our brains. Once the base page was folded, we reviewed how to make V Fold Stands. Students made two V Fold Stands and glued them into the base page. Next, they learned a new skill - pocket making. Thinking about the word or words they used to describe themselves, they drew a reflective shape and with a sharpie, wrote the word inside. The word, decorated if desired, was placed in the pocket. Once the page is opened, this word is revealed to help in storytelling.  Another technique learned in an earlier class and reviewed was making the background. O...

  LMCC - Creative Learning Grant Accordion Book  Blog 18 8/24/2021 Our last class! It’s hard to believe how fast our workshop has flown by. Openings and closings are bittersweet, but we had fun miming an object that opened and closed for the class to guess. Hil Ping had us laughing when she opened and closed her mouth, Lily mode an elegant opening dance move and Chi opened a book and began to read.  We finished our pages which reflected opposite feelings about an everyday object and added words which described our emotions. In order to do so we selected two different backgrounds of decorative paper or newsprint which reflected these opposing feelings and cut each into a shape which reflected that emotion and glued each object into its respective position. Students laid their accordion book out so that the ribbon was underneath. Next, they ordered their pages according to the story they wanted to tell. Samples were shared of what writing could accompany each page and diffe...

  HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center Puppet Project Blog 3 8/19/2021 While waiting to begin our class we chatted with our students and learned that the popular game of Mahjong, which most of them enjoy, varies from region to region. We wish Julisa a pleasant time camping with her family. For the warmup I asked the students to think of an animal and how it moves. Ten using facial expression and gesture, each student presented an animal for the rest of us to guess. Stella hopped by as a rabbit, Ru Ping chose to mime the movement of a fish, and Pun used her hands to create a butterfly moving from plant to plant. Lao Yu purred and moved like a cat, while Sook Fong used her fingers to represent baby chicks. Jing Wei sprung across the screen as a tiger, while So Sim barked and moved like a dog. Hui Fen had us all laughing with her presentation of a chicken laying an egg.  Students took out the sketch book they last used for the Visual Diary project, a pencil and eraser. Dividing their pa...

  LMCC - Creative Learning Grant Accordion Book  Blog 17 8/17/2021 Our students have been sending in photos of their homework and we are thrilled with their ingenuity and creativity. As we are reviewing complementary colors in today’s lesson, we began with a warm up using complementary movements. After Spica and I demonstrated examples, Chi offered a hand and fist exercise which she does daily to help her sleep. Alice used opposing diagonal movements of her arms, while Lily shared up and down movements, like an elevator. Hil Ping gracefully waved her arms in different directions, in a dance move. Students completed the enlarged drawings they began last week using the grid, by outlining them with a black sharpie. Next, they erased the pencil and roughly cut them out. Next, they chose colored paper for the object’s background and a complementary color for the object’s silhouette, which they cut out. After experimenting with placement of the background color and the foreground of...

  QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY - CREATIVE AGING PROGRAM FAMILY ALBUM POP-UP BOOK MAKING Blog 6 8/16/21 It’s exciting receiving photos of the work our students have completed after class. Maureen shared her door with a transom in which she placed two birds. Next to this she made a bookcase with translucent doors which opened using the flap technique. For her table and chair page, she visually recreated the story of her mother jumping on the chair to avoid the mouse. She added a china cabinet to add to the room’s decor. Diane shared her bedroom page. She created a warm and sweet feeling with her choice of colors and textured materials, creating another layer of dimension. It’s truly magical.  Stairs are ubiquitous and can hold special memories - the ones you played on as a child, the staircase you walked down to greet your friend or the stairs you struggled up with the groceries. Students were encouraged to think about stairs that are unforgettable. The family photos they collected cou...

  HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center Puppet Project Blog 2 8/12/2021 We were thrilled to have as our guest artist, the renowned puppeteer, Carol Sterling. Carol has always been a staunch supporter of The Memory Project and we were honored to feature her fantastic artistry in today’s class. She is an arts educator and teaching artist who has devoted her life’s work to advocate for the importance of arts education in the lives of people of all ages, from youth to older adults, and has served in arts and education leadership positions on local, state, regional, national, and international levels for over fifty years. She has conducted workshops throughout the US, and in many other countries, including Australia, China, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, Spain, Uganda & India.  Carol shared simple puppets made from recycled materials, such as a paper plate, a bottle, a toilet paper, and paper towel roll. Our students came prepared with a paper plate, a plastic bottle, and an en...

  LMCC - Creative Learning Grant Accordion Book  Blog 16 8/10/2021 Using a grid to transfer an image is a great skill to master. To warm up our imaginations we selected something from our list of everyday objects and mimed how it is used. Helping mimed writing using a pen, while Alice mimed cutting with scissors. Lily read an open book and Chi sewed with needle and thread. Situ brought an imaginary teacup to her mouth while Sam Sam used her brush to paint. Yu Lan entranced us with Chinese folk-dance movements as she loves to sing and dance.  Spica and I shared examples of the finished product, a transferred image, color blocked and silhouetted. From their packet of materials, students took out grid paper and transparency and used a paperclip to attach them. Using a ruler and black sharpie they traced the lines onto the transparency and numbered it. Next, they took white paper and used the transparency to transfer the numbered grid. An object was selected that had a little...

  QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY - CREATIVE AGING PROGRAM FAMILY ALBUM POP-UP BOOK MAKING Blog 5 8/09/21 We were pleased to see some new students in our class today and welcomed back regulars. Diane shared her table and chair page with us, a surprise birthday party room . She cleverly recycled a keepsake birthday card to create the background which became a large banner declaring,” Happy Birthday”. She placed a three-tiered cake on the table under which was a patterned doilie. She made two small, wrapped presents which she glued to the foreground behind the table. On the other V Fold stand, she glued two chairs, a large purple one with a patterned seat and the other a small child’s green chair. Both had intricately carved legs and backs.  Maureen shared the inspiration for her page, the story her mother talked about jumping on the table when her brother said a mouse was in the room. This week we made a memorable bedroom. To warm up our imaginations we played a word association game abo...

  HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center Puppet Project Blog 1 8/05/2021 It’s always fun to begin a new project and especially so with the wonderful older adults at Bensonhurst Senior Center. We will be teaching how to make a hand puppet using newspaper, masking tape, cardstock, a wooden dowel and loads of imagination. We warmed up by letting our fingers do the walking and talking! Each person enacted simple finger movements as though one hand was speaking to the other. There was a lot of love and kisses shared in the finger puppet displays. All our students have seen some form of puppetry, many of them in Guangdong Cultural Park, where the Guangdong Province Puppet Art Theater , founded in 1956, presents traditional Chinese puppetry performances. Lao Yu has also seen puppeteers in Time Square and Julisa mentioned seeing a school performance of puppetry.   Many of our students were in class a couple of years ago when we taught tabletop puppetry and they brought out their puppets t...

  LMCC - Creative Learning Grant Accordion Book  Blog 15 8/03/2021 We used the silhouette form in today’s class because the everyday object’s identity is “erased” because of its mundanity. We want to show how we use these objects repetitively. As a warmup theater game Spica and I modeled a dialogue that was inspired by an everyday object, such as a knife and fork. “What’s for dinner?’ “You decide!” Spica held up a pair of small, pointed scissors to which Lily replied, “Spica’s doing arts and crafts!”. Next Lily held up a magnifying glass, “Guess who’s an older adult now”. Situ held a glue stick, “Where should I glue, what colors?” Hilping held a metal pot lifter which she uses every day and said, “So hot, so hot!”.  It’s always rewarding sharing our students' work and they have excelled with this project. Alice’s headshot made her think of “looking forward” and this inspired her composition. She surrounded her portrait with a red blast of color. Underneath she arranged s...

  QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY - CREATIVE AGING PROGRAM FAMILY ALBUM POP-UP BOOK MAKING Blog 4 8/02/21 Diane shared her “Looking out into a flower garden” pop-up window page she made in last week’s class. She cleverly abstracted the flowers and butterflies seen through the window and added a flowerbed to the bottom of the bright yellow frame. The textured paper she chose for the wall in which the window was placed formed an excellent contrast. The tree and garden scene forming the background was excellently drawn and colored. She shaped a colorful floral display in the foreground. Maureen chose muted earthy tones for her wallpaper. She highlighted the two paned window in darker hues by outlining it with a black sharpie. She collaged the floral display seen through the window and used a large flower which she cleverly cut into an interesting shape for the foreground. We really appreciate seeing our students’ work and encourage everyone to send us a photo of the creations. Tables and chairs...