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

  Bensonhurst Senior Center Blog  2 2/24/22 Flowers & Family Tree WeChat is a great vehicle for sharing students’ work and we were thrilled to see their sketches of flowers. Some students went further and colored their drawings creating beautiful displays of flowers they have growing in their homes and gardens.  As we will be focusing on family portraits today, I thought it might be fun to create some “photos” ourselves in the form of frozen moments. We imagined moments in life, such as lifting our grandchild to see the lion dance, changing a smelly diaper, taking our child to school for the first time and enacting each, we froze when we heard the word “flash”! Not only were their bodies posed in action, but each person’s face reflected how they felt at that moment.  To begin ornament making, our seniors rummaged in their bag of supplies for the wooden ornaments, Mod Podge, a brush and found a paper plate, a pencil, and their family photos. After selecting the ph...

  Bensonhurst Senior Center Blog 2/17/22 Flowers & Family Tree The start of a new creative project is always exciting and it’s especially pleasing when we are working with such enthusiastic and talented students as the seniors at BSC. Flowers and plants are an important part of our lives, helping to nurture us as we nurture them, and healing and joy. We will be sharing stories about our association with flowers and plants while we create art as well as genealogy when we make our own “Family Tree”. As is our practice we began with a warmup, physically bending and stretching our body to create tree shapes then gently swaying like the branches. Next, we used our sketchbooks to draw a flower chosen from the posies Spica and I delivered it to the senior center last week as part of the materials for this project. Students discovered the different parts of the flower as they sketched, then shared their drawings. Certain flowers evoke memories, and we shared our stories, while we looke...

  Visit to Bensonhurst Senior Center 2/10/2022 Spica and I were welcomed to Bensonhurst Senior Center with a delicious morning tea when we recently went to drop off materials for our next storytelling through art project. It was such a joy to see our students in person and share hugs, laughter, and stories. Each person brought their BOOK of HOME pop-up book to share, and it was so inspiring to turn the pages and see the amazing work they have created. Although photos have been shared on WeChat, holding each person’s book as they lead us through their process was such a treat.  Don Lee, Chairman of the Board of Homecrest Community Services presented Spica and me with a gorgeous bunch of flowers and thanked us for teaching the members. Both Spica and I feel privileged and honored to be Teaching Artists at BSC, with its dedicated staff, Chip Ma, Zhikang (Hong) Ling, and Fanny Chen and enthusiastic and warm-hearted members.  We were also showered with gifts and cards from our...