Opening Minds Through Art

[Elizabeth Lokon]: I have this image of a connectivity triangle where you have person A on one side person B on the other side and they need to focus on something. And that something could be art, it could be biography could be writing, could be poetry, could be anything. But you have to have this focus between the two parties and if you engage in creative expression somehow that triangle becomes much richer all around. And if you take this out and you just put the two people together, okay you know service learning, intergenerational connection, come together, spend time together, it sort of peters out without that that focus the third point.

This is what our volunteers say: originally they think they're doing service to help these population in need. But in the end when they start seeing the humanity of the other that they thought they were "helping," they actually say "you know I think I learned a great deal more than I was giving." So they're no longer "helping" but they're actually growing in a very deep sense of the word in a way that we cannot teach inside classrooms, so the students gain as much, if not more, than the population we serve.

All of these extraordinary paintings are created by people living with dementia and participating in the "Scripps Gerontology “Opening Minds through Art” (OMA) program" presented by Art for the Journey in Richmond, VA.

Gallery One

This gallery contains approximately 30 abstract images created by Alzheimer's patients through the OMA (Opening Minds Through Art) program. Where known, each image is titled and attributed to the artist.