The Teachers and Artists Organization (TAO) is a collective of
professionals who are part of the Art With Elders (AWE) program. AWE - now
in its 13th year - places accomplished artists in long-term care facilities
throughout the San Francisco Bay Area to offer residents weekly painting
classes. TAO members often find that their own creativity is inspired and
informed by their experience teaching the elderly in skilled nursing
and residential care settings.
TAO is a diverse group of visual artists united by their passion for art
and elders. "Working with these older adults, whose mental and/or physical
health have placed them in the care of others, and experiencing their uncompromised
originality even in such difficult circumstances, has helped free me from
the constraints of conventionality," John Kuzich explains. Kuzich, a
graphic artist by profession, teaches between 22 and 25 frail elders in 6
facilities each week.
Laguna Honda Hospital, a 1,200-bed nursing home owned and operated by the
City and County of San Francisco, has hosted the AWE program since 1997.
It is one of 28 long-term care facilities in the Bay Area that participate
in AWE. Mark H. Campbell is Program Director there and he and his
assistant, Isis Rodriguez, teach approximately 100 residents in morning and
afternoon classes three days a week. "Our elders have so much to teach us,
and I have learned so much about life from my students. It is a pleasure to
help them to utilize art to explore their long lives and to share their
lives with others," Campbell says.
TAO meets once a month, sometimes at a member's studio, to consider ways in
which to improve their teaching techniques, to share their students' work, and
generally to support one another. Each year TAO members put on a public
exhibition of their own art which allows them a unique opportunity to work
together and to bring Art With Elders more to the attention of the community.
For more information about the Art With Elders program, please visit
their website at www.eldergivers.org.
