Art With Elders: The Power of Creativity and Community
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Galleries is pleased to partner with Art With Elders to present The Power of Creativity and Community, an exhibition that showcases over 90 original paintings and drawings made by seniors participating in the Art With Elders program from forty programming sites and community partners located throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Art With Elders was founded in 1991 and has brought creativity and connection to 12,000 older adults in 75 senior communities across the Bay Area through free or low-cost art classes. Weekly art classes are at the core of AWE work, providing the opportunity to elder to flex latent artistic talents and to connect with other members of the community. AWE also organizes exhibitions that take place all around the Bay Area, to showcase the extraordinary work by these elder artists.
The exhibition is organized in four groups: artworks selected for the AWE 30th Annual Exhibit and AWE Over the Years: Works from the AWE Archive, as well as artworks created by artists participating in the AWE Senior Bridge Project: Mental Health and Social Connection and in classes at Laguna Honda Hospital. The Power of Creativity and Community celebrates the many artists who have participated in the program by sharing their incredible artwork and their creative voice. Each work is accompanied with a portrait of the artist and information about their life and practice.
SFAC Galleries has partnered with Art With Elders on two previous occasions for exhibitions at City Hall, once in 2001 and again in 2012.
Image credit: Hilda Ibarra, I found you (detail). Courtesy of Art With Elders
About Art With Elders
Fighting elder isolation since 1991, AWE has brought creativity and connection to 12,000 older adults in 75 senior communities through free/low-cost fine arts classes. AWE programs provide older adults from all walks of life with a vehicle for self-expression, social connection, and a presence in the community.
Our work to empower elders to imagine and create bears witness to our belief that every person has a right to cultivate and experience a meaningful sense of purpose, accomplishment, and joy throughout the entirety of their life. artwithelders.org
On the Arts: Art With Elders @ SF City Hall [audio] (KALW)
News Briefs: New SF art exhibit highlights seniors (Bay Area Reporter)
Seniors’ artwork lights up their lives — and SF’s City Hall (Local News Matters)
Art With Elders exhibition at City Hall (SFGovTV - video)