TOLEDO – Last week, the Vitality Arts Program hosted the Vitality Arts Show featuring work by 289 local senior center artists.
Jessica Mack, community outreach manager at TMA, said she is excited to help people gain more of an appreciation for art and become more connected throughout the program.
“A lot of people have never taken art classes before, and some may have, but it was kind of lost…We have just completed our second year with this program, which has been really incredible to see these artists really transforming in front of our eyes,” Mack said.
The Vitality Arts Program is for local senior residents who are 60 years old and older.
“We worked with five different local senior centers, and this was a way to bring art to the community,” Mack said.
The five senior centers that participated in this show were the Zablocki Senior Center, East Toledo Senior Center, Mayores Senior Center, J. Frank Troy Senior Center and Lyman W. Liggins Senior Center.
The classes for the artists are held at TMA every Thursday.
“The artists look forward to their Thursday classes; it’s a way to start getting that creativity out, and it’s a way to get back out into the community,” Mack said, noting that the artists look forward to coming to the weekly classes and getting to visit the museum regularly.
“A lot of them had not been here [at TMA] for years. They didn’t think that this was accessible. They weren’t sure if they were supposed to dress a certain way to come. There’s a certain idea of what a museum is,” Mack said, indicating that many people think of museums as stuffy, formal affairs rather than a space for everyone.
The program has been successful in helping with creativity and community engagement among the senior artists.
“So this is truly not just a program, we’ve built a family out of this, and it shows in the success of the program,” Mack said.
She said there has been more of an interest in the program and that people who hadn’t come for years are now coming multiple times to the museum.
“I just think that it’s truly such a delight. We do a lot for the senior centers, but they’ve done so much for us. And it’s been a learning experience on both sides. It’s really just an incredible experience,” Mack said.
