Arts & Health: Healthy Aging through the Arts showcases work from creative collaborations in a variety of genres including dance, song, puppetry, theatre, writing, drawing, fibre art, and cedar bark weaving.

This showcase celebrates its 12th year, providing a forum for expression, exploration, and imagination, which in turn fosters improved health, social connections, and a sense of belonging in older adults. Arts & Health with support from Vancouver Coastal Health, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, and local community partners, has blossomed into the vibrant project represented above.

This 11th Annual Exhibition and Showcase featured art from ten creative collaborations in a variety of artistic genres, including, dance, writing, puppetry, choral music, and First Nations cedar bark weaving. The work was the product of artistic collaborations conducted at Trout Lake, West Point Grey, Britannia, Carnegie, Moberly, Douglas Park, Strathcona, and here at the Roundhouse, as well as Tsleil-Waututh Nation in North Vancouver.

Participants drew inspiration from their work together. As they sang, drew, wrote and danced, the artist participants also swapped stories and advice about the lived realities of their lives, hopes, and histories.   Many of the participants have lived through troubled times and have direct experience of Residential School, racist and homophobic legislation and much more. They have been pioneers and vanguards, parents, grandparents and children, cooks, teachers, prison guards and performers. Many are still active members of their various communities. A repository of knowledge and wisdom, they are a living archive of important human histories and a testament to the human spirit of resilience and survival.

The 2016 Showcase celebrated the creative work of the 10 year span of the Arts & Health Project. From many cultural backgrounds, Elder and senior artists made their way to their local community centres, sometimes on canes, in the Handy Dart, using wheelchairs, walkers, and their own two feet.  They came together because they wanted to dance, draw, write, sing, paint, sew, create videos, or make puppets. In other words, they wanted to make art.

The Arts & Health Project began in 2006 as a three-year pilot, developed as a partnership between the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation and Vancouver Coastal Health, in collaboration with other community organizations and associations who share mandates focused on health, community recreation, and the arts. The 2016 Exhibition and Showcase was a joyful testament to the fact that the project has more than survived, it is thriving.  The creative process was fueled by snacks and laughter, hard work and deep conversation, and constant openness to the delightfulness of life’s capacity to surprise.

Arts and Health Project: Healthy Aging Through The Arts hosts Elders and seniors’ arts groups across greater Vancouver on the traditional, unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl ̓ ilw̓ ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.

This project sees professional artists work collaboratively with older adults across many arts disciplines, moving forward together through the exploration of their knowledge and life experience. The annual exhibition and performance is a showcase for this work. The project began in 2006 as a partnership initiative of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation and Vancouver Coastal Health in collaboration with other organizations and associations who have close ties to community and share mandates focused on health, community recreation, and the arts.

The 2015 showcase includes work by seven groups. These groups include Britannia Community Services Centre First Nations Arts Mentorship, Britannia Community Services Centre Queer Imaging and Riting Kollective for Elders (Quirke), Carnegie Centre Elders Dance, Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre Seniors Dance, Roundhouse Community Centre Express Your Voice Choir, Strathcona Community Centre Senior Puppet Theatre, and Tsleil-Waututh Nation Mix Media Arts.

Arts and Health Project: Healthy Aging Through the Arts is generously funded by Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, Vancouver Coastal Health – SMART Fund, Vancouver Foundation.

Read the curatorial statement here.

On June 7th Gabriel George from the Tsleil Waututh Nation, welcomed everyone to the Roundhouse Exhibition Hall, situated on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Park Board Commissioner, Constance Barnes spoke of the value of this project bringing together many communities of Elders and Seniors and providing a vehicle for their creative voices to be heard, and Roundhouse Community Arts Programmer, Marie Lopes introduced eleven groups of Elders over five hours of presentations and performances.