MxCC Arts and Aging Symposium
MIDDLETOWN - A symposium on Arts and Aging held Nov. 7 at Middlesex Community College, cosponsored by the college and ARTFARM, drew several hundred people.

       Marcella Trowbridge of ARTFARM led the symposium, first introducing Dr. Anna Wesescha, president of Middlesex Community College. Wesescha praised ARTFARM’s summer’s production of King Lear, in which John Bassinger played the title role, as â€"one of the most perfect productions” she has ever seen of King Lear. Wesescha also praised Trowbridge for her ARTFARM activities, including directing plays in â€"The Grove” on campus.

       Trowbridge thanked Wesescha, the college staff and student council for their coordination and technical support, saying, â€"We are very fortunate to have this beautiful, incredible relationship with our community college.”

       Trowbridge introduced keynote speaker Dr. Bernie Siegel, saying, â€"As most of you are aware, he is not only a surgeon but a visionary and an iconoclast in his own right. He has been controversial because of his insight and, I think, his sense of being a preacher of love.”

       Siegel is the author of a dozen books, including the best-selling Love, Medicine and Miracles. He is globally influential on the use of painting and visualization in the treatment of cancer patients. In 2011, he was honored by the Watkins Review of London as one of the top 20 â€"Spiritually Influential Living People on the Planet.” Siegel’s talk, â€"Grow Young With Me,” was about how the arts and living from the heart can play a role in the lives of aging people and their caregivers.

       Siegel said that as a child, he made drawings, but had no idea that an artist could make a living. He didn’t go to art museums and knew of no famous artists. When he asked himself what could he do, he realized that he cared about people, liked working with his hands, and liked fixing things; so, he decided to become a surgeon.

       However, in medical school, he faced the reality, he said, â€"that you can’t always fix everything; people die.” Medical schools don’t prepare you for that.” He added, â€"Doctors treat the result, not the cause.They give you a pill without asking you what is going on in your life.”

       â€"If you overcome a major illness, your doctor will say you had a spontaneous reversal, or a miracle,” satirized Siegel. He related a story about John, 80 years old, who refused to have a cancer surgery by Siegel while it was spring; he had to take care of his garden. Continuing to put off the operation for gardening, John didn’t die until he was 94.”

       Sielgel said, â€"I don’t let myself feel bad.” He advised, â€"Laugh for no reason several times a day. Find out when you doctor’s birthday is and bring her a card. While looking through the cards, you will be laughing. Fill your house with pets; take care of them and make a relationship with them, and you and you will avoid many illnesses.”

       In making a point about the relationship between love and health, Siegel asked students who didn’t feel loved by their parents to raise their hands. He counted six hands and speculated that they were there because they cared about themselves. He quoted a study stating that 95 percent of those who said their parents didn’t love them suffered a major illness by middle age; whereas, of those who felt loved, only 24 percent suffered a major illness.

       Siegel said pictures patients drew of their families told him a lot about their illnesses and their feelings. An engineer drew directions about how to draw a picture. â€"He was living in his head, not his heart. If you want to live to a ripe old age, live in your heart then magic happens. Love your live and love your body.” Choices are important, Siegel said. â€"Pay attention to your heart not your mind and let your heart help you make decisions in life” In doing your life’s work, â€"Don’t burn out, burn up.” Siegel held up a piece of paper with a black dot on it, and asked the audience what they saw. Many said ”a black dot.” He responded, â€"If you always focus on the darkness, what kind of life will you have? Even charcoal will turn into a diamond.”

       â€"When you ask people, especially abused or neglected children, to draw their families,” you will see the pain in their art.” Teachers can do a lot for these children by sitting down with them and asking the to talk about their pictures. Finish with a hug and saying â€"I love you.” The next picture that child draws might be slightly altered.

       Siegel said that the â€"purpose of life is loving others. . . If you can love enough, you’ll be the happiest people in the world. . .Bring up child with love and you will have peace. The opposite of love is indifference, rejection and abuse.” Siegel said, â€"Be a love warrior.” â€"Grow up with a reverence for life.” â€"Life is a school, a commencement, a beginning.” â€"Don’t grow up; keep the child within you.” â€"If you are doing what you love, you will be happy.” â€"Life is immortal. . .Your consciousness will go on after you die.”

       Following Siegel’s talk, participants attended one of three workshops. One workshop, â€"Moving Through the Ages,” was led by Carolyn Kirsch, a dancer, an actress, a teacher, and a former Broadway performer. She led the class in gentle movements to explore the joy of dancing. She led them in hat and cane dancing which caught on grandly with the participants, and taught a foxy hat and cane walk. The participants picked up the steps easily and enjoyed dancing to the recorded music, â€"Everything Old is New Again,” and even singing along while dancing.

       A second workshop available was â€"Memoir Writing” by Sari Rosenblatt, teacher at the Education Center for the Arts in New Haven, and formerly a teacher at Green Street Arts Center as well as an instructor of memoir writing at the Continuing Studies Program at Wesleyan. The third workshop was â€"Sharpening the Aging Brain” by John Bassinger, Professor Emeritus of Theater and Sign Language at Three Rivers Community College, a film actor and a long-time performer with the National Theater of the Deaf. Judith Felton, Middlesex Community College professor and the college’s Coordinator of the Human Services Program, moderated the panel discussion. Panelists were Neely Bruce, composer, conductor, pianist, and Professor of Music and American Studies at Wesleyan University; Donna Fedus, Gerontologist and Coordinator of Elder Programs at the Consultation Center, Yale University School of Medicine; Carolyn Kirsch actor, dancer, director and former Broadway performer; Carlos Hernandez-Chavez, painter, photographer, musician and Arts and Humanities Policy Development Consultant; and Wendy Black-Nasta, jewelry-maker, activist, and founder of Artists for World Peace.

       Felton asked each panelist to give a brief summary of their life and work.

       Neely Bruce has been a church choir leader, has composed a large number and variety of musical works and conducted choruses for many years, including the Connecticut Opera chorus. He conducted his composition â€"The Bill of Rights” in many venues. During one performance, some very elderly people started singing the â€"Bill of Rights” with the chorus. He added that he has begun writing a memoir, so at age 70, he is trying a new art form.

       Carlos Hernandez-Chavez described his murals of working people of different communities. He has also worked on books to engage the religious community. He said he was proud of his work with Artists for Humanity, with a mission of bridging economic, racial, and social divisions by providing urban teens with employment in the arts.

       Donna Fedus, a gerontologist for 25 years, said she loves to teach. In attending this symposium, she has started to think of herself as an artist, because an artist tells stories, shows video clips, sometimes it’s drawing people out to tell what they bring to the subject. She teaches a class of fitness through movement to help patients develop their cognitive skills.

       Carolyn Kirsch said that the arts helped her overcome cancer. â€"If I didn’t have the arts,” she attested, â€"I wouldn’t get out of bed; I wouldn’t have overcome chemotherapy. She said, ”If I didn’t have the arts in my life, I would really feel very incomplete. I wouldn’t have my artistic family of choice -- creative people who are amazing friends - comeraderie that is very valuable to me. If I couldn’t move because of a stroke or other illness, I would struggle to keep attached to the arts. So I have begun to write in case I can not move anymore. The arts will be with me throughout my life.”

       Wendy Black-Nasta reported that she has always been a peace activist. At age 40 she created The International Peace Belt, a silver belt with coins from 115 countries which has been worn by performers in more than 25 countries since 2003, when Black-Nasta founded Artists for World Peace, a non-profit foundation whose mission is to spread peace by supporting humanitarian projects in places where artists have worn the belt.

       Felton said, â€"Our focus today is how artistic expression helps individuals navigate some of the problems of aging.” She asked, â€"How has your artistic media and creative expression influenced some of your own challenges of aging or those with whom you work. How have you seen the arts change the lives of seniors with whom you are working?”

       Kirsch said she is â€"now interested in working with older people, especially Parkinson’s patients because it is being discovered that dancing and exercise is incredibly valuable for people with Parkinson’s.” She said, â€"people in her classes begin smiling as soon as the music begins.”

       Hernandez-Chavez stated, â€"Even though the rewards are not always tangible, they are still there, so I remain focused on my art. We do gather energy through the years. I feel all the joys of aging.” He added, â€"When I started organizing concerts in Hartford, one of my goals was to bring music to convalescent homes.When we brought traditional music of Latin America to the homes, the eyes of the patients grew wide, they danced in their chairs and many got up and danced. It was an incredible change.”

       Neely Bruce said, â€"A student asked him: how he could keep up the level of playing.” He said by practicing every day: â€"If you are a painter, a sculpture, a musician, you use your hands all the time. [The energy] goes to your bones first, then your muscles.” Pablo Casals played every day even when he had difficulty getting to his bench.” He added, â€"You’re never too old to learn to play a musical instrument; musicians live a long, happy life.” Bruce also recommended that people sing as they get older, at home or in a choir. Singing is good for breathing, posture, and your spirit.”

       Black-Nasta shared that she has been living in two cultures, one being the Native American culture. At Native American councils, â€"The elders sit in the middle of the circle because they are respected for their age and wisdom.” She decried our society’s practice of separating elders by putting them into homes, and regarding them as useless. She thought we should ‘stop focusing on aging and start honoring the people for who they really are, which are the really sacred parts.”

       Kirsch said â€"I teach an arts and crafts class to about 70 young people every day - children who couldn’t learn at school. Through their pictures they showed their lives and how they had been abuse.Then they can get therapy.”

       Fedus reported that for people with dementia â€"art can be a powerful medium of expression and communication when they can no longer speak their feelings.” Also, caretakers can use art to tell what they are feeling about their role. Fedus said that research absolutely supports the transformative power for older adults. The number of older adults today is unprecedented. Researchers are studying how the arts can meet the needs of this growing population.

       She listed several programs for older adults. One is â€"Meet me at MOMA” - early and moderate stage Alzheimer patients and their caretakers receive a guided tour on Tuesdays in the Museum Of Modern Art. This program has shown remarkable results in helping the patients to relate more to their caretakers and to life in general. Fedus told about another program, â€"Music and Memory,” just the act of listening to their own favorite music brought patients out of themselves, and improved memory. Other patient results have been better health, a need for less medication, and increased involvement in art. .

       Fedus quoted research by geriatric psychiatrist Gene Cohen who stated that â€"the brain can grow and change for your whole life. The more you train your brain, the more you can sustain all of the body’s cells. Music and movement touch all the body’s cells.”

       The symposium ended with the singing of â€"Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
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