HomeResourcesFinding an “Oasis in the Abyss”

Program Site Type: Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORC)

October 28, 2020

Finding an “Oasis in the Abyss”

Teaching Artist, Susan Willerman, has been teaching “Writing From Life” at Morningside Retirement and Health Services in the Washington Heights neighborhood of NYC for 26 consecutive years. The class started as a program of Elders Share the Arts in 1994, and now continues as part of the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. When COVID-19 forced members to shelter at home, Susan and Tiana, one of the members, worked together to develop the most effective ways to continue the program online.

July 20, 2020

Sandra Drabant, Teaching Artist

In this interview, Sandra Drabant, a formally trained art teacher, art therapist and mixed media artist talks about her experience working in the Projects Department at the United Methodist Retirement Communities (UMRC), where she taught hand building technique classes in pottery. Sandra’s class at the UMRC was part of Aroha Philanthropies’ Seeding Vitality Arts U.S. Initiative.