Tim Carpenter, EngAGE CEO/Founder, has joined the Board of Directors of Arts for LA and looks forward to furthering their mission: “Arts for LA leads communities, artists, and organizations to advocate for an equitable, healthy, vibrant, and creative Los Angeles region through the arts.”
The EngAGE mission is to empower people – intellectually, creatively, and emotionally – to do what they do best for the rest of their lives. Through our programs, participants experience the joy of intellectual and creative engagement, and improve their health at the same time. And as they learn and grow together, they create a community, feeling a sense of belonging and purpose that is vital for a meaningful life.
On this GivingTuesday, you can help EngAGE continue to create community for all ages through arts, wellness, and lifelong learning programming and intergenerational opportunities for residents of the communities we serve. Please click the button below to donate via PayPal, credit or debit card. Thank you!
EngAGE Northwest is pleased to be the lead services provider for Broadleaf Arbor, a 16-acre, 239-unit, affordable intergenerational housing community. We will be hosting on-site wellness and creativity programs that are specifically designed to foster intergenerational connection and community building.
Full press release below:
The Piedmont, North Hollywood, CA: Program Director Arnold Schmidt reports, “Last week on Veterans Day, we had an organization called LA Works visit us. They work with another organization called Homeful.LA (and initiative of Inner City Law Center) on their project, ‘Weekend to End Homelessness.’ Residents spent an afternoon putting kits together that will go to recently housed veterans. The kits include cooking ingredients and handmade cookbooks with favorite recipes from residents and a personal note to the veterans.”
NoHo SAC, North Hollywood: A similar scene took place on another day at North Hollywood Senior Arts Colony where Program Director Lisa Argenziano rallied residents to prepare more much-needed bags.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this meaningful project!
Program Director/Art Instructor Alma Wright led residents in the Artists Roundtable in an exciting new project: creating 3D photos on glass. She reports: “It is a very cool process where you glue your photo to the glass, then spray it with water and rub it off with your finger until you have a translucent image. Once that’s done, you can let your creative juices flow and come up with a background for your photo. The students were given the option to paint a background with watercolors, rip a page out of a magazine, or print an image or sentiment to add to the back of the photo.”
Alma also quoted famed photographer Ansel Adams: “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” The artists at Magnolia@Highland certainly did a fine job making these distinctive photographs!
EngAGE Websites/Social Media Manager Cynthia Friedlob says skip the bucket list of extreme adventures and appreciate the joys of the creative smaller life!
In her new book, she shares memories of her childhood along with musings about how she lives a satisfying smaller life now. Her personal essays about art, music, gardening, cooking, staycations, and more, are followed by blank pages for readers to draw or write about their own smaller lives.
This interactive journal was inspired by an essay of the same name that Cynthia wrote for the EngAGE Blog.
You can find the book on Amazon.com and learn more about Cynthia on her website.
Program Director Laura Spidell reports from Patton Home in Portland, OR:
The community garden has been a wonderful amenity for our residents, many of whom have never had a garden of their own before. Twelve residents have assigned beds and are growing a bounty of tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, flowers, and more.
But the garden is special because it is growing more than just produce; it is growing community. The garden is an inviting space for residents to gather to talk, work on art projects, or just sit and relax. The Patton Home gardeners have built camaraderie with the gardeners at the adjacent City community garden, creating connections with the broader neighborhood.
The garden has sparked creative projects as well. Some gardeners created signs to decorate their plots or added colorful touches of whimsy. The weekly EngAGE art class decorated butterflies that were laminated and placed around the garden along with a hand-painted “Butterfly Garden” sign by resident artist Beverly Tuttle, who also made shrunken heads using fallen apples from the tree in the garden!
We are exploring ideas to decorate the plots in the Winter when the plants are dormant to keep the artistic harvest and community building thriving.
