good afternoon I'm saris Ross the Mary
and James Siemens director of the NAND
it's my extreme pleasure to be able to
welcome you this afternoon I was
supposed to be on a plane but something
happened and so I was just so happy that
I could be here to tell you how excited
I am about this conference how excited I
am that you are all here every single
one of you it's an impressive list it's
incredible the work you do is so
essential to me it's so to me it's
really essential to the world it's
really essential it's extremely
important so I'm so happy that you're
gathered together and you can share and
talk to each other it's going to be
fabulous one of my first initiatives was
to in something a staff meeting and said
well okay here are my initiatives one
two three and the one I wanted
you know first initiative was to start
an Alzheimer's program here at the
Nasher we hadn't done anything like this
we really were concentrating on K
through 12 so I said this at a staff
meeting and Jessica truely who is our
you've probably already met her but
she's our director of education and
programs Jessica said well I'm going to
do that too and so it's pretty
incredible I had an immediate staff
member who took this on and I'm so
appreciative to her and you'll hear from
her in a minute because she's going to
introduce our speaker I really need to
be able to express great gratitude to
some people who have supported us in
this specific program
Stephanie Kahn I wondered if you would
just stand up a minute I know I'm going
to embarrass her I know that but this is
Stephanie Kahn and she and her husband
Doug have up their dogs
Doug and Doug stand up Doug stand up
without Stephanie and Doug this program
just would not be here so we are
extremely extremely grateful to them
both and Stephanie's a gallery guide and
she helps with the program so she knows
a lot about it and yet so you'll see her
in different workshops and lectures and
just go right up to her and say thank
you in - Doug - and speaking of gallery
guys we have several gallery guides also
in the audience and I want to thank them
for their work and their creativity in
making these tours at the Nasher so
exceptional you know we're University
Art Museum we're connected to Duke a
great University but we're also the only
Art Museum in Durham the city that we
are in so we're also a community museum
and this is a community program except
you know one thing I thought always
would be interesting would be that if we
connected this program to the Medical
Center - you know physicians who are
doing research on Alzheimer's you know
that's been a little harder than we
thought it would be but we're working on
it
we're really working on it and Jessica's
made good strides and I think that will
help all of us actually if we connect
that a little bit with research another
person I want to thank is Brittany
Halberstadt Brittany you probably
corresponded with her already Brittany
is a you were a freshman now you're
going to be a sophomore and she works
for this program we've hired her she's
amazing I had her as a student she's
amazing and so you know Brittany I want
to thank Brittany and there are other
supporters in the room too that that I'd
like to thank and this daily work could
not happen without you and last I need
to thank the Carlisle Adams foundation
without their generous support this
conference wouldn't be happening
with their support that we were able to
offer some funding
or travel and get in some of the best
leaders in the field I'm very excited
about this it's a really great thing to
get you all together and I know it's
going to be exciting and I have just a
little tiny tiny word to say find a
friend find a mentor you know if
somebody had said that to me when I
first attended my first directors
conference that that would have been
useful but it's true I mean you know
it's all about networking in this world
and you know we learn from each other we
help from each other so don't be shy
just go up to somebody and just say I
want to be your friend
and then soon so I'm going to turn it
over to Jessica now Jessica and Thank
You Jessica I'm so proud of you very
proud of you thank you Sarah I am
Jessica rouille the director of
education and public programs here at
the Nasher as we thank people this
afternoon I especially thank Sarah for
her leadership and support as she
discussed from the very beginning of our
reflections program she has pushed and
encouraged for this to continually grow
and expand which I am very grateful
like Sarah I am thrilled to welcome all
of you to Durham into the Nasher I'm
looking forward to spending the next few
days together getting to discuss the
work that we do so many times when we
attend a state or a national conference
the sessions on accessibility there
might be a handful but they don't
necessarily refer to those with dementia
and so having the opportunity over this
week to really be able to spend that
time together and to have the
conversations around best practices and
future plans is something that I'm so
excited to do together
and like Sarah and grateful for our
donors who have made this time together
possible to Doug and Stephanie to Dave
and Emily here from the Carlisle Adams
Foundation without your support we
wouldn't be here today I also want to
thank Brittany you will all enjoy
meeting her this way
and truthfully this week would not have
happened without her hard work over this
past year we recently had an African
musician working as part of one of our
reflections tours who said if you want
to know something hang out with older
people they will bless you with their
advice our first speaker is a man who
knows and appreciates the gifts of older
people
Damon mcLeese has served as executive
director of the access gallery in Denver
for the last 20 years he worked with
organizations to address issues of
culture and creativity challenging
long-held notions of access as well as
ability and disability Damon was the
2015 recipient of Denver's mayor's award
for innovations in the arts and the 2017
Governor's Award for leadership in the
arts in Colorado we are delighted to
hear him speak today please help me
welcome Damon alright okay so I had to
bring my my cheat sheet because make
sure the slides are in order
first of all thank you I am truly
honored to be here today I've never been
to North Carolina so far I like it very
very friendly people
the gentleman who drove me over on the
bus today from the hotel I had to get
here early he's like you're really early
I'm like yeah I know but if I said in
the hotel room any longer I'm gonna get
very nervous and you don't want me to be
nervous so he's like I could drive you
around a little bit I'm like okay yeah
I'm like yeah that's great and he kept
talking to me and talking to me and
showing me you know the East Campus and
the West Campus and it was really
actually quite lovely I felt very much
at home so thank you again for having me
I am still not entirely sure how Jessica
got ahold of me but I am so grateful
that she does I'm like okay we can
definitely do this I want to tell you a
little bit about myself and tell you a
little bit about my presentation style
because I am NOT a lecturer if I start
lecturing you're going to go to sleep
okay you're not going to get a lot of
numbers there's not going to be any text
on the screen just sit back and relax I
do tend to
tell stories and I promise you that the
stories all sort of intersect at one
point or another
okay so linear is not a word that's ever
used to describe Gaiman okay
so we're not going to go from point A to
point B okay we're going to go to point
A to point maybe L or M and then we're
going to come back a little bit okay but
just to kick this off I'm going to tell
you really how I feel about being here
and let's see if this works yes it works
okay I am so happy to be here I I really
am truly blessed to have the job that
I've had for twenty years I've been able
to go around the world and all around
this country and I don't have a formal
arts education background at all in fact
when they hired me one of the questions
was are you an artist and I could
honestly say no I am NOT an artist
okay I've not taken any formal art
training ever I was sort of thrown into
the fire and it stuck I truly found a
home I want to talk a little bit about
this piece of art because it's sort of
encapsulate how I got here today so
about five years ago maybe six years ago
is the lady from the moment still here
yeah oh there you are Hey
so about five years ago I got a little
funding to go to MoMA for the meet me at
MoMA training okay and at that point the
idea of Alzheimer's and memory care and
dementia was not even on my horizon
professionally it just didn't dawn on me
that I would ever be doing anything with
people with Alzheimer's or dementia we
were a youth based program where we were
doing school-based programs for kids
with disabilities so the idea of
dementia the idea of Alzheimer's on a
professional level just wasn't on the
horizon but looking back now it hit me
very personally while I was in New York
my mom had just moved into an assisted
living center actually she was in the
Independent Living Center at the moment
but I was getting calls I'm in New York
okay
and I'm like living it up I met mom I'm
like kind of digging it and I'm getting
calls from the center saying yo your mom
has a urinary tract infection your mom
too dis your mom did this and I'm there
for about three days it's like okay wow
what can I do from here and it was
really
sort of a harbinger of things to come
I'm gonna talk a little bit more about
my mom here in a minute but while I was
at MoMA I learned something about myself
and what I learned and what I realized
is I learned so much from you all so I'm
here talking about things that I'm
passionate about
and that includes all of you because
museums have been my education again
I've never had a formal art class well
actually I take the back in college I
didn't go to Duke sorry I did have an
art history class and I think I got a C
so there's you know that's kind of my
background but every time I go to
museums I've always loved museums
because I learned and I remember the one
thing that I took away from the media
MoMA training was just go sit in front
of a painting so like I said I got here
really early okay and I just went and
sat there's that ellipse the artist name
and the main gallery I just sat there
and I got to know one of those paintings
and it was so lovely because how often
do we go into a studio or into a gallery
and we read about what the artist
intended I never do that anymore I just
go in and sit with the painting and was
getting a little nervous yeah my friends
from the shuttle bus had left me and I
was getting a little nervous so I needed
to calm myself down and the artwork just
spoke to me obviously it was
contemporary obviously it's very
colorful so kind of right up my alley
but getting back to this piece of art
this piece of art is sort of a
combination the first time I ever saw
stickers used as art materials was at
the MoMA training and I loved that idea
of collaborative art we do a lot of
collaborative art because the students
that I work with are very similar to
some of the people that you're going to
be working with or that you do work with
but I was at the Denver Art Museum
Monday and usually when I'm at the
Denver Art Museum or any of the museums
in Denver is something about an
accessibility question there's a
question about a ramp or a bathroom or
something like that in this particular
day we had just slept the meeting and I
was leaving and I ran into a friend of
mine and said hey we have this artist
here he's going to do a lecture he's a
Tibetan artist that works with stickers
so he's kind of got this Buddhist thing
going on and he's kind of talking about
stickers and I remember the moment thing
I'm like okay who is this guy his name's
gong cure Giotto
and so I had a choice right then in
there I had a choice I could go back to
the office and work on a final report
okay or I could go learn about Gong kya
gyatsu all right
so clearly some that was a no-brainer
for me you know the final report
eventually got done I think I helped but
I went to this lecture from this
Buddhist man from Tibet that I
understood about every other word but
his idea was that he was referencing pop
art to stickers and stickers are a
wonderfully accessible medium in a lot
of different ways and I had an aha
moment I'm like okay we always use the
big stickers to talk about collaboration
but what about little tiny stickers all
right so this this piece of art is
actually about this big and it's made of
10,000 smiley face stickers made by a
group of adults with developmental
disabilities many of them who couldn't
hold a paintbrush in the vast majority
of them were nonverbal literally took us
weeks and I asked one of our graffiti
artists in a minute you're going to
learn that I work a lot with graffiti
artists I asked him to make us the
smiley face so that's what I got and it
kind of worked you know kind of worked
the drips on all of that but that's
10,000 smiley faces and that's really
really how I feel today so thank you
again for having me at the end I would
love to entertain questions I do promise
you that all of my stories do tie back
to another and we will in fact talk
about Alzheimer's dementia and art but
thank you again for having me but before
we get to all of that I really want to
talk about something completely
different coloring books I've had a very
long and sordid relationship with
coloring books okay
started when I was very young I was in
elementary school okay so imagine me six
my left foot tall man is a little boy
okay when I was very young I had a very
significant speech impediment I couldn't
say esses and it couldn't say ours and
everyone so maltese would really throw
me off - every Tuesday and Thursday
afternoon I would go to speech therapy
and I would learn to put my tongue
behind my teeth and say s's and ours now
when I get really tired I will still
have a lisp and my daughter who's now 23
years old working at a museum so maybe
someday she'll be here
she loves to tease me about that Oh Dan
you have a list I said so he you don't
have a car but necessary so I know how
this works but every Tuesday and
Thursday I would go to speech therapy
but on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons
is when the rest of my class got to go
to art class so Tuesday and Thursday I'm
going to learn how to state s's and ours
oh and as an added bonus okay this is we
moved to Colorado from Texas my father
was from Baton Rouge Louisiana and my
mother was from Memphis Tennessee so I
had a lot going on okay not only did I
have the whole list and the speech
impediment I also had a really really
deep Southern drawl so I was like cannon
fodder for the bullies of the school so
I learned very easily very quickly not
to talk that was something that now
philia knows that I've since got over
that clearly I know I know it sounds a
little ironic the public speaker not
really wanting to talk but I kind of got
over that and here's how I got over that
so on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons
my class would go to art class and I
would go to speech therapy and one day
the speech therapist was sick I got to
go to art class I was excited you know
speech therapy is pretty structured and
by the end of this you'll realize just
how entirely unstructured I am but I got
to go to archive and that day I scored
they had new coloring books and crayons
for every one I do myself at that
coloring booklet complete abandoned I
mean I used all 64 colors at once I mean
I was I was down with this I was really
proud of myself I finished first and I
really think that that was the only time
in my entire life I finished first in my
class at anything so I ran up to the
teacher and I showed her my my my
drawing of the crayons
what said look all of these crayons all
of these colors I thought she was going
to be impressed I thought she was really
going to be happy for me good job team
at least give a smiley face on my name
you know that's not the reaction I got
it's a lot of you are already shaking
your head did you know what's coming all
right Damon you didn't stay within the
lines right okay I didn't stay within
the lines your desk is a mess go clean
it up
that is crestfallen I really really want
that was like dude really I didn't get
the memo about the lines I really I
promise
but right then and there as a child I
decided I wasn't creative
I wasn't creative I wasn't artistic
creativity and artistry were for people
who could stay within the lines and I
told myself that nearly forty years so I
went back to speech therapy and I
learned how to say s and R they learned
how to not talk I spent a lot of time as
a child in museums because I found that
that was my classroom I could self
direct myself in the museum and I had a
friend who happened to live closer to
the museum so I did really spend a lot
of time in museums but as time went on
and now of course looking back as an
adult male I can tell you that she was
wrong the assignment had nothing to do
with creativity it had to do with
conformity okay and in this country I do
believe we very often at every age
whether you're in preschool or you're a
person with Alzheimer's or dementia I
believe that we very often confuse
conformity with creativity and then
again creativity with artistry so I'm
convinced that I'm not creative okay I
did get into the disability field
through camping and recreation programs
and I've worked around people with
disabilities literally for 40 years my
first job was a camp counselor for a kid
with in a wheelchair at muscular
dystrophy camp and really they took me
on as a 14 year old kid because I was
big and strong my entire job was to pick
him up and put him down but but I made
lasting friendships at that camp but I
moved throughout my entire life thinking
that creativity and artistry were for
other people but I was always drawn like
a moth to a flame to anything creative I
married a dancer all right I married a
woman who has oh she's so creative and I
ended up running an Arts Center for
people with disabilities okay now think
about that for a second that was there
are you an artist
we'd had those before you no no no I'm
not an artist don't have a creative bone
in my body I find myself running this
art center for young people with
disabilities and we're really all about
education I really really thought wow
this is great we take our students to
museums we get to interrupt things that
are going on there that's kind of fun
you know and then a few years ago we
started the program summer job program
and a big part of what we do is work
with students who are transitioning from
high school we worked a lot with
students like Nicole
so the Cole is 26 years old I think 25
26 years old
alright she's been with us for about
eight years and I realize that eight
years is a long time to be in the job
readiness program okay she turned 21
she cycled out of the school and she had
nowhere else to go so she kept coming to
the gallery and we kind of really kind
of had to make room for her she likes to
sit at the same place every single day
and the thing about Nicole is is she has
a singular passion she loves absolutely
loves to paint dragons
she'll paint dragons and dinosaurs all
day every day literally at about the
rate of one dinosaur per day so I would
get to the point I can tell you as a
gallery manager there's not a huge
demand for dragon paintings this is not
so at the end of the week we would
sometimes take these paintings out back
and we would literally prime over them
so she would have a new set for the next
week okay one day she came up to me this
is held Nicole Damon Damon look at my
dragon and you look at the dragon and
I'm like okay that's a great drivin tree
really great dragon is pink and blue and
I just thought it was I really thought
it was magical
and I thinking to myself I need to get
more primer with this because you know
it's like okay we're running out of
canvas we have to do this but then I
looked at that dragon again and I said
you know the castle looked like the
Denver Art Museum has anyone ever been
to Denver nor one of our museums looks
like a castle and I'm like lightbulb now
I have a lot of lightbulb movements but
when I have them they're pretty pretty
profound the next week we gave her a
picture of the Denver Art Museum and I
said paint the dragon in front of that
and she did and we sold it then she
panted London from the Denver
International Airport we sold that that
bad boy as well that you did the whole
series of dragons eating literally I
think actually this particular painting
those are two dragons eating a
restaurant in Denver called Casa Bonita
it is like I mean they're literally
eating them at
it's the worst Mexican food you will
ever eat in your life but if for some
reason is very popular in Denver and
she's sold like five or six of these so
all of a sudden this girl who we work
with is starting to sell some of her
paintings and one of the things that
we've realized along the way is our
demographic got older we went from like
middle school and early high school to
this transition age to young adults and
now some of our young adults are not so
young anymore
but the thing is is they're all facing a
70 percent unemployment rate 70 percent
Nicole will never have a traditional job
her job prospects are nil there is not a
huge demand for encyclopedic knowledge
of dragons and emotional meltdown so you
just can't put that on no matter how you
state that on a resume it doesn't it
just doesn't work
but we found a way for Nicole to make
some money the most of our student
students are a little bit more like
Allan so Allan is the happiest go
luckiest just gentle soul you will ever
meet this kid comes in he wants to
please he's eager to work he will do
pretty much whatever you want and he was
in one of our summer job readiness
programs and that's a 70 percent
unemployment way you would think we
really don't have anywhere to go but up
right 70 percent unemployment you hire
one kid you're making a difference not
so much I mean this is just staggering
to me how hard it is for somebody with a
disability to earn money in this country
last winter Allan came to us he was very
excited this was several months after
the job that summer program he got a job
alright so everybody was doing that
Allan got a job dance they were very
happy for Allan I was very happy for
Allan but I was in the back of the
studio watching this you know Allan was
a king for a day
Allan got a job everything that we had
told him he worked hard to be on time
you show up you dress appropriately all
of this will pay off
you just keep hanging in there hanging
in there hanging in there and I'm at the
back of the gallery saying to myself wow
my heart's breaking a little bit because
the job that Allan got
was pushing carts at Walmart alright
this is a kid that is so social and so
eager to please and he got a job pushing
carts at Walmart for the holidays okay
the worst possible job for a kid who
really doesn't see all that well to be
pushing carts in a frozen parking lot at
night and I realized you know what we're
kind of in a way I was becoming my own
mrs. Nelson I'm working with these
students trying to get them to stay
within the lines of society if they
could stay within the lines that society
was putting down they wouldn't have been
with me in the first place right so
right then and there I got a little
pissed off and when I get help I got a
little angry sorry I got a little angry
and I realized you know what I'm not
going to do this anymore I'm not going
to get these guys ready for jobs that
don't exist I'm gonna start making
employees and start making jobs so we
really started shifting almost
everything that we do from that point
forward became about economic
opportunity we started with an artem at
machine anybody know what an automat
machine is
what's an artem at machine
exactly
so we got a card on that machine and we
hired our kids to make artwork for the
art amount and she I put you on the spot
I'm so sorry I hope that's okay would
you raise your hand I'm like okay so we
got an art on that machine and we
started paying our kids to make artwork
for the art amount machine and then we
started training them how to paint
portraits of people's pets then we
started going into what is my personal
favorite we started hiring them to make
artwork for corporations I was so
determined to get money in their pocket
so I started going to corporations we
can make this artwork for your boardroom
we can make it for your Lobby I will
make artwork for your bathroom I really
don't care to give our kids a chance and
we hired professional artists so the guy
in the middle is not a student okay he's
one of the best con artists in Denver
and he worked with the team of artists
and we've done fifty commissions for
corporations this little program has now
started to employ some of our students
that weren't employable including Allen
did I mention that Allen happens to love
the Denver Broncos he let me everyone in
Denver loves the Broncos but Allen
really really loved it in the Broncos so
he would want to come in and work on the
artwork and talk about the Denver
Broncos
Denver Broncos Denver okay we get it
didn't ever mark us but so we're making
this artwork for corporations we're
starting to see some real success so
about the time that Alan got laid off in
the cold started selling her paintings
we really shifted the culture of our
organization it really became about
direct employment for our students and I
do promise you I'm gonna get back around
to the point of Alzheimer's it's coming
really quickly but I want to set the
tone about how we work we are a very
tiny tiny little nonprofit organization
I can change we can change directions on
a dime we can make things happen very
very quickly whereas larger institutions
take a little bit more time to to change
direction so we're changing directions
I'm really feeling like we found our
group you know that sort of 18 to 26
well however old Nicole is now age range
it's really sort of our sweet spot we're
finding a lot of success and one of the
things when you run an urban art center
you learn a lot about graffiti all right
we work a lot with graffiti art some of
our teaching artists for these types of
program
our graffiti artists from the
neighborhood we're in a very very urban
environment okay so we're doing murals
we're getting paid to do mural so we're
doing ardha mats we're doing pet
portraits are doing corporate
commissions we're selling more art for
Nicole through the gallery everything is
moving along swimmingly then something
happens this is where it gets a little
personal but bear with me soldier I had
gone to MoMA just because I could go to
moment you know I really no offense but
I really didn't have that much interest
when I went to the moment right
I was just twelve to go to New York I'm
always interested in or anything so I
don't want to make it sound like I just
wanted to go on a trip but I wanted to
go on a trip all right but I learned so
much from that event but about the time
that all of this really started clicking
for the organization and I'm working
with an age range that I'm really
comfortable with I'm working with some
of the best-known artists in Denver I
got a call it was um right about the day
of daylight savings times don't you hate
that day when it changes did you know
that there was more accidents on that
particular day in the spring than any
other time of the year well I got a call
that day that my mom had fallen and
broken her hip and she was by that time
she was living in pretty independently
she was in an assisted living center but
she was still living pretty
independently and I got to the hospital
and the doctors tell me she had a 50/50
chance of making it a year they had to
replace her hip to 90 years old
50-50 chance of making it a year and I
went from being the son that was seldom
seen to her primary caregiver her
decision maker and her power of attorney
overnight in the course of the month she
went from living in her own apartment to
the rehab center to the hospital
and then eventually to the nursing house
and she hated the nursing home but in
addition to the broken hip and all the
other myriad health concerns that you
have as a nine-year-old woman she also
had Alzheimer's and dementia and so this
is where I was really glad I went to
MoMA because I started remembering some
of the things that I had learned but not
really quick enough
as it turns out you see when you become
the caregiver okay this is not
theoretical for me this is personal this
is where everything kind of came
together for me when you're the
caregiver of somebody with Alzheimer's
you really truly never know what you're
going to get from day to day I became an
extension of her medical team I was
dealing with the doctors I was dealing
with the lawyers I was dealing with the
estate I still have an apartment to
clear out because she wasn't coming back
you don't come back from 90 years old
with a broken head and it turns out the
doctors they told me she had a 50-50
chance of making of the year she made it
almost six months to the day from the
day she fell when you're that person and
I I'll be completely honest I did not
want to be that person but there was
nobody else so I became all of these
things that I suck at I became an
administrator for my mother and I am NOT
a good administrator but then I realized
that no matter what you do fighting with
the insurance company getting to the
doctor on time finding the checkbook you
know finding the socks that none of that
matters because this disease doesn't
care you know I was trying to be the
good son and do the right thing take
care of mom that's what you do you take
care of mom and all I was doing was
dealing with all of this bureaucracy and
all of this stuff and I remember this I
this is one of the most vivid memories I
have of my entire life
one day the nursing home called the
nursing home calls no matter what you're
doing you're going right so I'm like
okay so I go down to the nursing home I
find out whatever crisis it was I don't
remember what the crisis was but I
remember after I dealt with whatever the
crisis was it usually involved laundry I
don't know why this particular time
there was something about the laundry
that in that particular facility really
didn't work very well but I went in to
see her and I sat down with her and I
was made a point just to hold her hand
because when you're holding your frail
and you're in the nursing home the only
people that ever touch you are people
that are doing something to you all
right it's not doing some
for you they're doing something to you
they're helping you do something so I
held her hand I looked at her and I said
mama can't stay today I have to get back
to the gallery we had a group of
students doing a mural on the side of
the building and I wanted to be back
then I told her you know what we have a
group of students doing the mural and I
want to be there in case the police show
up think about that all right because
graffiti is still we had permission we
had the letter but you know what I am
still dealing with graffiti artists so
I'm not going to let them deal with the
police so I wanted to be there in case
the police showed up and she looked at
me and she said you know what I really
wish I could come with you I'm so sick
of doing coloring books I could just
spit and for my mom to say she could
just spit that's a pretty big deal but I
had dawned on me that the coloring but
she was talking about weren't the cool
coloring books from Barnes & Noble her
only creative outlet at that time with
children's coloring books that really
really pissed me off and I realized you
know we spend millions and millions of
dollars trying to take care of people at
the final days of life and this is the
best that we could do and that really
really bothered me and I got back to the
gallery and it still bothered me and it
bothered me a couple weeks later when
she finally did pass she made it about
another two weeks after that
conversation that was one of the last
coherent conversations we had one of the
last times I saw her she didn't
recognize me so the other thing about
Alzheimer's and dementia is crisis can
accelerate it and I don't know if that's
been anyone else's experience but she
went downhill fast it wasn't even a hill
it was a cliff and it was um when she
did pastillas it was a really I'll be
honest say whether were these there was
she didn't want to live anymore there
was nothing left that anybody could say
or do we hadn't had a meaningful
conversation
other than the coloring book
conversation the coloring book thing
just keeps coming back out but other
than that conversation it had been a
long time since we had had a meaningful
dialogue and then one day I got to
thinking about it and I realized you
know maybe it wasn't the coloring book
maybe she really was interested in the
graffiti maybe she still had a little
rebellious streak left in her you know
maybe she did I don't know um by this
time we had gotten pretty good at making
murals the mural that I was in such a
hurry to give back that day has become
one of the most photographed murals in
Denver we got paid to do it we were
really sort of moving on it and I got
back in and the artist for the right
with the sunglasses detains rata sok
he's one of the best-known muralist in
Denver and a couple weeks after that
after my mom had passed I was still
thinking about this and I asked him I
said would you be interested in doing
graffiti with people with Alzheimer's he
didn't hesitate yeah I would love to do
that when do we start and if you think
about it people with Alzheimer's and
people who do graffiti actually have
quite a bit in common right the
misunderstood they have stereotypes put
upon them by society not by their own
making and at the end of the day they
really really just want to be remembered
right they want to leave their mark on
this world so he said yeah I'd be happy
to do that when do we start full
disclosure this is a kid that had them
in fact arrested he had had many maybe
not many he'd had a few run-ins with the
police and this was how he was making
his mark on the world now as he had left
the illegal tagging behind and he was
working for us teaching people how to do
graffiti so he was game he was ready to
go and then I thought about it really
what is what is the connection here
because really I don't think it was the
coloring book I think yeah she would
have done anything to get out of the
nursing home that day but I really
wonder if it was something left to do
with that fear that fear that she was
going to be forgotten
the fear that she was not going to be
remembered the fear that her mark on
this world was going to go with her
I believe I truly believe this the
people with Alzheimer's know what is
happening to them I don't think there's
any question that my mother knew what
was happening to her and it was slow and
it was painful and it was very very
frustrating you know it's hard enough on
the outside I can't imagine what it
would have looked like from her
perspective but the more I thought about
it the more I realized that graffiti
artists and people with Alzheimer's
really do have an awful lot in common in
fact one of the very first with known
graffiti artists
this was taki 183 his entire purpose the
only reason that he existed was to leave
his name in all five boroughs of New
York City
so the talking 183 was his initials 183
he lived on 183rd Street his whole thing
was to leave his mark on all five
boroughs so from this from one of this
very early early graffiti artists a
whole movement a whole art form has been
born it's not an art form you're seeing
more and more of it in the museum's now
but it's not an art form that's very
well understood but at its core at its
most base level it's really about
writing your name on the wall okay I'd
like to joke that sometimes I believe
that the first artwork on the wall was
actually not from the shamans in the
caves I really wonder if it was the
teenagers but that could just be me
I don't know but really it's about
leaving your mark and this taki 183
even after 50 years people still
recognize his tally they still recognize
his mark so the idea behind graffiti is
literally putting your name on the wall
that is the basis of everything that's
come after now running an urban Art
Center I still don't consider myself a
graffiti artist everyone wants them
although let me know they'll give me a
can and it's okay fill in this area here
Damon hey don't go outside the lines and
a cotton kind of gotten over that whole
thing a little bit but so they'll let me
do let me spray paint but I've learned a
lot about graffiti I've learned a lot
about the art form and I truly think
that it's among the most vibrant and
exciting art forms that we have today so
we've gone from this about 50 years ago
to this
and this is just one example of one
artist in Spain this is a church in
Spain that had been abandoned for a long
time and they've turned this into a
skate park
so inside their skate ramps all over the
place and that's graffiti artists they
just gave him free Lane that's a church
I might want to go to yeah
but in that amazing how we went from
taki 183 literally leaving his name on
the wall just to prove that he existed
to something like that no like I said
I've never had any formal art education
but when I do come to a new city I
either go to a museum or I start seeking
out some graffiti some of the walls I
find out where the walls are because I
think that this is really amazing work
the thing that amazes me and the thing
that encourages me the most is its
collaborative and nature all right we
think of art and the art of the creation
of art is a singular pursuit but we
learn through things like the MoMA
training and I've learned in our studio
that sometimes it's better off when
you're creating a piece of artwork with
a team there's less pressure to be
perfect right the one thing that I have
learned about creation creativity and
art is the fact that you don't have to
be perfect right graffiti you can make a
lot of mistakes and you can cover it up
which I really personally love but that
idea of doing something together
graffiti artists very often work in
what's known as crews there's a whole
group of them and at the end of the day
they sign their names next to the work I
really liked that idea because one of
the things that I felt was so
frustrating as a young child is that
idea of you can't stay within the lines
therefore you don't belong actually has
we had a little bit more open miss
Nelson but a little bit more open with
me we might have had a dialogue but I
was like 5 so it probably didn't happen
but graffiti continues to grow and to
change I was recently in Scotland and I
saw these people who were doing what
they what did they call it urban
crafting you know you've seen the yarn
bombers all these people have taken this
to a whole nother level so this is an
art form that's open and it's constantly
evolving it's close
changing everyday I see something new
every day I'm more and more drawn into
it still want them to let me have more
than just my own little suction on a
mural but we'll get that we'll get there
eventually so anyway I had the graffiti
artist he was on board he was ready to
go and by this time I had this germ of
an idea what if we taught people with
Alzheimer's and dementia how to do
graffiti I already had made the
connections at least in my own mind and
part of that could have been my own
grief process maybe there really isn't
that much of a connection but it made
sense to me and being a small nonprofit
organization and being pretty much a
one-man band I could do whatever I
wanted so that's the beauty of working
for a small group I was like oh I can do
this I just needed some people with
Alzheimer's so I called my friend said
Courtney my friend worked at an assisted
living center said Courtney I want to
come out and do some graffiti with some
of your clients and you might imagine
that after the initial stunned silent
and she's like okay you want to do but
she reluctantly agreed that's really
excited about that what I didn't expect
is to get to the all to the assisted
living center and I had to deal with my
own emotions because that was a way for
me to start processing some of my own
great but we had four very brave artists
that day and they'd probably have good
that didn't let me near the the cans at
this point because I was really kind of
erect the whole day I'm like oh my god
but we had four brave artists at first
and so these are all people with
Alzheimer's and dementia and notice that
I call them artists not patients because
when you are caregiving for somebody you
really do feel like you're part of that
extended medical team
I felt that so much of my mom is like
man I'm just dealing with all of this
medical stuff and I'm not a doctor but
these were our artists that day they
were brave enough to come out and do
this with us and what we started with
was their tag all right we didn't have
any taki 183 s we had at Tremont
we had Dolores and we had ham and I
realized that Anne couldn't write her
name anymore until handmade a flower
showed how to made a flow and the fact
that she couldn't write her name anymore
didn't matter it simply did not matter
the experience was a communal thing
where we were just trying to do this
together just to see if we could and at
this point this was still a germ of an
idea I really do believe this was
partially my own grease coming through
in a way for me to process something
that I was still trying to understand
but as we were moving along we were
painting the first thing we did is have
everybody leave their mark on the canvas
so this is actually a canvas they
wouldn't let us paint on the wall don't
know why but we started painting and
after a while I realized one of the
gentlemen had painted a caboose so we're
painting he had written his name he
could still actually I think he wrote
his initials but after a while
everyone's getting comfortable with it
the kitchen staffs coming out and
watching what's going on the
administrators are coming out you know I
guess their final reports could wait -
and everybody was watching what was
going on in Freeman - his name is
Freeman he had made a caboose I'm not -
I'm gonna take his pre-med that is an
awesome caboose and I meant it that was
a really good caboose and he looked at
me complete clarity and he said you know
what I worked on the railroad for 40
years and some of the people that were
there that day that worked with him the
people that said him that bathed him -
clothed him it was clear to me that some
of them did not know that about him all
right now I'm not standing up here
saying that every time we do graffiti
with people with Alzheimer's we opened
up some mystical channel but sometimes
we do he left his mark on me that day
I'm like wow we are really onto
something here he worked on the railroad
for 40 years that's pretty impressive
just in and of itself but the fact that
the people around him did another and we
were somehow able to just see for a
brief moment the person who was no
longer the patient so this day was very
successful and as I said this particular
day I really was just more in the
observer I had the camera but I was kind
of a mess I'll be real honest I was a
hot mess this is not too terribly long
after my mom had passed away and I'm
like okay we did this I thought it'd
give it out of my system but it kind of
didn't because I kept remembering
Freeman I kept remembering that look in
his eye
yeah I worked on the railroad it's like
my mom because when she told me I'd
rather go with you to do graffiti then
do another coloring book because I'd
rather chew off my arm that was pretty
clear for her so there's something about
that creativity and it doesn't have to
be graffiti it could be any number of
creative outlets for these people but
somehow someway we're able to touch into
something there and I personally believe
that it has something to do with the
fact that we're teaching them something
we knew they were not asking them to
retrieve a memory so in the course of 20
years running an art gallery
four people are running on our program
for people with disabilities I've
learned a few things I've taught people
who are blind how to take photographs
about people who are deaf to dance and
we had a program for awhile where we had
people with spinal cord injuries that
didn't have the use of their arms we
taught them how to paint with their
teeth but as all of that experience I
mean I've done some really crazy things
because again we can there's nobody
telling me no so I'd love to push back
against assumptions I had never thought
once about how would we do something
with somebody who may not remember up
until this point we had done one day
with Freeman and his crew I knew we were
onto something like thought what if we
do more but how do you program something
so this is the programmer hat okay how
do you program something for somebody
who may not remember from week to week
or day to day or sometimes even our into
our that's the other really beauty part
about graffiti it's immediate right you
don't have to let anything dry right and
Denver they have this thing called our
tank it's kind of like Shark Tank but
it's for art I'm like okay well let's
see if they would fund us to do some
more of this programming even though our
primary focus was still the young people
like Alan and Nicole what would they do
would they fund us so we made a pitch
and we got a little extra funding
and the first several sessions that we
did were just the same way that we set
up the first time when we met Freeman
we'd set up a two-hour block of time
we'd have them come to us it was easier
for them to come to us oddly enough
because usually they had transportation
the first one we did at the assisted
living center was a little bit more
challenging but when they started coming
to us we have an art studio we are ready
to go we discovered something called
water-based spray paint okay
I love water-based scraping because you
know what the big masks the big
respirator that that regular spray paint
that's nasty
that's like Turpin was just some really
nasty chemicals the water-based stuff
has a heavier propellant so that the the
nasty chemicals they go down instead of
that so we discovered that we met some
really really incredible people along
the way but after that first session the
thing that I felt was missing was the
caregivers the people that were there
that day were paid to work with Freeman
they were paid to work with them they
were paid to be there and the thing that
I really thought was important is to get
this idea of including the caregivers so
our first three or four sessions when we
got our first grant sucked I mean it's
tiny little grant it was like $2,000 but
we made it a point to include and invite
the caregivers to come down because I
knew firsthand I knew that they needed a
break from the constant care the
constant just what's going to happen
next so we started doing these little
two-hour sessions at the studio and we
got all sorts of wonderful fun people we
had a local news station come down I
know it's really really pretty an
amazing experience to see this little
germ of an idea that was really a
response on my part to grief become
something that it's actually quite
interesting when you really think about
it these people come down with no
expectations not sometimes they have a
choice sometimes they don't have a
choice but when they come down they're
pretty open to try anything and if you
really think about it
it's society that's putting across the
idea that older people may not be
interested in learning something or
people with Alzheimer's may not be
interested in graffiti where is that
written it's not written anywhere and
what I found is this is a particularly
open they will do pretty much anything
because there's so much better than
sitting around doing coloring books I
imagine but we learned that by including
the caregivers we started building some
community we started seeing some things
not only from the caregivers part but we
were all able to just take a break and
when you're in that constant crisis not
taking a break is so very very very
important one day we got a call
um this is Lester Holt NBC News okay and
actually wasn't actually him but the guy
who called sounded a lot like him so I
pretend that it was but they wanted to
do it I can do that right they wanted to
come out from New York and do a story on
our granny does graffiti program all
right I'm like okay sure like we want to
come on Thursday I'm like okay but we
don't do that on Thursday if we do
graffiti on Monday all right so I got my
lines we're getting a little bit up I
was a little bit structured and I
thought that through and I'm like you
know what if they want to come on
Thursday we'll make it work on Thursday
and it wasn't like this Thursday it was
big they gave us a little bit of warning
so I called up the group that we were
working with I said can you come on a
Thursday instead of Monday they like
sure we can come down we can make this
work
good I'm really glad you said that
because Lester Holt's coming and we set
this thing up and I really honestly wish
I could take credit for this but this
was a happy accident remember Alan so on
Thursdays Alan is in the studio all
right he's not there on Mondays so our
regular Nicole and Alan and all the
students that we normally work with
we're not seeing the people with
Alzheimer's and dementia they were on
two separate days we have a very limited
space it wasn't anything like I was
trying to keep them apart but as a
programmer you're like okay Monday we
have two hours of do it double double
but
Thursday when Lester Holt decided to
come he didn't actually come he sent one
of his minions but it's still cool um
Alan was in the studio blue and white
and orange blur vigorously racing up the
walkway is Mary good a grandmother of 35
who loves to leave her mark I really
love to draw usually with a paintbrush
or pencil
when we were kids she would write our
names on our lunch sacks
and it was always in a very artistic
manner I am not expecting the Mona Lisa
and I'm not expecting the masterpiece
lately she's flexing those art muscles
through the Johnson Adult Day program
which helps though is battling memory
loss Merritt has been diagnosed with
Alzheimer's my daughters brought me down
here because they could see a sadness
that I had through art her sadness is
erased but who could have imagined or
did you marry her next kiss would be a
wall that many demographically speaking
these seniors do not fit the profile of
a graffiti artist let's see that pig get
armed with water-based spray-paint
they're defying stereotypes it's a new
idea at the Access Art Gallery in Denver
called granny does graffiti what's it
like seeing your mom do this oh it's so
fun the idea came from Damon mcLeese
whose mother had dementia in my belief
is that by introducing something new
sometimes it that opens a different
channel or different pathway in the
brain and we get a glimpse of the person
that's still there for Mary her initials
MSG trigger thoughts of her high school
which had the same initials it's also my
school was not st. Gertrude it just
seemed so much more for her than just
plain old paintings bring back memories
I think this is a lot of time which
means Mary can continue to leave her
mark Joe fryer NBC News yeah so it
wasn't Lester Holt I know I got your
hopes up but this guy was actually
really really cool he was very very nice
and that story kind of encapsulates what
we had learned up to that point
as I mentioned Allanon I don't think
Nicole was in the day but Alan was in
that day and I'd love the students that
I work with I really have gotten to know
them I know their families and I know
how challenging life is for most of my
students so Alan was in that day and
like I said I've never seen Alan take
the initiative for anything he'll do
exactly what you wanted he'd be very
happy I don't know if you noticed that
every single one of those seniors so
they this is a little bit of sidebar but
entertain me for a second that was the
first Bronco game of the year last year
it was on that Thursday night okay in
Denver in September you can still get 90
degree days so all these women and men
showed up in their Bronco regalia and
sweat sweat shirts and sweat suits it
was 90 degrees I'm like oh my god
Lester Holt if we're going to have a
whole different story on your hand here
if we're not careful but we so we
started bringing them water and what
wasn't on the camera was the fact that
Alan had taken the initiative because by
now Alan had worked on several murals
with us as well he had taken the
initiative to start showing people how
to use the can he had assumed leadership
because he was so comfortable there
that's the thing about creativity that's
the thing that I think I have learned
through this entire process part of what
makes this work is that safe creative
environment we allow people to try
something new in a non-threatening
environment now I spend a lot of time in
elementary schools less so now but I
used to spend a lot of time in
elementary school when I would go into a
first or second grade class and I would
ask how many of you feel you're creative
in almost every single hand in a first
or second grade classroom goes up now to
sort of do some work in corporations
everyone's all the letters go in there
and do an art project with them and I
asked the same question how many of you
think that you're creative
I'm usually less than half the room
raises their hand so got me to thinking
about creativity
so either half the people in the room
were in my elementary school class with
Miss Nelson or we've all had similar
experiences and as we get older some of
the lines that we
come up against seem to get thicker and
blacker right it's harder and harder to
go outside the lines and we forget that
they're 64 colors in the box we tend to
go back to the same five or six colors
right I think that's what we assume
about people who are maybe a little bit
older or might have Alzheimer's or
dementia we assume that they're pretty
rigid and what I found that they're
really not rigid at all I don't think
they have anything left and I do believe
that there is a certain element of that
we're doing something a little nod okay
if you hang out with old people every
once in while you're going to realize
they're still pretty rebellious right
there's some little bit rebellious I put
that photo in just because it's
beautiful I will I just love the look on
her face she came with her daughter and
they had more fun they were laughing
they were just having a great time the
entire time that they were there but to
go back to the Broncos and Alan and to
heat that particular day she was making
her tag msg so we always start out with
the MSG and that particular day and this
is where I cannot take credit for being
brilliant I can take credit for being
lucky another piece of my puzzle fell
into place I realized that we could hire
these students to work with this
population so we have a
multi-generational thing where people
are learning about a very dynamic and
creative and I think exciting art form
and we get to do what I like to do best
we're pushing back against society's
assumptions so it was like the trifecta
for me that day but I still wasn't
satisfied okay we're still doing two
hour blocks of time we come in we do the
same thing alright we're going to teach
you how to make a tag we're going to
talk about this break and we're going to
make sure that everyone everyone
understands this point this where you
can away from yourself okay that's
really an important lesson me we usually
start with that one but at the end of
the two hours we're not doing anything
really elaborate so in closing I'm going
to tell you about what we're doing right
now we have after our first funding and
now I can show them the Lester Holt
piece we've actually had a couple local
news stories that have gone off very
well but we got another additional group
of funding to work specifically with the
Alzheimer's Association of Colorado and
we have had the same
this is truly a group of grannies there
are six women that have been coming to
us I think we have them scheduled for
six sessions and they're in their fourth
or fifth session so we're building
sometimes we don't even say do you
remember it's not a good way to lead I
do you remember what we did last week so
I got rotten and our students not to do
that but every week we set up with a
different activity one week we took a
tour of the murals and met in the alley
because I'm in the really lower downtown
area of Denver there's some fantastic
mirrors murals and then we worked on our
own tag and we made sure that everyone
had a tag that they were happy with
whether they could remember it the next
week or not didn't matter so they keep
coming back to it and one day we have
that film crew a local film crew come in
we're very popular you know I think
we've had more film crews about granny
doing graffiti than we did in the
previous 20 years so I have to work on
that but we have that local film crew
come in and we have one of our
participants her name's Betty and
Betty's a flirt I mean Betty likes to
flirt that's just kind of anything oh
how are you you're so handsome four
while she was flirting with me and I'm
man enough to say I kind of liked it I'm
okay with that but the guy with the
camera I mean the reporter oh my god hi
this is model nude I am I'm a lot of
things I am NOT a model but she was like
boom to him I thought man they're going
home together I don't want to know hi
but this is just who this woman is and
and the woman that brings them down
their caregiver she's she's like you
have that he's a flirt she loves to
flirt that's just part of who she is
well last Monday
well what's today Wednesday so two days
ago they came in and we were working on
doing a mural and if anyone's interested
I'll show you a couple of the pieces
that we were doing this is sort of the
pre graduation before we do a bigger
mural and they've decided they want to
incorporate dragons into their mural I
don't know where that idea came from
but anyway Betty came in and as soon as
she walked in the door
I knew something was wrong there was
that look that look she was afraid there
was something that was making her
uncomfortable
and I recognized that look from my
mother I recognize that look now from
time and time and time again but Betty
walked in and there was something that
was not I mean she was just really not
having a good day
like okay this is going to be
interesting because up until this point
we've been fairly fortunate I mean we
see these people for a couple hour
blocks of time you really don't get to
know them like I know alyn lind but I
knew they just look better you okay we
got our situated and this is the beauty
about what we do is it's a team effort
they're all in this together and nobody
has to do anything the deal amount to do
but we sat them down outside on the wall
that we were working on and we were
explaining what we were going to do and
we demonstrate a lot and I kept watching
her and you know anyone that know how
many of you know that look you know what
I'm talking about right it's a little
freaky innit it's like okay because you
know there's something going on that's
making her that incredibly uncomfortable
but after we'd been at it for a while I
know this something I noticed she had
relaxed she wasn't breathing as much as
quickly she wasn't looking around like
oh my god the sky is falling
she just sort of fell into that that
routine so it's that little bit more
comfortable and at the end of the day we
finished up what we were doing and they
were all leaving that's okay by Betty
and she turned around and she winked at
me
and I was like okay at the beginning of
the talk I told you I am NOT a lecturer
per se I'm a storyteller I'm also not a
researcher I can't give you the numbers
of why this is working but I've seen it
firsthand what we're doing what you're
doing
there's something here all right the one
thing that I do regret I regret that I
left that day to go back to the gallery
I wish I would have sat down and just
colored with my mother I didn't have
that but fun there some really amazing
and interesting things
happen and I told you early on that I
convinced myself that I wasn't creative
and artistic right so I know that sounds
really odd well you've run an Art Center
but I was convinced for the longest time
I wasn't creative or artistic in any way
and the best I could do was draw from
the things that you all in museums would
set up on the wall because that was my
art education but as my mom was in the
final months of her life I started
drawing I started creating because I
needed something I could control so now
I'm not ready to say I'm an artist I am
really ready to say I'm a creative and
the best part of my job is I get to
share that excitement about creativity
with everyone from preschoolers to
people that are in their 90's actually
we had one guy there was a hundred so I
want to encourage you if you will to
remember it's really never too late
thank you
[Music]
does anyone have any questions come on
all right there we go
yeah well we had them for six sessions
the grip that we're currently with so
they have one more session yeah yeah
absolutely and that is something that's
actually an excellent question a lot of
the people that we work with they might
have arthritis or they might have
something to do we figured out a couple
different ways first of all the two
finger approach really really works the
idea of getting really close really
really works and then we've also got the
point where somebody else can hold the
canvas and we can put a board on it so
you have a little bit more leverage so
we have addressed some of those I mean
that's something that I'm really
comfortable with I mean we paint with
wheelchairs so we can figure out some of
that type of thing pretty easily there's
also a trigger that you can buy where
it's more of a grip to put onto this
brake cam
yes either one or well up until this
group that we've had now we it's been a
mixture the group that we're working
with now that has the six grandmother's
there they're coming from one place and
they've already approached us about
going to them and painting the wall in
their actual facility but up until this
this group it has always been just a
one-off it had been a to everything oh
hell no of course you are anywhere funny
boys like me
haier papers on that basis somehow or we
haven't gotten that far we've been
relying on community foundations and
some some other kinds of support i
imagine that somebody who had a larger
staff and a little bit more
administrative minded would probably be
able to figure that out but right now
this is really just a problem that's
sort of in its infancy for us the
funding is always an issue but yes i
personally believe that those two things
are very often creativity and artistry
or different things and i think that
what we confuse what i confused as a
young child was my coloring book piece
wasn't artistic it didn't have the
aesthetic that somebody was looking for
i believe personally i believe i am
creative off the charts i really suck at
being an administrator i have been
white-knuckling it for so long just to
be around all of this creativity so my
belief is the creativity it's sort of
that essence that drive to create
something and it doesn't have to be
pretty I've been making artwork now for
two years that nobody other than my wife
has ever seen
but that drive just to control the
environment artistry to me implies
mastery you're working towards something
a scale building it the very simple act
of creativity I believe it's just let's
experience us and we can learn so much
by just being open to the idea of
creativity let's see what happens let's
see what happens when we give him a
spray can he took over she was like okay
I'm in charge here and he was making
color selections and all of that but to
me that's the difference between your
conformity and creativity we all
understand through the coloring book but
to me when you're starting to get into
artistry you're talking about skill
mastery in those types of things okay
the project I'm a financial guy so it
cost per person that is available on the
atmosphere and absolutely yeah I don't
know how I mean I'll be honest and and
this is one thing that I think it really
is important to realize I have one
employee so my job quite honestly is to
hustle I don't know if it's scalable I
imagine it's scalable if we ever wanted
it to get bigger we would have to
obviously get more more funding it's
just somebody gave us some funding this
is what we said we were going to do and
this is what we're doing but it keeps
growing and getting built built bigger
at the moment but we've worked with five
or six different groups and then now so
to get back to the financial question
yeah I don't know um we could probably
figure out and what we would do is
figure out how much we're paying the
artist and the materials and that kind
of stuff but we could definitely figure
that out I just haven't had a need to
just yet sorry there was a disclaimer at
the beginning cinnamon yeah and you have
a
about how you work or specifically the
graffiti or just in general well see I'm
we're located in an art district so I
run a gallery on any given first Friday
of the month we'll have a thousand to
1,500 people walk through our front door
so we're pretty pretty well set having
done this as long as I've done I know
all of the well-known artists around
town they give us money for fundraising
events and that kind of stuff so I get a
feel for sort of a good teacher as
opposed to who's more of just just a
pure on artist so the ones that I feel
like the guy that I showed you that I
pointed out is not he is brilliant he is
the best natural teacher I've ever seen
so I don't know if I mentioned this but
the corporate artwork that was standing
behind them we didn't use a paintbrush
on that thing at all he was able to talk
about shape and color and that was for
an architectural firm but then there's
some artists quite honestly rot ah the
the graffiti artist he's not a great
natural teacher we're working with him
on that so a lot of times I'll just take
the lead on the sort of the teaching
part but you also get a feel for it
after a while and then we have another
artist who I adore him but yeah we don't
ever leave him alone with not not for
anything like weird yeah yeah he's not a
he's not a good teacher so kind of gut
feeling yes
we just give them to can their
participant they're equal they're doing
it at the same time and that's I didn't
talk a lot about my beliefs about
collaborative art that there's a certain
pressure you know this is what I truly
believe this if I ask you all to draw
something on your paper right now some
of you are going to get anxious right
but if I ask you to sit down and draw
with somebody some of that pressure goes
down so when the caregivers are there
they're equal participants and the lady
who was talking about her mom that was
going like 90 miles an hour she had so
much fun at first she was reluctant now
this is for her this is for her and I
kept encouraging her no this is for both
of you and by the end she was in there
doing it together and there was a shared
experience that I can guarantee you mom
may not remember I don't have any
earthly idea she does but I can
guarantee you the daughter remembers it
yeah I'm just elated her question about
caregivers what were people our
responses and energy and the first to go
anticipating a project and so the one
off we started that one off we did the
first few sessions we did like with
Freeman in the Train
we went to them we didn't have anyone
other than paid caregivers there that
day then I realized that that was part
of the equation that we needed to follow
up on so the next time we had the group
start coming to us and we made sure that
the groups knew that they could anyone
could come along anyone was welcome and
the group that we're working with now
their caregivers aren't coming along
with them because it's a set day program
but they'd be more than welcome
sometimes a daughter or actually one of
the ladies has her sister in the other
day and you know oh no it's not for me
i'ma get is if you're here so I can do
that know if you're here you're going to
help us pain so thank you
[Applause]