Art Bias partners with HIP Housing for fine art classes for seniors

Seniors living in HIP Housing residencies are receiving hands-on creative experiences through art workshops taught by local artists specializing in various mediums.

Art Bias, a collective based in San Carlos, connects its artists to go to the senior housing facilities and teach residents. This partnership between the art collective and nonprofit has been ongoing since October and aims to not only teach technical skills but also increase socialization among older residents, said Terra Fuller, executive director of Art Bias.

“They’re learning the art form, working their mind in different ways, meeting the instructors who have all different kinds of backgrounds,” Fuller said. “It’s helping them get into a more social, connected mode.”

The workshops are fully funded by Dragonfly Community Arts, and the artists are paid for their expertise and time. Fuller said this allows for longevity of the program.

“Most of these kinds of teaching programs assume the artist will do it for free,” Fuller said. “To be able to pay the artist for the time is so fantastic. It makes the artist feel valued and not just the participants in the class.”

Providing hands-on artistic experience is the main goal of the program, but another focus of the partnership is to encourage conversation and connection among the students.

Fuller said seniors have taken longer to return to social situations after isolation during the pandemic. This program aims to address this by providing an opportunity for senior residents to meet new people.

“Our artists are very appreciative, and they see what this creative community does for their own mental health and their friendships, and they’re really interested in sharing that with people who may have more barriers to access it,” Fuller said.

Suyin Nichols, resident services coordinator at HIP Housing — a housing nonprofit that has three senior properties — said the residents are just as appreciative for the opportunity.

“The smiles alone in the photos we take at the end, that says it all, Nichols said. “I get a lot of feedback about how wonderful these classes are, how wonderful the teachers are, how wonderful the different teaching styles are.”

Inna Zatulovsky teaches a class on cardmaking that can utilize materials found at home to seniors at a HIP Housing residence.

Photo courtesy of Suyin Nichols of HIP Housing

Previous classes include card making, drawing stills of flowers, and ikebana — a centuries old Japanese tradition of arranging flowers. A rotating artist will teach the medium they specialize in and provide the same workshop at each of the three senior residences.

Sophie Zhu taught a workshop on traditional Chinese brush painting, providing not only knowledge on the art form but on the cultural significance as well. Zhu said this had promoted even further community building as some residents have bonded over shared backgrounds with the artists.

Sophie Zhu teaches a Chinese Brush Painting class for senior residents at HIP Housing for a new art instruction program in partnership with Art Bias.

Photo courtesy of Suyin Nichols of HIP Housing

“Although many of these students can speak Mandarin, most of them are encountering traditional Chinese painting for the first time,” Zhu said in an email. “Only one of them had some experience with Chinese painting when she was a little girl. After decades, picking up the brush again, she told me how happy she felt painting.”

Nichols said that HIP Housing has many residents and not everyone speaks English, or English might be a second language. However, this has posed no barrier to enjoying the art classes.

“The artists are still able to convey the steps and the residents are still able to make something beautiful,” Nichols said. “The language of art doesn’t necessarily have to be a spoken language.”

While many associate art with youth, Fuller said it’s important to provide just as many opportunities for creative expression for the older community as well.

“Art can be a part of your life the entire 80, 90, 100 years,” Fuller said. “There’s an expectation that you get serious in college and you leave the art behind, but obviously creativity has been shown to be a huge resource throughout a life if people get the chance to dedicate themselves to it.”