Mind of the Artist Part X: Judy Folkenberg

We can’t imagine a better way to end the year than with a grand finale of not one–but THREE–featured artists from our friends at CHAL.  Each of these artists represents fantastically different ways of thinking about art in their lives, and each expresses herself so differently through the creative process.  It feels particularly compelling, as we move toward the end of the year, to reflect back on Mind of the Artist–and we’ll share more over the next two weeks of featured artists.  For now, we are delighted to introduce you to Judy Folkenberg, whose whimsical use of found objects speaks to the interplay of memory and present moment, to new perspectives, and to seeing the world around us as a space always for creativity, if only we are open to it.  Here’s Judy:

“the creative mind plays with the object it loves.”  c.j. jung

Falling Leaves

I like to play and create evocative and beautiful objects from all sorts of materials, so I became an artist.  I’ve loved books since I was a small girl so I focus much of my artistic passion on them.

Elephant Walk

I collect all sorts of things:  natural objects; boxes (ones I make or old ones bought from antique or junk shops); old hardware and other tools or implements; paper, books, illustrations, and photos; and other ephemera, and then play with them. I manipulate and arrange objects, rough them up sometimes; nail, paste, or sew them, paint, stain, and dye them.  I experiment.  For instance, I throw sawed off bound pages from a book into the bathtub, let them dry, and see the shapes that emerge. Then I dye or paint them.   And I make and play with books.

Hanging Pulley Over Eggs

Much of the time I have little idea where I’m going with a creation, but figure I have to just enjoy the ride, whatever the destination.

 “it’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” Henry David Thoreau

Visit Judy on the web to see more of her amazingly creative explorations. 

And check back on this page right here for the next two weeks for our December Final Hurrah of featured CHAL artists!

You’re Never Too Old to Dance: Creative Aging at DC’s VA Medical Center

A fresh new season and a fresh new voice on the blog: this one comes to you from our #CHAWsome neighbors at Capitol Hill Village (CHV), an organization dedicated to sustaining and enriching the Capitol Hill community for the long term through services and opportunities to age in place.  We are especially excited to partner with CHV as we embark on a new class offering created especially for seniors in our neighborhood.  Tuesday afternoon seniors-only drawing begins Tuesday, September 8, but there’s still time to register! Take a look and then report back here for updates throughout the semester. Why take an arts class as a senior? We’ll let CHV tell you…

You’re Never Too Old to Dance: Creative Aging at DC’s VA Medical Center

A dozen of us sit together in the atrium, a skylight overhead providing a view of the mostly sunny sky. Earth Wind and Fire’s “That’s the Way of the World” plays for our opening warm up. I remind the group, “You are in charge of your own body. I am here as a guide. I trust you to make the movement your own. Our bodies are different every day, so please pay attention and be patient.”

At the DC VA Medical Center, some residents come in for short-term treatments and rehabilitation. Others have lived here for years. They have served during WWII and Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. They have cancer, TBI, and PTSD. They are stroke victims and amputees. And for an hour on Mondays and Wednesdays, they are dancers.

A unique program sponsored by the National Center for Creative Aging brings arts programming to the Community Living Center three days a week. We provide movement classes, concert-style music performances, an open studio for visual arts, field trips in partnership with the Philips Gallery.

A moment later, as we settle into a conscious breathing exercise, departing staff members shout goodbyes at the elevator bank to our right, the security guard calls out sports scores to a friend down the hall, and a nurse interrupts Mr. B for a blood sugar check. We continue breathing steadily together, opening arms wide and then closing like a deflating balloon, following the smooth rise and fall of a Philip Glass etude. Soon all the activity around us is white noise.

When we engage our imagination, when we are the most ourselves and creative, we enjoy a heightened state of health. Here in DC and across the nation, VA hospital staff members are partnering with professional artists to provide programs for patients and family members. The arts are now recognized as playing an essential role in delivering patient-centered care. In any art-making process, the creator makes numerous decisions, crafts an aesthetic, develops technical skills, and communicates with an audience. Art ignites self-agency. It brings our most essential selves to the world around us. This heightened state helps us heal faster and stay that way. A Met Life study of patients who make art during hospital stays, found that patients ask for pain medication and nursing assistance less, go home sooner, and have a lower case of recidivism.

As a movement-based art form, dance sparks our imagination and memory, agility, and resilience. A perfect complement to physical therapy and fall-prevention, it focuses attention on eyes, ears, and touch as tools to assist in movement and balance. Equally important, the act of coming together for a dance class – moving to music, talking with one another – is a huge mood boost. Dance instills confidence and breaks isolation.

As the class wraps up, I leave the music on so that people can Mr. C continues to improvise to Sam Cooke’s version of “This Little Light of Mine.” Mr. M and Ms. H head toward the dining room together. Another man stays to tell me that the experience was spiritual. He feels refreshed, inspired. He’s excited about finding a movement class when he goes home next month. The simple, joyful act of dance has set people free, reinforced friendships, and launched new learning.

Margot Greenlee is a teaching artist and program consultant for the National Center for Creative Aging.  She received a 2015 Artist Fellowship award from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Visit her website at www.bodywise.com

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The Hunt DC: a #CHAWsome way to see your city!

We are excited to welcome our friends and partners, United Social Sports (USS), to our blog today!  Sports and arts might not seem all that related at first glance, but USS is all about bringing communities together–much like CHAW.  Whether it’s through sports, arts, or something else altogether, building relationships matters…and you can do that in a pretty spectacularly #CHAWsome way with USS next month.  We’ll let them take it from here!

HUNT DC, DC’s largest scavenger hunt, is back for its 5th year on April 25th and we are very excited to be partnering up with CHAW!

United Social Sports has a mission of bringing people together and building communities through social sports leagues, but leagues are not all USS is about: our CEO Robert Kinsler has been working on including other projects that help build communities and that speak to our members and their friends. It’s from this starting point that Hunt DC was born.

Memories of scavenger hunts as kids are often unique, cherished memories, and we wanted to bring that sense of fun and excitement back to our participants. Here at USS we don’t do things small, so our scavenger hunt is nothing like you have ever done before. We take our participants all over the city, trying to decipher riddles, while showing them areas of the city that they may have never seen, or get to see in a new light thanks to our challenges.

We want to make sure that our events bring friends together, help create new friendships, and enable participants to experience DC in a whole new way!

Whether it is trying a new food you’ve never tried before, or seeing a side of the Lincoln Monument you have never seen, you are sure to discover something new on the hunt. To add an extra touch of fun, this year we have included an outdoor after party where attendees will get to enjoy live music, lawn games, drinks, and food trucks. Participants can be sure that this will be a day packed with fun, from sunrise to sunset!

This year we are also partnering up with various nonprofits in the area, and we want to make sure that HUNT DC serves as a platform for these organizations to reach new people, raise money for their organizations, and to engage with the local community. These groups serve such an important role in our city, and this is our way of helping ensure that our DC residents are aware of all the great non-profit organizations that so enthusiastically work day in and day out on bettering our communities.

Our title nonprofit for 2015 is Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, otherwise known as CHAW. CHAW has had a presence on Capitol Hill for more than four decades and helps bring people together through the creativity and unity brought about by the creative arts. We are proud that this year’s nonprofit leaderboard prize is sponsored by CHAW and is just one more chance for participants to win!

So now that you are excited about this event, go ahead and register a team! Use the discount code CHAWBACK to get $10 off your registration AND help raise funds for more activities at CHAW!

Want to see a video of all the action?! We thought you’d never ask 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHN-ztybE6U

See you at the Hunt!