Art Activities Designed For Seniors

About the Book

Art Activities Designed for Seniors is a guidebook to help present art ideas and activities to seniors in care facilities. The purpose of this book is to make the tasks easier for the professional and non-professional caregiver. Inside you will find over 50 projects including a condensed 22-session art class. You will find projects that will help you assess the needs of your clients, as well as individual projects, group projects; full size templates to support the projects and ideas. The templates are designed to be photocopied for easy access, make as many as you need for each class.

For a period of five years I have had the opportunity of working with seniors, all with a variety of levels of mental or physical limits. Most of my clients live in group care homes or senior complexes. My job is to introduce art in a fun way that allows for enjoyment and interaction with others. Even though there is a lot of written and visual resource material available for arts and crafts I find most projects need to be redesigned to fit the needs of the seniors. For example I have found the clients may need more guidance or formal perimeters to complete the projects successfully. In this book you will find the ideas and designs that have worked for me. I hope in sharing what I have experienced can make the job of presenting art activities to seniors more rewarding for you as well as the clients.

About the Author

Carren was born in Victoria, B.C. where as a child studied art at the Victoria Art Gallery, later she continued her education at the University of Victoria and received her B.F.A. Honors in 1990, was then accepted at Concordia University in Montreal where she completed her Master of Fine Arts in 1993. Carren has taught art in Montreal and Victoria and as a working artist has had group and solo shows as well as produced graphic design and book illustrations. She has had over five years of experience bringing arts and crafts to seniors in care. Carren resides in Victoria with her husband and currently is a director of the board for the Vancouver Island Society of Disabled Artists.