During the pilot presentation of AFTA’s new program The Rediscovery Project, seniors at Downtown Clusters Geriatric Day Care Center in Washington, DC used art, music and dance to rediscover an era long-past. Participants’ ages ranged from mid-60s to the late-90s. Depression-era lithographs and drawing created in the 1930’s and 1940’s by the late artist Benjamin Abramowitz provided an illustrated context for the tumultuous American scene of that era. Abramowitz’s daughter and AFTA Board Chair Susan Rosenbaum shared the history behind the art as well as the artist. AFTA Teaching Artists Anthony Hyatt and Nancy Havlik guided the participants in interpreting the images and reminiscences with movement and song.
The participants were offered a choice of reproductions of the artwork to keep – and as a “hook” for their memories. Memories and music spilled forth as the art-looking transported the group back in time to the seniors’ own rich and layered histories and families. Participants were also privileged to view Abramowitz’s artwork in the exhibition OUT OF THE VAULT at the Woman’s National Democratic Club in Dupont Circle. At the Club, they talked, toured the historic building, and enjoyed refreshments.
Participants shared personal anecdotes as they reflected on the artwork. Some were joyful and some were poignant. Several were both joyful and poignant! During the first Rediscovery Project workshop, participants were asked to pick a lithograph they liked most. One senior, Irene, who is a 65 year old retired custodian and single mother, chose “The Bride”.
When asked why, she said liltingly, “I never got married.” After a pause she added, “But I almost did.” The group showed great surprise! They spend each weekday together at Downtown Clusters Geriatric Day Care Center in D.C., but Irene had never before told her friends this story. Then she told them of a man who had proposed to her at a young age. She accepted, but as the wedding neared, she knew she could not marry him and called off the wedding.
A marvelous beauty then unfurled. The artwork called forth earnestness in Irene that sparked the rest of the group to weave together a tapestry of remembrances: of secret swimming holes, blissful first rides in a car with childhood friends and even a laugh as Irene’s friends gently ribbed her for being a “runaway bride”. In the final workshop of the Rediscovery series, participants enacted scenes from their favorite lithographs under the expert guidance of teaching artists, choreographer Nancy Havlik and violinist Anthony Hyatt. Irene was joined by a delightfully willing gentleman to bring to life “The Bride.”
Walking down the “aisle”, friends looked on in joy and as witnesses to the wedding the beaming Irene “always wanted” — a moment at once impossible and now rediscovered.
Funding for this program provided in part by the Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, the Humanities Council of Washington, DC and S.A. Rosenbaum & Associates.