WEST LEBANON — For the past couple years, residents of Kendal at Hanover who are living with Alzheimer’s and dementia have been meeting with Lebanon printmaker Patty Castellini to paint together.
The group typically meets three times a week, with one of those sessions open to visiting children and other residents at Kendal. Castellini also offers one-on-one time for residents who weren’t able to make it to a session.
Rather than showing up with a set lesson or subject matter, Castellini encourages group members to follow their creative instincts. She helps them mix paints — acrylic or watercolor — then guides them in applying the different colors side by side.
“It’s more about them being together in the moment and experimenting with the colors and not having to focus on an end result,” said Erica Myers, Kendal’s memory care resource coordinator.
While residents have displayed their art at Kendal twice before, an exhibition at Kilton Public Library in West Lebanon that went up a few weeks ago marks the first time their art has been exhibited for the public.
“Connections…A Celebration of Creativity, Communication and Community” is a collaboration with Upper Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s, whose annual fundraiser walk is coming up on Oct. 26 at Colburn Park in Lebanon.
The exhibit, and the public reception slated for 3 p.m. this Friday, is an opportunity for visitors to experience residents’ art as much as it is a vehicle for educating people about Alzheimer’s and other memory-related illnesses.
Kendal has been a longtime sponsor of the yearly Upper Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s, the money from which goes toward funding research on the disease, so the collaboration felt like a natural fit, said Kathy Harvard, a chairwoman at the organization who spearheaded the exhibition.
The vibrant and varied show features more than two dozen paintings from nearly a dozen artists.
In a painting by 89-year-old resident Betty Gilmore, vertical lines of pale yellow, gold and deep blue run down the top of the paper, while curved ribbons of green, light pink, orange and other colors fill in the remaining space.
In another of Gilmore’s paintings, patches of bright yellow wrap around balls of pink and green that resemble the tightly closed head of a peony.
Kendal currently has 15 residents in its Whittier Memory Support Neighborhood, a designated community with built-in care for those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Myers, Kendal’s memory care resource coordinator, noted that making art has been shown to have a positive effect on social engagement and mood, and to help stimulate brain function in those living with Alzheimer’s and other memory-related illnesses.
She recalled one resident whose illness has rendered her almost non-verbal, but who can still spend hours immersed in painting.
“She gets lost in the process, and it’s just joy that comes across her face,” Myers said.
Outside the gallery space, the exhibit also includes a table with pamphlets about Alzheimer’s and caregiving to people with similar illnesses.
At Friday’s reception, speakers from Walk to End Alzheimer’s, Kendal, and the Hood Museum of Art, a long-term partner of the assisted living facility, will talk about the organization’s mission and the significance of the exhibit as well.
“Connections…A Celebration of Creativity, Communication and Community” exhibit is on view at Kilton Public Library through Oct. 30. An opening reception is scheduled for 3 to 5 p.m. on Friday. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to leblibrary.com. To learn more about Upper Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s upcoming fundraiser, visit act.alz.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=18970.
Honky tonk-in’ in the Junction
Also on Friday, the Filling Station, the newly renovated and reopened bar in downtown White River Junction, will host a hoedown dance party with music starting up at 8 p.m. courtesy of DJ Cartier, who originally hails from New Orleans. Partygoers are encouraged to don their best Texas-inspired attire. For more information about the event, visit the Filling Station’s Instagram page @thefillingstationwrj.
Old and older
An exhibition of Suzanne Opton’s black and white portraits of Chelsea residents taken in the ’70s in their homes and on their land will be on view at Towle Hill Studio in Corinth this weekend. The show, titled “Into the Cellar Light,” after the 2021 book of the same title, juxtaposes those photographs with reenactments from 20 years later, connecting two eras in Vermont’s recent past. The studio’s hours are noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday. An opening reception is slated for 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday as well. For more information, visit towlehillstudio.com.
All you can Handel
On Saturday, Upper Valley Baroque will perform “Messiah,” George Frideric Handel’s seminal oratorio about the life and death of Jesus Christ, at Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph. A second performance is slated for the next day at the Lebanon Opera House. Both concerts are scheduled for 3 p.m. Go to uppervalleybaroque.org for tickets ($26-$57) and more information.
Art party outside
In South Pomfret, Artistree’s second annual free ArtFest Community Day is set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. All are encouraged to stop by and indulge in free ice cream, food trucks, face painting, arts and crafts, Upper Valley artisan vendors and more. For more information, visit artistreevt.org.