Squirrel Hill gallery showcases dementia and Alzheimer's patients' artwork

Art can be a way for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients to remember.

The patient generally remembers a favorite color when choosing from a palette, said Liz Powell, art education coordinator for the Jewish Association on Aging. If they liked blue before they will most likely choose blue again, she said.

Artwork created by people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s was unveiled at a gallery opening on Wednesday inside the Charles M. Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Squirrel Hill. The 40 pieces were created by individuals from AHAVA Memory Care Residence, Allderdice Neighborhood at Charles M. Morris, The Arbor at Weinberg Village and Anathan Club Adult Day Service.

“They are a population that gets left behind,” Powell said. “My mother taught me to love these people and show them respect. Some people think dementia harms your soul, but these people have something deep inside that we can reach through art.”

The artists participated in Opening Minds through Art, an art program for people living with memory loss conditions .

The program was developed in 2007 at Miami (Ohio) University’s Scripps Gerontology Center in Oxford, Ohio. Founder Elizabeth Lokon, an artist, gerontologist and educator at the university, said that Opening Minds through Art taps the imagination and transcends memory impairments.

“And the long-term goal is to create social change; to build a society that is more inclusive of older adults, including those with dementia, by changing the minds and hearts of young people,” she said.

Research by the Gerontology Center shows this program helps to change how others view, interact with and care for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Through a grant, the Jewish Association on Aging had each elder paired with a volunteer who guided them through the art-making process.

”This is the population I want to be with,” said Powell, an art therapy preparation graduate from Carlow University. “They have interesting stories. I learn as much from them as they learn from me. It’s an equal partnership.”

Volunteer Abby Putt, a junior at Carlow studying art therapy preparation, said they are still so much a person as anybody else.

”We don’t tell them what to do,” Putt said. “We let them decide”

Sara Henry, activities assistant for the Jewish Association on Aging, said, “Don’t think about what you can’t do, show what you can do.”

The artwork is inspiring, said Debbie Winn-Horvitz, president and CEO Jewish Association on Aging.

“We know, and we believe that there is still someone there and we try to reach them,” she said. “This art program is proof.”

Kelly Shea, an artist from the South Side, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 56. She talked about her piece entitled “It Wants the Garden to Be There.”

She participated through the Anathan Club Adult Day Service.

“I really like colors and I wanted to put sparkles on it,” she said. “Everyone who helped us was really nice.”

Her husband, Timothy Shea, said it was the first time he saw her art.

“I am amazed,” he said. “This program is excellent. Art has brought her pleasure, and I hope it will inspire someone else.”