Shared Art Collage/Bookmark Project at Rockwood

The project we shared was making bookmarks from a collage of magazine photos or rubber stamps with wet ink on watercolor paper. The agency we shared at was the Rockwood Retirement Community at Hawthorne. Rockwood is an assisted living facility that houses residents safely in an independent style living or provides medical care for those residents requiring assistance. The participating residents were to choose the photos or the stamp and ink combinations used for the collages. The students were to assist the residents with all or any part of the project. The bookmarks were to be used as gifts for family and loved ones of the residents.

Really we just had a great time with this project in general, whether it was setting up and getting to know the staff at Rockwood, or actually hosting the activity with the residents. Most of the residents initially didn’t want to participate, and really were nervous and wanting to watch how the activity unfolded. But by the end of the event we had all of the residents that showed up happily participating with their peers, joking with the “youngin’s” and asking us about our future plans, or even just what movie we’d last seen. Even going into the project we weren’t sure if the residents would find the activity fun or entertaining, but by the end of the event any person watching would have scoffed at the question.