As MAMC looks ahead to 2022 we have a slate of exciting projects in the pipeline.

Shared Expressions: A Conversation Amongst Caregivers©  is a virtual collaboration with Baycrest @Home. This project will commence in January 2022. MAMC will deliver packages with art materials to participants as a springboard to inspire creativity and build anticipation for the work that will take place over eight weeks. 
 

MAMC's collaboration with ALPHA Education  SHADOWS OF RACISM: VOICES UNHEARD© in 4 Secondary Schools will begin in February and end in June. The work will comprise group student videos and individual artworks. Participants will use the language of visual arts as a form of activism to confront the viewer with uncomfortable facts eliciting deep scrutiny of personal values.  The curated work will become a voice connecting lived experiences of their subjects and the viewers', extending beyond the individual to universal human values. 

In May, MAMC will collaborate on a research project with Mt. Sinai Hospital focusing on Loneliness and Social Isolation. The project led by Dr. Jacques Lee, Schwarzman/Reisman Emergency Medicine Institute (SREMI) Research Chair, Geriatric Emergency Medicine will be a valuable and timely intervention for MAMC. The study will measure the short and long-term benefits of spending 8 virtual sessions making art and sharing stories, for individuals in the group.

MAMC completed Phase Three of our partnership with The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery Contemporary Connections: Artmaking With Seniors. The final iteration in response to the work of Swiss artist, Miriam Cahn: ME AS HAPPENING was offered concurrently over eight sessions in two Community Centres from 12 October to 30 November 2021. 

With the easing of COVID 19 protocols, both programmes were delivered in person. Elena worked with participants from CSSP (The Centre For Spanish Speaking Peoples of Toronto), while Vanessa worked with Seniors from PQWCHC ( Parkdale Queen West Health Community Centre). MAMC trained two new artists, denirée Isabel, and Carissa Campbell, who worked enthusiastically with us through the planning and delivery phase of the project. MAMC chartered two buses to take participants to visit the exhibition. Both groups arrived at the Gallery on a very cold rainy October morning. The weather could not dispel the sense of expectation to be in a gallery after so long, looking and engaging with art in person! The work each participant created shows the close looking that occurred after engaging with the artwork and the benefit of working over a period of time to develop deeply personal work.

These women have ideas and strong opinions. They are an example of resilience, fortitude, and courage. They relish being intellectually stimulated and having their ideas challenged. They learned things about each other and themselves.