Kentucky Arts Council Arts Access Assistance Grant

The Louisville Refugee Elder Program has been awarded an Arts Access Assistance Grant through a program of the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Because of this grant, the elders were able to do many exciting activities throughout this past year!

Storytelling Sessions with Cynthia Changaris

Throughout September and October, a local storytelling artist, Cynthia Changaris, visited the program several times. She taught the elders about the importance of the art of storytelling, whether that be their own life stories or folklore from their cultures. She taught them how music or poetry can also be storytelling art. The elders loved hearing her stories from American culture and other cultures around the world, and they loved getting up in front of their peers and sharing stories or songs from their own cultures.

Cynthia telling a tale from American culture!

Squallis Puppeteers

In November, Squallis Puppeteers led a workshop called “World of Puppetry,” in which they shared about puppet traditions in the United States and around the globe. After the presentation, Squallis Puppeteers taught the elders how to make finger puppets!

The large Abraham Lincoln puppet was a favorite among the elders!

Art Therapy with Joyce

In addition to these special sessions, Joyce Ogden continued to visit every other week and lead art therapy for small groups. The elders love Joyce and she does many wonderful projects with them!

Dharmanada and Joyce showing off a bag he created!

Another one of Dharmananda, holding a drawing he created of a Bhutanese man doing the traditional greeting where you fold your hands together, bow a little bit and say "Namaste!"

Carnegie Center

In February, we visited the Carnegie Center, a history and art museum in New Albany, Indiana. Here they learned about the Underground Railroad, and saw a video about a former slave named Jacob who crossed the Ohio River from Louisville to New Albany on his way to freedom. The elders enjoyed this video very much and had many questions about the Underground Railroad. They identified well with the struggle for freedom. On the bus ride back to Louisville, Jose, one of the Cuban elders, was talking about Jacob's story and realized that this man had received his freedom, just like he, too, had received his freedom from persecution upon arriving in the United States!

Elders looking at photos and small models of what American life was like back in the Underground Railroad days.

After watching the video, one of the Carnegie Center staff answered the many questions that the elders had about the Underground Railroad!

Mural Project

Throughout March and April, we worked with a local muralist artist, Tara Remington, in order to plan and create a large mural representing the Elder Program. Americana Community Center donated a 30-foot wall in their Adult Education wing for the us paint! Many of the elders have family members and friends that attend classes at Americana, and painting a mural there gave them a sense of pride and accomplishment!

Planning the mural:

Wafiqa and Abdel, working on mural plans!

Nsanzabandi and his interpreter, Alexis, drawing flags from the Democratic Republic and the Congo and Rwanda!

Hong drawing the Vietnam flag!

Gobinda and Sekhar drawing some designs and patterns from Bhutan!

Painting the Mural!

The elders had a GREAT time painting the mural and are so proud of their work! If you're ever near Americana, you should go to the third floor to check it out!

Thanks again to the Kentucky Arts Council for making this all possible!

Refugee Elder Program on KET's Louisville Life!

The elders are so proud to have been featured on the KET show Louisville Life! Because of KET's settings, I can't embed the video on the blog, but you can check it out here:

http://bit.ly/1bmNC6n

Thanks for supporting the Refugee Elder Program! :)

Refugee Elder Program on TV!

Hey friends!

The Louisville Refugee Elder Program is going to be on TV! We were filmed for a segment of the show Louisville Life on KET, and the show will air on Saturday, February 8 at 7:30pm. If you can't catch it then, here's a list of other airdates:

• KETKY: Sunday, February 9 at 8:00 am EST
• KET2: Sunday, February 9 at noon EST
• KET2: Monday, February 10 at 7:30 am EST
• KETKY: Monday, February 10 at 6:00 pm EST
• KETKY: Tuesday, February 11 at 6:30 am EST
• KET2: Thursday, February 13 at 7:30 pm EST
• KET: Friday, February 14 at 12:30 am EST
• KETKY: Friday, February 14 at 8:00 am EST
• KET2: Friday, February 14 at 5:30 pm EST
• KETKY: Friday, February 14 at 10:00 pm EST
• KETKY: Saturday, February 15 at 7:00 am EST

The episode will also be available to stream on ket.org/loulife beginning Monday, Feb. 10^th  , and the segment itself will be available on KET’s YouTube page following the initial TV broadcast.

The Elders were very excited about this opportunity, and they all dressed very nicely for the cameras. We also had a fifth grade class at the program doing activities with a few of the classes that day. Please tune in and catch a glimpse of what our program is about!

Bishnu's Nepali dance!

Today, Bishnu shared this beautiful song and dance with her class!

Iroquois Art Show

Art is literacy of the heart." ~Elliot Eisner

See with her painting

Every other week at the Elder Program, Joyce, a retired Art Therapist, comes to the program to do artwork with small groups of students. Students are on a rotating schedule based on language, so everybody gets to work with Joyce once every few months. Most of the elders love their time creating artwork with her. During the month of August, the Iroquois branch of the Louisville Free Public Library hosted an art show with artwork done by the elders during their time with Joyce! The library held a reception for the exhibit, so the elders were able to see their work displayed firsthand. Everybody had a great time, and they were very proud of their accomplishments!

   

Kamalapati showing off his bird drawing with Joyce!

Tara showing off his beautiful art! Tara is deaf and cannot communicate verbally, so art is a very important form of expression for him.

Beautiful ladies-Indra, teacher Michaela, Bishnu, Bhadri and Tika

Hit enjoyed seeing his work framed and on display

Joyce's niece, Nana, volunteers with her at the program. She and Francisco had a great time at the reception!

Joyce and Bishnu. The elders love having her!

During the month of September, the Iroquois Library is hosting another art show with work done by refugee youth at KRM's summer program. Check it out if you get a chance!

Summer fun at the Elder Program!

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over! We only had a two-week break in July at the Elder Program, so we've been having a blast all summer! Here's a photo update of things we've been up to...

Pot Luck Picnic
In May we had a picnic at Willow Park, where everybody brought food from their own culture to share. A group of students from a local Catholic school also came and played games with the elders.

Tasting food from different cultures!

David and Hit playing washers with some of the children

Aung and Pah playing washers

Martin and Kamalapati playing wiffleball with Ryan

Volodymyr, Kiummars and Baharieh enjoying the beautiful day!

Hari, Zoilo and Shree hanging out

Tika and Keh loved blowing bubbles! 

Bhadri and Adel having a good time

Musa and teacher Sarah enjoying the day

The whole crew!

Visit from Teacher Jenny
The previous Refugee Elder Program Coordinator, Jenny, came back to visit and bring her baby girl, Eliana, to meet the elders! They LOVED getting to meet the baby and see their teacher again!

Eliana didn't know what to think about meeting all these people for the first time :)

Field Trip to Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
The Elder Program has been awarded an Arts Access Assistance Grant through a program of the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Because of this grant we visited the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft in July. The elders were able to see a collection of art called The Seven Borders- artwork done by artists from the seven states that border Kentucky.

The museum had a map where visitors could place a sticker on the state or country where they're from

Isabel pointing out the place she's from: Cuba!

 After the tour of the exhibit, the elders were taught how to make coil pots out of clay. They loved this activity, and some of them got very creative with their clay!

Kamalapati making his coil pot

Adel enjoying the project

Musa painting his pot

Some of the Bhutanese clients painting their pots

Pah told the interpreter that she was having lots of fun, and she had never done anything like it before! 

Bhadri had a great time!

Madhavid proud of her finished work. "Ramro!" she said, which means "good" in Nepali.

Thank you to the Kentucky Arts Council for making this trip happen!

Making Fruit Salad
Aimee's class made fruit salad to help them learn the English words for different fruits!

Adel cutting the bananas

Martin peeling the oranges

Shree washing the apples

Goodbye Althea!
This summer we said goodbye to Althea, the Americorp Vista working with Catholic Charities who has been a regular part of the Elder Program for the last year. We're going to miss her a lot, and hopefully she can come back to visit from time to time!

Celebrating Summer Birthdays
We celebrated several birthdays this summer at the Elder Program!

Joseph with the birthday muffins

Dharmananda had a July birthday!

Art Therapy with Joyce
The elders continue to do art with Joyce, a retired art therapist. She comes every other week and students rotate through by language groups. Everybody loves getting their turn at making artwork!

Jose showing off his projects

The annual Refugee Elder Program Art Show is up NOW at Iroquois Library, and will run through the end of August. Check it out if you get a chance, and see what sorts of things the elders have been up to in art class for the past year!

Thanks for stopping by to check out what we've been up to!