Who Benefits from Looking at Art?

Active Adults / Seniors

Art For Your Mind has become a frequent and favorite part of the enrichment programming at Councils on Aging, Assisted Living Residences, Woman's Clubs, Historical Societies, and other community settings. These unique, engaging presentations fulfill almost every criteria on an Enrichment Coordinators' checklist:

fully engage participants
appeal to men as well as women
provide peer-to-peer interaction
encourage conversations
allow sharing of experiences and knowledge
include memory impaired members
offer culture and human interest
offer a cognitive challenge
are lighthearted and enjoyable

A large number of participants enjoy the programs, feel connected, and return for each successive presentation.

Libraries / Book Clubs

Art observation relates powerfully to literature. There are stirring and relevant connections between the art of a particular time or culture, and novels with a similar setting - each enhance the other. Art For Your Mind is a frequent guest of public libraries and private book clubs.

Contact: Jill Sanford, Owner, jill@artforyourmind.com

“What art offers is space—a certain breathing room for the spirit.”John Updike

Employees

Corporate leaders have become aware that fostering creativity among their employees is important for success in almost every realm of business and technology. However, it remains difficult to find ways to encourage creative thinking in the workplace. Schedules are full; people are busy. Art For Your Mind is an innovative way to offer employees a chance to tap into their intuitive, creative side. Everyone has one, and it's empowering and fulfilling to realize this. Daniel Pink's revolutionary book A Whole New Mind (see link) offers a powerful argument for enriching the "creative" sides of our brains, and those of our employees as a means of competing successfully in our technology-based, global economy. Visit our Why Look at Art? tab for more information about arts, creativity and business success.

Students of all ages

Art For Your Mind LLC presentations are particularly well suited to educational settings. Both students and teachers learn new ways of approaching subject matter with art as a teaching tool.

Educators and school administrators are seeing correlations between success on standardized tests and exposure to the arts in the curriculum. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the multi-state coalition for learning, encourages educators to incorporate their "4 C's" into education: Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity and innovation. Art For Your Mind exposes students to all of these areas. (See 21 Century link on home page)

Art For Your Mind's unique presentations are carefully selected to add a visual element to social studies, literature, cultural studies, history, foreign language studies, even mathematics and science - giving students opportunities to make relevant connections between what they've learned and what they see. The interactive process is a type of "active seeing", which uses critical thinking skills and brings out other skills such as intuition and reflection - in ways typical classroom teaching can't always accomplish. The result is open-mindedness, new problem solving skills and increased confidence.

Each K-12 presentation can be customized to fit virtually any curriculum, and is designed to engage and educate across a wide range of abilities. This is an important strength of the programs - and one of the most frequent praises by teachers.

Artist Groups / Garden Clubs

Creative groups of all kinds are seeing the benefits and enjoyment of enriching their members with art appreciation and art history. For many, it's a surprise to experience the countless connections between the creative choices of those from the past and the creativity they bring to their own endeavors. Art Associations, Women's Clubs, and Garden Clubs have all found Art For Your Mind quickly becomes a favorite and repeating source of fun and inspiration.

Even through budget cuts, I advocated to save Art For Your Mind. Ms. Sanford's ability to keep classroom after classroom of 6th-graders fully engaged - with hands flying in the air - for a discussion of Ancient Greek art - is truly amazing!