Easterseals New Hampshire’s Adult Day Program provides a community where older adults can gather for social engagement, physical exercise, planned activities, and health services during the day. The program includes a variety of active sports, exercise classes, and mentally stimulating activities, but it also offers artistic opportunities to encourage participants to tap into their creativity as they age.
Through our partnership with the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH, participants in our Adult Day Program can explore and create visual art. The Currier’s Art and Wellness Program Manager, Corie Lyford, helped establish the Adult Day art education class in 2015. The class allows older adults to learn and socialize while expressing their creativity in new ways.
“We do a variety of different media, and the projects are designed to be really accessible and accomplishable, but with plenty of scope for creative expression,” Corie explained. “Everyone should be able to create their own unique piece however they want to do it.”
Laurie Duff, Easterseals NH’s Director of Senior Services, noted the importance of such classes. Like other Adult Day Program activities, they address components of purpose, quality of life, and a sense of accomplishment and tap into brain-healthy interactions. Program participants can reconnect with themselves and exercise their minds in ways many have not done for years.
“We know that when we exercise our creative selves, it somehow touches a part of us in positive and healthy ways, not the least of which is enhanced cognitive function,” noted Laurie. “While our brains do inevitably age, our creative abilities don’t necessarily deteriorate—they may lay dormant for years due to social isolation, depression, or chronic disease, but when tapped into again, it flourishes with a wonderful program such as this. It is a beautiful thing to watch.”
Adult Day Program participants draw inspiration from works in the Currier’s art collection. Administrative Manager and Art Educator Michelle Peterson, who teaches the class, selects various works from the museum’s collection to develop a curriculum featuring a wide range of styles and media. She also leads the program on monthly field trips to the museum for inspiration.
“These are each kind of inspired by a piece in the collection or an artist we have at the museum,” Michele noted. “We got to kind of bring out examples of those artworks and talk about those and then kind of create our own pieces.”
“There’s always a kind of fresh inspiration,” Corie added. “That is usually our starting point for this program or really anything we do in education.” She noted that Adult Day Program participants respond well to this type of creative engagement, following the example of an existing piece while using their creative license to make their own art.
“It’s a chance to be creative and have fun, but to be able to do your own thing and be unique,” Corie continued. “I think it’s very empowering.”
Michelle emphasized that the social aspect of the class is the most crucial part. Watching the participants interact with their peers and learn together makes the program unique. “We’re socializing, we’re having a good time, and that’s sort of the core of it—is making sure everybody’s having a good time, and you know, learning a little bit of art while we’re at it.”
After completing their projects, Adult Day Program participants have the opportunity to showcase their artwork to their peers, interact with each other’s work, and share their creativity with friends, family, and the rest of Easterseals NH. “The presentation process is really important, too,” Corie explained. “It’s so great that people are getting the chance to do that.”
Holding art shows had long been part of the Currier’s partnership with the Adult Day Program but were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. October 2024 marked the first art show since the pandemic, a tradition Corie was thrilled to reinstate.
“It was so nice to have the artwork up again because that’s a really important part of creating—the responding process,” Corie continued.
Before the pandemic, the Currier hosted the Adult Day art shows. Post-pandemic, however, Corie and Michelle decided to bring the art shows directly to the participants by displaying the artwork at Easterseals NH.
“In the past, we had done them at the museum, which was lovely, too, in many ways, but we found it wasn’t as accessible,” noted Corie. “I’m so happy to see family members here today, and when we were at the museum, that really didn’t happen; it was just very hard to schedule.”
The venue change allowed more participants, friends, and family members to appreciate the artwork, adding color and creativity to the Adult Day Program hallway for everyone to enjoy.