“What impressed me is how meaningful the NetworkArts program is to the children it serves.”
Pete Hoskins
President & CEO
The Philadelphia Zoo

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Young and Old Find Common Ground
Children from Hamilton School and seniors from the Care Pavilion Nursing
Home spent hours toiling shoulder-to-shoulder on a street-level wall
in front of the Hamilton School. But this was no ordinary project - this
mosaic represented 4 years of intergenerational programs by NetworkArts
and NewCourtland. And it was the first time that seniors worked hand-in-hand
with children in a community endeavor outside the confines of their care
facility.
This project was part of an ongoing partnership NetworkArts has with
NewCourtland, which manages five nursing home facilities. Fifteen students
from Hamilton School were in the core group and paired with seniors,
although the entire school participated in the Hamilton School mosaic
installation.
The students interviewed the seniors and mined their memories
for knowledge polished by time. Both the students and seniors worked
on a number of drawing, sculpting, and painting projects together during
the course of the year. The students also made their own drawings, sculpted
ceramic portraits of the seniors, and wrote poetry expressing their feelings
about the experience. This resulted in the construction of two mosaics
at the nursing home.
But to celebrate the growing bond between the students and seniors
and to provide the seniors with an opportunity to create artwork in the
community, NetworkArts created a third mosaic on the street façade of
Hamilton School. The finished artwork contains poetry and images by the
students that expresses a respectful realization that with age comes
wisdom.
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