The Creative Arts Foundation of Canada presents: Ages of Beauty. This project uses illustrated portraits and storytelling as tools for expression, allowing participants aged 65+ to share their experiences, values, and perspectives. By presenting diverse stories marked by resilience, humour, creativity, and vulnerability, the project promotes a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of aging as an essential dimension of the human experience.
Focusing on seniors living alone or in retirement homes, our program consists of three main components: group creative activities, one-on-one conversations, and a rendering of the participants’ unique stories through text and portraiture.
Our team will lead gentle and accessible creative activities for individuals living in senior homes—sketching, sculpting, storytelling, collage and crafts—to create a relaxed environment that fosters communication and self-expression.
We will also conduct one-on-one conversations with consenting participants across several meetings, with the aim of forging real connection and understanding. Our hope is to discover the unique facets of each individual’s experience, story, and identity.
Finally, with participants’ consent, we will refine and edit their stories into short biographical narratives—kind of like a mini memoir. A portrait artist will create an interpretive rendering of the participants, bringing their story to life.
Ultimately, the stories and portraits will be published as a book, to be shared with friends, family, and local organizations. That way, we can share and appreciate the beauty of every individual, fostering intergenerational empathy and supporting the values of visibility, inclusion, and shared cultural memory.
This project is inspired by the work of local artist Denise Marchand, who meets regularly with residents of senior homes across Montreal and creates portraits that reflect the deeper stories that lie beyond a likeness. We are especially inspired by Marchand’s ability to both foster and express real human connection through art.
The Ages of Beauty project is financed by Montréal Cultural Development Agreement.