ARTS & HEALTH
Anne Mondro has been working on arts & health projects for over 15 years.
Please reach out if you would like to learn more about her work.
ARTFUL APPROACH™
Collaborating with Elaine Reed, Ashley Miller, and Brianna Broderick
Supported by U-M Stamps Research & Creative Work Development Grant
Artful Approach™ is a creative arts program for family caregivers to learn how to engage people living with memory loss in visual art activities. The goal of the program is to support care interactions through creativity. For many caregivers, planning and teaching art activities falls outside their comfort zone. Understanding this hesitation, Artful Approach™ is designed as a supportive and encouraging training program for caregivers with little to no art experience. The program aims to build confidence in delivering art activities with the intention to successfully integrate the arts into their caregiving routine.
Designed as an online group workshop, the Artful Approach™ program provides caregivers with enjoyable, age-appropriate activities to support their efforts to continue to engage with their family members. Led by our team of specialists in art and dementia care, the three-week program introduces a variety of custom art kits that can then be used on their own. Important considerations for working with people living with dementia are discussed along with strategies on how to invite participation, encourage communication, and modify projects to successfully engage with their loved one.
MAKING MEANING
Collaborating with Bridget Quinn
Supported by the University of Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research and U-M Stamps School of Art & Design
The Making Meaning Zine is intended for those that suffer from chronic pain and the people that love and support them. The first edition is filled with images created from a Making Meaning self-guided collage project. Participants explored visual metaphors to represent their pain, their coping strategies, and healing process. Along with the images, the pages invite readers to dive into their own creative process through a variety of reflective prompts around one’s experience with pain, care, support, loss, grief, and love. Through our making, we learn, share, and understand what chronic pain looks like and how we can thrive despite it. Our first edition is available in March 2024.
Making Meaning is part of a larger initiative called HUMAN: Healing and Understanding through the Medicine and Arts Network. A collaboration between the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) and the U-M Stamps School of Art & Design, HUMAN includes several creative projects in art, design, and music for individuals living with chronic pain. Please contact Anne for details.
MEMORY, AGING & EXPRESSIVE ARTS
Recipient of the 2015 Rosalinde Gilbert Innovations in Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiving Legacy Award.
Supported by the U-M Transforming Learning for Third Century Quick Wins Grant.
Partnerships with U-M Geriatrics Mild Memory Loss Programs and EHM Senior Solutions Memory Support Center.
Memory, Aging, & Expensive Arts is an interdisciplinary, engagement course designed to build an understanding and awareness of the complexities of memory loss and introduces the use of the expressive arts to foster meaningful relationships with community members living with dementia. Partnering with experts across the U-M campus, students meet with specialists in neurology, public health, social work, and the arts to learn about the scientific basis of memory and dementia, the societal basis of dementia, and institutional projects to support individuals with memory impairment. Through artmaking sessions with persons living with memory loss, students explore the potential of the arts to serve as an outlet for expression, build key life skills, and learn from community members through shared experiences. Anticipated learning outcomes include gaining a holistic perspective of aging and memory loss, exploring the benefits of creativity, and utilizing the expressive arts to improve one’s quality of life. Throughout the course, students work on designing and facilitating custom projects for a person with memory loss as well as develop key communication and life skills for working with this population.
BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY
Collaboration with Charlie Michaels, Corner Health Center’s Youth Leadership Council, and EHM Senior Solutions Memory Support Center at Brecon Village.
Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts – Art Works Grant and University of Michigan Office of Research
Between the Earth and the Sky is an intergenerational, community-based art program for teens and older adults experiencing changes in memory and thinking. Aimed to positively address and change youth attitudes towards older adults and families facing dementia within our community, the year-long program invited Corner Health Center’s Youth Leadership Council and EHM Senior Solutions Memory Support Center residents to collaborate on two large-scale art installations for the EHM residents to enjoy. Through hands-on art workshops, the youth and residents created large multi-colored star lanterns to bring light on the darkest night of the year. In the spring, they participated in creating an immense geometric garden created from hand-made concrete planters filled with herbs and sedum. The community came together to celebrate their artwork during a winter and summer event. The program aimed to empower teens to become creative and empathetic leaders and to
value older adults with memory loss as individuals that can contribute to society through mentorship and friendship. The program provided both communities with an opportunity to meaningfully engage and learn from each other through shared art making.
RETAINING IDENTITY: CREATIVITY AND CAREGIVING
Collaboration with Cathleen Connell, PhD, Lydia Li, PhD, and Elaine Reed
Supported by University of Michigan MCubed Grant
Retaining Identity is an in-person art program for individuals with memory loss and their co-residing caregiver. Led by Anne and her team, the 90-minute art making session and art-related discussion met once a week for eight weeks. The first four sessions were dedicated to caregivers learning a new art activity each week. In the second four sessions, caregivers guided their care recipient through the same four art activities. The program was designed for individuals with no art experience and the art projects were carefully developed to be engaging for both people living with dementia and their caregivers. The evaluation process included a qualitative survey completed by the thirty caregivers that completed the program to measure the impact of the program on the caregiver/care recipient relationship.
Click here to read our published research on the Retaining Identity Program.
ART EXPERIENCES FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH MEMORY LOSS
Collaboration with Michigan Medicine's Geriatric Center's Silver Club Programs and EHM Senior Solutions Memory Support Center.
Anne has designed and facilitated numerous hands-on art making experiences for people living with memory loss and their caregivers. She has led visual art activities for participants of the Michigan Medicine's Geriatric Center's Silver Club Programs focused on mild and moderate dementia. She served as a visiting artist at EHM Senior Solutions Memory Support Center that resulted in a community art exhibition and summer art festival for residents and their families. Anne has also served as a guest artist for Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Center's caregiver programming.