“I would love for everyone to see the beauty of the house…” said Peggy. “Maybe one day we can look at architecture as art!” Sharon chimed in. Another care partner sighed, “if only walking and standing for a period of time wasn't a challenge…”
What sets Philbrook apart from other art museums? Well, there are many, many reasons but the largest reason that comes to mind is that Philbrook was first a home before gifted (by owner Waite Phillips) to the Tulsa community as a Villa transformed to an art museum. Those two words – Home & Gift – really resonated in my heart this winter month, so I designed this Art Focus around both words.
ChallengesThis particular group cannot walk far because they get tired. They also can’t go places that require using stairs because they are in walkers and wheelchairs. Since Philbrook was first a home it was not built on one flat level with large rooms with walking and sitting space but with stairs connecting galleries. Also the rooms are smaller than what you may find at another museum. These are all valid challenges however I wasn't willing to allow these challenges to withhold everyone from enjoying the beauty of the Philbrook Villa. | SolutionsTo eliminate these challenges I decided to have the group stay on the first level of the museum and only visit the galleries not connected with stairs. Before the group arrived I asked the program assistant helping me today to set up a handful of chairs in each gallery space we would be visiting so that the participants had places to rest after moving room to room. |
Once everyone arrived at Philbrook I invited the group to walk to the Great Hall where seats were set out for people to sit. The Great Hall is the center of the Villa and also the home to two oil portraits of Waite and Genevieve Phillips. I began our gallery talk by introducing the family (pointing to the portraits) and house history. After I opened up the group to conversations based on our observations and imaginations. I invited everyone to guess what in the room is original to the home and what has changed. After the participants made their guesses I passed out a large photograph of the original room. We followed this conversational format in each room visited.
everyone's observations. "Can someone describe the people in the mural?" One man replied that they're all dancing while another participant mentioned that they're meant to be dancing to the music made in the room. "They look like flapper girls," said the woman sitting in the middle of the room. I asked her what that may tell us about the Phillips family or the house. She responded, "that the home was built during the time of flappers." Guiding our discussion to imagination I asked, "What instruments do you think were played in this room?" "Pianos!" "Violins" "The harp!" and "The clarinet" were all mentioned.
Moving through the two more galleries or the Villa's Study, and Dinning Room everyone talked about what it may be like to live in such a grand place. "How beautiful!", sighs, and pointing in wonder were all consistent remarks made in response to each room entered.
In the studio...
We had already looked at the word HOME by visiting the Phillips villa and admiring it's beauty. So in the studios we explored the word GIFT through our art making and focus on the Holiday season. The week before, I cut for each person 2 pieces of watercolor paper, once piece of black construction paper, and 2 pieces of heavy drawing paper into rectangles and hole punched the left sides. I also set out oil pastels, sharpie markers, watercolor paints, and colorful ribbons. If you haven't already guessed by looking at the pictures, we created art books this session and filled them with our Holiday wishes and gift ideas. |
Holiday Art Bookmaking
Beginning our art project I asked everyone to think of a winter or holiday scene and share it with the person next to them. Placing the black construction paper on the display board in front of the group I encouraged everyone to imagine how they would decorate their home or someone else's home for the holiday season. Using oil pastels we drew together a scene that illustrates how everyone decorates their home for the holidays. Some people drew outside lights and others drew inside Christmas trees. One woman drew a snow covered bridge because she used to love playing in the snow underneath the bridge during the winter.
Next I lead the group in a guided sharpie drawing on watercolor paper of a present - a square box, a cross for the ribbon, and a bow for the top. After inviting everyone to decorate their gift any way they choose, I told them to write down or draw what is inside the box and who they giving their gift to. While everyone was drawing I noticed one woman staring at her hands. Approaching her I asked about the gift she drew. She immediately told me, "I'm no artist, I can't draw." I encouraged her and said that drawing can be difficult however we are drawing just for fun. Picking up a marker I asked her if she could give someone a gift, who would she give it to. She answered, "My daughter." I asked her about her daughter and her eyes lit up as she said, "I'd give her a nice dress. She likes dresses." "What color dress?" I asked her as I started sketching a simple dress with my pencil. She began to describe a dress to me and I tried my best to draw it for her. Once I finished she smiled and said, "Yes!" I gave her the marker to outline the dress herself and then color it in with watercolor paints.
After our gifts were drawn we all took the other sheet of watercolor paper and drew a candle in sharpie marker. I asked everyone to color their candle with watercolor paints and write down their holiday wish.
Holiday |
|
Lastly, we took the heavy drawing paper to make a cover and back to our art book before binding the pages together with their choice of colored ribbon.