Spark

February 2, 2021

Memory Lounge Brings Music and Art to You at Home

Credit: Image detail from Koryn Woodward Wasson

Dementia can impact memory, thought, and behavior. Those who care for family members or friends with dementia can also experience emotional and other stresses. The global pandemic we have been living with for almost a year has compounded feelings of loneliness, isolation, disorientation, and emotional stress.

To help alleviate those feelings, Scottsdale Arts Learning & Innovation offers an hour of arts enrichment twice each month to caregivers and their loved ones with dementia. During this hour, caregivers and their loved ones can enjoy creativity, humor, and conversation with local artists, musicians, community participants who share similar experiences, and our friendly Learning & Innovation staff.  Whether you and your loved ones are music lovers or have a passion for arts and crafts, we have a variety of sessions for you. 

This spring, Memory Lounge: Home Visits brings a local pianist, a sculptor, a painter, and a watercolor artist directly to you via Zoom. 

Pianist Erin Hales will be leading a four-part music appreciation series, where she will engage you with musical eras from Baroque to contemporary.

Pianist Erin Hales. Photo: Bethany Brown Photography

Erin is a fourth-generation Arizona native who is classically trained in piano. She studied under Van Cliburn piano competition winner Stanislav Ioudenich in Kansas City and was the first American woman ever accepted to Italy’s Lake Como Piano Academy. She has performed in many venues in France, Russia, and Italy but prefers to live in Arizona. From her piano studio in Chandler, she shares her knowledge of European teaching methods with local children and adults. Excitingly, Erin has been featured in International Piano magazine as one of the top 10 female pianists under the age of 30 to take note of. 

In her Memory Lounge series, Erin will focus on the four main eras of piano repertoire: Baroque, Romantic, Classical, and contemporary, sharing interesting bits of history as she tells stories through the music of each time period. Participants will engage with her in fun discussions and short drawing exercises to tell their own stories and share their own ideas.

Visual art by Koryn Woodward Wasson.

In our visual arts series, we also welcome Christy Puetz, a local artist whose charmingly fun beaded sculptures you may have seen during the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) exhibition Wild Thing; Koryn Woodward Wasson, whose paintings and prints feature beautifully rendered details of the natural world; and Ellen Murray whose watercolor art was been featured in our Center Space exhibition The Close Observation of Inanimate Objects

Artist Christy Puetz and just one of her many wonderful creations. Photo: Christy Puetz

To sign up for a single session, or multiple sessions in our music appreciation or visual arts series, please visit our website. The music appreciation series is free, and the visual arts workshops are $10 per person or $15 per couple. The ticket price includes an art supply kit mailed directly to you. 

Sign up for just one session, or all seven! 


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