Susan Shifrin
I am an art historian, curator, and educator. I spent much of my career working in museums and teaching. I was inspired to start ARTZ Philadelphia in 2013 after creating museum programs for visitors with dementia . I watched visitors come to life, interacting in new ways with each other, with me, and with their care partners as art became their vehicle for expression, creativity, and connection.
Since founding ARTZ Philadelphia in 2013, I and my very small team have launched more than a dozen continuing programs for people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners. Flagship programs include conversation-driven, arts-based programs held at museums, in cultural centers, and in residential care communities; hands on art-making programs in community centers and continuing care communities; programs specifically for the care partners of PLWD; neighborhood-driven initiatives; and mentoring programs in which PLWD and their care partners mentor future healthcare providers. All programs are rooted in collaboration with numerous partner organizations who provide the venues and some of the funding for the programs, which are professionally facilitated by Susan and a small team of facilitators with backgrounds in creative therapies, social work, and other arts and social services fields. (To learn more about these programs and initiatives, please see ARTZ Philadelphia's Web site at https://www.artzphilly.org .) Our mentoring programs, which I co-designed, administer, and facilitate, are not only workforce development initiatives but also focus on restoring agency and a sense of self to mentors who have become all too used to feeling unseen, unheard, and dismissed as "less than." We would love to find ways to expand and replicate this program in communities beyond the geographical boundaries of Pennsylvania by collaborating with other like-minded colleagues across the United States and beyond. We would also be very interested in finding ways to carry out research regarding the impacts of our programs with interested colleagues.
Interests
multi-sensory, quality-of-life-enhancing interventions
interventions specifically designed to draw out and drawn on the strengths of PLWD stereotypically viewed as "unreachable"
community-driven supportive programs for people living with dementia and their care partners, particularly in historically underserved neighborhoods
designing and implementing interventions in corporate settings to support employee-care partners