Creativity in Community
Using art to create connection, preserve memories,
and bring creativity into the lives of others.
1. MAP
Memories Art Program
Some of my earliest memories of art are sitting at the kitchen table with my great-grandmother, drawing, painting, and learning how to mix colors. I didn't realize it then, but those moments shaped the way I see art today—not just as something to make, but as something that can hold memories and connect people.
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Years later, that connection inspired me to create the Memories Art Program, a monthly therapeutic art program for residents at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh. Each session begins with a quote, and from there, residents use painting, drawing, and mixed media to interpret it through their own memories, experiences, and imaginations.
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What started as a way for me to share something I love has become one of the things I look forward to most each month. I walk in to familiar faces excited to see me, but I’m just as excited to see them. We create, talk, laugh, and learn from one another. I've realized that the most meaningful part isn't always the artwork we leave with—it's everything that happens while we're making it.
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In many ways, these afternoons bring me back to creating beside my great-grandmother. The people and circumstances are different, but that feeling of connection through creativity is the same. MAP has shown me how something as simple as sitting beside someone and making art together can bridge generations, bring memories to the surface, and turn an ordinary afternoon into something worth looking forward to.
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Art has given me some of my most meaningful memories. Through MAP, I get to help create new ones.
2. Art2Hearts
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Camp Towanda has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up there, made some of my closest friendships there, and learned what it means to be part of a community that shows up for one another. As I got older, I wanted to find a way to give something back to the place that had given me so much.
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I connected with Art2Hearts, a nonprofit that collects artwork to brighten spaces for pediatric hospital patients, and partnered with them to bring their mission to Camp Towanda. I organized an initiative where campers ages 12–16 created original pieces of art that would eventually make their way from camp to children's hospitals.
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What made the project special was knowing that the campers weren't just creating for themselves. They were thinking about another kid on the other side of their artwork—someone they had never met, but could still make smile through something they created.
By the end of the project, we had created around 50 original pieces to donate. Seeing a community that has brought me so much happiness come together to create that same feeling for others made the experience especially meaningful.
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Art2Hearts allowed me to connect two things that mean so much to me: the community I grew up in and the art I grew up loving. It showed me that something created in one meaningful place can carry a piece of that joy far beyond it.