Since May 2020, we hosted 26 gatherings around knowledge, creativity, and solidarity. In this one, we will put in common our experiences and create a collective vision for the future.
What did we enjoy?
what should we change?
which topics matter to the group?
who should we include in the discussions?
how to better bridge studio activities, research, and play?
Join us so that we can hear diverse perspectives!
The Creative Science Shop is a semi-monthly meet-up, an exchange of ideas, innovations, scientific and artistic projects. This intergenerational group brings together passion in the arts and sciences from older adults, students, and researchers.
The health and wellbeing benefits of musical engagement are noted often in popular media and scholarly literature, and specifically in relation to older adults.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, various online music/music therapy programs have emerged. However, from a “best practices” perspective we do not know if/how known benefits of music translate in an online format.
Join us at the next Creative Science Shop where Concordia music therapist-researcher Dr. Laurel Young and graduate music therapy student research assistants Ben Magidson and Julia Blundon will discuss an ongoing inquiry that examines older adults’ perspectives on participating in online group music experiences.
Music therapist, Victoria McNeill will share her experience of initiating online music programs as part of her work at Cummings Centre.
During this interactive discussion, attendees will be invited to share perceived benefits/ barriers related to their own musical engagement.
Come to our round table where Alexa Ruel and Sean Devine, PhD students in Psychology at Concordia University and McGill University, will be talking about how cognition change as we age.
Join us to discuss about new findings related to decision making in older adults and how these findings can lead to creating new user-friendly technology. Share your thoughts in a community discussion about decision making, and your experience with digital devices.
Alexa Ruel is a PhD Student in Psychology at Concordia University. She studies how decision-making changes across the lifespan, moving from young to older adulthood.
SeanDevine is a PhD Student in Psychology at McGill University. He studies how seeking out information impacts decision-making, and studies real-world decision-making through the use of big consumer data. Sean worked along side Alexa for his Master’s degree where he examined how cognition changes across the lifespan.
The Creative Science Shop is a semi-monthly studio hybrid, both online and in person at the Cavendish Mall. It is an exchange of ideas, innovations, scientific and artistic projects. This intergenerational group brings together passion in the arts and sciences from older adults, students, and researchers.
Come join us to the round table dedicated to poets in our community. Four poets: Daryl Zoellner, Lady Rojas Benavente, Lisa Potter and Marcia Goldberg will present what inspired them to follow this creative path and recite one poem.
Poetry may mean keeping a balance of thoughts on delicate subjects as equity, inclusion, and loss. It may be storytelling about pets. Or simply a way to express oneself and stay creative. Come be part of the discussion, sharing your own experience or poem!
Daryl Zoellner’s roots are in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. She has fully bloomed, however, in Quebec. She is interested in various arts including poetry, and has her studio known as Mes tables.
Peruvian-Canadian writer, Lady Rojas Benavente created an taught literature for 50 years in many academic settings from Peru to Canada, including Concordia University. She is now professor emerita and actively involved in the Latin American communities.
Lisa Potter is an “active engager” and she uses art and poems as creative venues. She is working on a story of a cat named Pogo and will present two poems that she wrote recently.
Marcia Goldberg is a retired teacher of English. She writes poetry, and during the pandemic, she joined a women writers’ online gathering pioneered by Lise Weil, a teacher and friend.
The Creative Science Shop is a monthly meet-up welcoming an exchange of ideas, innovations, scientific and artistic projects. This intergenerational group brings together passion in the arts and sciences from older adults, students, and researchers.
Join us on Thursday, December 9 from 2:30-4:00 pm for the Creative Science Shop on The Meaning of Art-making in Relation to Others.
Come to this opportunity to learn and share on how art-making can be so meaningful when it is in relation to others.
To what extent art skill shares can make life worthwhile? What is the transformative power of art-making in relation to others? Two members from the Art Hive Network will share their stories with us. Join the discussion on how this resonates with you, your own life and your professional or academic interests!
Edna Katz-Silver is an artist, actress, sculptress, Judaica jewelry designer, and furniture maker in commercial and private spheres. As an art teacher, she believes that teaching is healing for both parties.
For the past 30 years, Sondra Goldman has been a practicing Montreal artist and art therapist, working for senior residents and inspiring them to expand their expressive capacity. She also created one of the first institutional Art Hives in Canada.
The Creative Science Shop is a semi-monthly studio hybrid, both online and in-person at the Cavendish Mall. It is an exchange of ideas, innovations, scientific and artistic projects. This intergenerational group brings together passion in the arts and sciences from older adults, students, and researchers.
Join us on Thursday, November 11 from 2:30 to 4:00 pm for the Creative Science Shop on “When Writing Comes to Life”.
Come to this bilingual science workshop on the theme of creative writing.
Where does inspiration come from? How do you nurture the writing process? And what is the meaning of sharing it? Our two guests will give their perspectives, Eva Halus, from the point of view of an author and member of the Art Hive community, and Patrcia Landry, from the angle of publishing as a way to build bridges to help people with mental health issues.
A community discussion will follow. You are all welcome to share your experience during the discussion that will follow.
The Creative Science Shop is a semi-monthly studio hybrid, both online and in person at the Cavendish Mall. It is an exchange of ideas, innovations, scientific and artistic projects. This intergenerational group brings together passion in the arts and sciences from older adults, students, and researchers.
Come join us on Thursday, October 28 from 2:30-4:00 pm for the Creative Science Shop on the theme of strengthening personal agency in community spaces.
Pandora Hobby presents her research findings, related to developing personal agency in community spaces.
Hélène Arsenault and Sharon Leslie will share their stories from discovering art hives to being active community leaders.
A free discussion on what could motivate us to join an art hive or other community space and shift to actively get involved in our communities.
The Creative Science Shop is a semi-monthly studio online meet-up, welcoming an exchange of ideas, innovations, scientific and artistic projects. This intergenerational group brings together passion in the arts and sciences from older adults, students, and researchers.
Balance, attention, hearing and vision are key components involved when performing daily life activities. However, healthy ageing can lead to hearing and vision loss, or troubles dividing attention between two tasks (e.g., talking while walking), resulting in poor balance.
During her residency at the engAGE Living Lab, Berkely Petersen, a graduate student in psychology at Concordia University, investigated how vision loss, hearing loss and multitasking impacted older adults’ balance. She will share her findings including the many age-related factors that can impact balance and increase falls risk.
Deborah Maia de Lima, a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University and initiator of the Movement Hive at the engAGE Living Lab, will tell us about the role of this intergenerational safe community space in enhancing self-awareness and self-acknowledgement of the body. In the Movement hive, the participants can play, move, and experience their bodies through dance and spontaneous movements, following a routine in each session to assure safety and best practices, allowing everyone to participate as they are.
Come join us to hear the presenters, participate in the discussions around challenges and safe practices with movement and balance.
Come join us to hear from Deirdre Potash, an artist who found meaning in art-making and teaching art for fun in the community. Nga Pham, Gilles and Shantie Audet are artists in community spaces and avid learners.
The presenters have something important in common: they found the benefit of expressing themselves through visual imagery, the pleasure to do art for fun and well-being.
During the pandemic, Deirdre, owner of ArtWill Studio and teaching artist with a varied practice including a specialty in cultural mediation, offered free art courses online for the community. Her intention was to foster tactile exploration on a personal level, shifting the education courses into just making the participants have a good time.
Nga is a member of the art hives community and enjoys learning new things and challenging herself with new art techniques. She will share her artistic progress after participating in the art hives and art classes.
Gilles and Shantie are a happily married couple that started the artistic journey after retirement, about 4 years ago. They like to experiment with different media and different artistic styles and work on refining their sketching abilities and techniques.
We will explore this ongoing journey based on multiple visual arts experiences. Please come share your experience with the arts and how it shaped your journey of discovery.
Art Hives offer individuals opportunities for creative expression, for building self-efficacy and autonomy, as well as opportunities to feel welcomed to belong to an inclusive and loving community. They are places to simultaneously be oneself and connect with others in authentic ways.
In this conversation, Nicole will discuss her findings from her masters’ research on perceived learning at the art hive for participants in the third age (55 – 75), and the implications for art hives and other community art studios to have a significant impact on the well-being of ageing populations.
Nicole Macoretta is an artist, art therapist, art educator and administrator. Her artwork is grounded in and reflective of her love for the natural world and fibre materiality. She is passionate about encouraging the emergence and cultivation of creative capacities in support of physical and mental well-being, and more connected communities.
Our second speaker is Isabelle Fortier, a visual artist and graphic designer with a deep passion for the community. She created and is facilitating the art hive “La Page Blanche” in Boucherville, a well-anchored community art hive that opened its doors in 2015. In 2020 went online due to the pandemic and is now venturing into a new hybrid model.
