Carole Filteau, a painter, and Diana Mulrooney, recreation technician and volunteer coordinator at the Grace Dart Extended Care Centre, worked to create dozens of paintings in order to add some art to the lives of the residents there.
Diana Mulrooney has been a recreation technician and volunteer coordinator at the Grace Dart Extended Care Centre since 1988. She is invested in improving the lives of the residents at this CIUSSS long-term care centre. Through a friend, she met Carole Filteau, a painter and teacher. Together, they quickly developed a project together, namely improving the residents’ quality of life through art. The idea quickly took off. Ms. Filteau has been a teacher at two recreational centres for a number of years. She proposed to her students that they create artworks to decorate the common areas at Grace Dart. The students were happy to take part.
An Idea That Snowballed
During the first session, 20 works were created and installed in various locations throughout the facility in primarily common areas. As of September, Ms. Filteau and her students will take it a step father. They want to produce 40 new works, and this time they want to personalize them. “We will meet with the residents and get to know them. Then we will create paintings based on the residents’ personal interests to brighten their rooms. It could be fishing, the family, of a familiar landscape. They will be customized to the residents and the paintings will belong to the residents outright. Our budding artists will sign their works.”
This fall, a new challenge awaits the students at the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires recreational program. The instructor says they are eagerly looking forward to it. “There has been a great deal of interest in the project,” she adds. In fact, there is now a waiting list. People really want to contribute to these kinds of social and people-oriented projects.” Paintings will be done on a variety of supports, including wood, canvas, fabric, and glass.
The paintings will be created over the period of a month, so in October residents of the Grace Dart Extended Care Centre will have their own, unique works of art. A tip of the hat to them all
- Click here to learn more about Carole Filteau.
- Read an article about works of art donated to the LGH.
- Read an article on art in hospitals. (FR only)