The Rimbey Family & Community Support Services (FCSS) is hosting their bi-annual Opening Minds Through Art Show and Sale Dec. 6 at the Rimbey FCSS building.
The artwork on display was created through the Opening Minds Through Art (OMA) program, which sees residents of Rimbey and area, who are facing Alzheimer’s and dementia, have the chance to learn new skills and express themselves through art.
OMA is an award-winning, evidence-based, intergenerational art-making program for people who live with dementia. It was developed at Scripps Gerontology Center at the Miami University in 2007.
The program sees people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s paired with volunteers (students, families, caregivers) who are trained to rely on imagination instead of memory with a focus on remaining strengths instead of lost skills.
“OMA enables people living with dementia [and Alzheimer’s] to assume new roles as artists and teachers and leave a legacy of beautiful artwork,” said the organization on its website.
The local OMA chapter run by Rimbey FCSS has been operating for just over a year and consists of one session a week for eight weeks.
“The fact we have OMA here in Rimbey is quite amazing,” said Becky Villeneuve, OMA facilitator for Rimbey FCSS. “But even more amazing than that is the friendships between the volunteers and the artists as well as from volunteer to volunteer and artist to artist.”
Villeneuve explained many of the group’s participants have previous art experience but that it is not a prerequisite and that the program aims to be inclusive to all skill levels.
“The artists who used to do art or who have experience with it - they really benefit, but also their families do as well,” said Villeneuve on the participants with previous art experience. “To see them pick up a paintbrush again after years of not doing it - it means so much to their families that they are painting and expressing themselves through art again.”
She added the benefits for those without experience are just as vast.
“We’ve found that especially with some of the men that have joined us who have no art experience - maybe all they’ve ever known is farming - through our program, they’re granted a new outlet,” said Villeneuve. “When you show them their work framed and hanging on the wall and tell them they did that - you can see the pride in their eyes.”
The Opening Minds Through Art Show and Sale silent auction event takes place from 6-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 6 at the Rimbey FCSS building.
For more information or to inquire about upcoming OMA sessions contact Rimbey FCSS at 403 843 2030.