Stamps Professor Anne Mondro and Charlie Michaels (MFA ‘11) Awarded NEA Grant

Stamps Associate Professor Anne Mondro has received a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts grant to support Between the Earth and the Sky: Intergenerational Interactions of Visibility, a collaborative community art-making project for teens and memory-impaired adults. The project, scheduled to unfold September 1, 2017 — August 31, 2018, was co-created with Charlie Michaels (MFA 2011), Assistant Director of Student and Faculty Engagement at the Center for Socially Engaged Design. 

Between the Earth and the Sky is a community art-making project for teens and memory-impaired adults. In conjunction with lead artists, teens will be partnered with residents from a center for Alzheimer’s and dementia to create two installations that revolve around the summer and winter solstices. The art-making activities will focus on the theme of light and growth, using traditional paint and paper as well as plants, mosses, and other natural materials. A public event will include lantern-making and a light festival for the residents and their families to be held on the darkest day of the year. Residents will have opportunities for social stimulation, expression, and discovery and teens will increase their understanding and sensitivity towards those living with memory impairment. 

Mondro teaches ​“Memory, Aging & Expressive Arts” at the Stamps School of Art & Design, an undergraduate course that explores the benefits of creativity and the potential of art to aid the human spirit during times of illness and disease through partnerships with the University of Michigan Geriatric Center’s memory loss programs. 

NEA Announces Grants to Support the Arts in Every U.S. State and Jurisdiction