Jamee Nowell Smith knows how to get creative. As Director of the Chester Senior Center, Jamee has always been able to find a way to help her seniors stay connected and engaged. She wasn’t going to let a little problem like a worldwide pandemic stop her. Jamee knew she needed a way to keep her seniors connected to each and the community, even though the center had closed to in-person activities.
Chester Senior Center continued to run outdoor and virtual programs, including book clubs, exercise groups and bible study. Jamee asked herself “why not art?” That question was the jumping off point for what turned out to be an amazing collaborative effort between Jamee and Veronica Kairos and a wealth of the center’s seniors and MSoP volunteers. Basically, Jamee told Veronica “I got a wall” and from there they got started. It’s also worth noting that while all Jamee had was a wall, she knew she’d be able to get the supplies they needed to fill that wall. What materials were not covered by her activities budget, Jamee found a way to get donated. Apparently, this is one of her superpowers.
Veronica Kairos, who is the president of the Mosaic Society of Philadelphia (MSoP), was already connected with the center, having been running mosaic classes there for a couple of years. Jamee approached Veronica to figure out what mosaic project would be a community builder as well as one that could be done remotely until in-person activities became an option again. They needed to create a project whose components could be worked on independently by each participant but would come to together in a cohesive mosaic mural. These individual components needed to be simple enough that those participating didn’t need any special skills or tools, but also interesting and flexible enough that the participants would get a chance to show their creativity. To make things manageable to work on at home, the seniors would be creating flowers that did not need to be grouted, cutting out a messy and challenging step.
The next step was to figure out exactly what kind of mosaic they wanted to create on the center’s wall. They were inspired by mosaic of flowers in a flowerpot. It was very detailed and intricate, so Veronica simplified it for their purposes, and they came up with a color scheme. The mosaic would be composed of flowers created by the seniors from kits they took home, as well as larger, more detailed and grouted flowers that were going to be created by MSoP volunteers.
Veronica and Jamee then reached out to Dawn Mendelson to see how they might proceed in a way that would get the client involvement they were looking for. They wanted some tips on how to create self-contained kits they could send home as well as the best way to give the seniors directions they could easily follow. While Mendelson had used live video presentations in the past, Jamee did not feel this would work for her seniors. Instead, they were able to get Judy Styles to do a 5-minute instructional video that was posted to MSoP’s YouTube page.
After a month of planning and creating kits with all the needed supplies, it was time to get the word out and drum up interest and excitement. As usual, this was no problem for Jamee. Jamee and her Program Coordinator, Vicky Holmes, began their outreach, which included flyers, social media blasts and mailers. In came the volunteers who happily picked up their kits and were given due dates. Many participants so enjoyed the project, they came back to get another kit (or two or three) to work on. As vaccines became available and Covid-19 restrictions loosened a bit, some of the seniors were able to work on their flowers at Chester Senior Center, adding the extra bonus of some sorely missed socializing.
While the seniors worked on their pieces, MSoP volunteers also got to work. The guidelines to create these flowers were much looser since these were experienced mosaic artists with their own ideas and supplies. Veronica gave them an overview of the project and general parameters. The resulting 39 flowers blended seamlessly with the flowers the seniors created.
All told, almost 60 people participated, some making more than one flower, and created 100 flowers! The vision for what the finished project would look like wasn’t finalized until all the pieces were returned. Not knowing just how many of the kits would be completed and returned, Veronica wasn’t sure how big she needed to design the piece. She happily had to expand her original design to include all the flowers.
Veronica’s plan for the final mural, like the flowers created by the seniors, didn’t require grout. No grout made for a less labor-intensive installation and also lessened the need for too much working together in close quarters. When you look at the mural, the grout isn’t missed at all since you still get the same aesthetic that you expect when looking at a mosaic. This was accomplished by painting a black rectangle on the wall and installing the mosaic pieces onto the black background. The black background effectively acts as grout in that it brings all the pieces together into a cohesive unit just as grout would do.
Once installed, it was time for the big reveal. Once again, enter Jamee. Jamee decided that the unveiling should happen during Delco Arts Week, which was the first week of October. This gave one more way people could find out about the unveiling since the Delco Arts Week website and social media helped to promote the event. This on top of Chester Senior Center’s assorted communications. One of the things Jamee recalled about the day the mural was revealed was the excitement of her clients. Even though the mural had been in place for a few weeks before the official unveiling, Jamee covered it up so they could have a dramatic reveal. She said she really got a chuckle when the people who had worked on the project and had already seen it lined up oohing and aahhing taking pictures as if it was the first time they were seeing it. Jamee was happy to see that her “I got a wall” project was a success; the finished mural was beautiful, and her seniors were thrilled with the outcome and really enjoyed being part of a community project.
When I asked Jamie what she felt the seniors got out of working on a project like this she said that she believes there is value in partnership; that this is how we enrich each other lives and benefit the greater good.
