Parrish Art Museum Hosts Access Parrish Art Workshop

The Parrish Art Museum is reaching out to improve the lives of children with autism, adults with Alzheimer’s disease and anyone with intellectual disabilities through the viewing and creation of art.In partnership with the Water Mill-based nonprofit Flying Point Foundation for Autism, Access Parrish hosts children with developmental and learning disabilities, showing them various artworks and then allowing them to create their own.

The last workshop of the spring season will take place on Sunday, June 5. For the summer season, Access Parrish will offer Paint at the Parrish workshops for those afflicted by Alzheimer’s and dementia. In partnership with the Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center, which has a satellite office in Southampton, the museum will offer the chance to explore the art in its galleries and then hold discussions with the elderly and their caregivers. This workshop starts Wednesday, June 8, and will occur every month until November 9. Both workshops require registration in advance to attend.

According to Parrish education director Cara Conklin-Wingfield, Access Parrish is definitely a collaborative effort.

“Two years ago, we had some visiting artists, two brothers [Steven and William Ladd]. They had some experience working with special needs audiences and with them came an opportunity to reach out,” Ms. Conklin-Wingfield said. “When we did that, we contacted a lot of the service organizations and the schools in the area, and they were so receptive that we realized that there was a need.”

Wendy Gottlieb is the museum educator and oversees both the youth groups and the senior groups. For her, just seeing the participants experience artworks and be inspired means the program is successful. On top of that is the chance for parents and caregivers to take the experience home.

“I love to watch their awe with each new exhibition,” Ms. Gottlieb said. “They’re fascinated by it, and seeing someone with Alzheimer’s enjoy what they’re doing is very emotionally rewarding. You simply present it, you step back and you let it happen.”

Ms. Conklin-Wingfield and her colleagues at the museum spent most of last year putting the funding together and spent January and February of this year training for the programs. Their first Paint at the Parrish workshop, tailored to people with Alzheimer’s or dementia, was in March, and the Life Skills students of Southampton Intermediate School first visited in April. This month, the museum started to expand its outreach by working with the Life Skills class of Hampton Bays High School, and next month the museum will begin working with the Independent Group Home Living program in Manorville.

Ms. Conklin-Wingfield said she has come to recognize that, for adults with cognitive and emotional conditions, there is a great need for a program like Access Parrish.

“What we do in the museum is really conducive to most of these audiences ... there’s a nice overlap with the way we engage individuals with objects in an inquiry-based way and make work to reinforce what’s been seen and discussed.”

The impact of the program depends not only on the impact of the artwork, but also on the connection between the participants and their caregivers or family members. Ms. Conklin-Wingfield finds that when someone with Alzheimer’s and his or her caregiver have both the large visual of an art piece and a small reproduction of it at their fingertips, the enjoyment of the art can be a shared experience where the two can connect and support each other.

Ms. Conklin-Wingfield points out a particular moment at the first Paint at the Parrish workshop, when a husband accompanied his wife who suffers from Alzheimer’s.

“Afterward I asked him how the program was and he said, ‘It was perfect because I want to plan something with my wife where we can have an outing, but it’s too much for me to think of what might be successful,’ and if the burden of all that was on him and it didn’t work out, it’s not a good experience,” she said. “In this case, he just had to come and said, ‘I was free from all of that worry and we had a positive experience here.’” He also told her that he and his wife never visited an art museum together before. “It wasn’t something he would’ve thought, ‘Oh, well let’s try this,’ so that anecdote said all about what we’re trying to do here.”

The whole point of these programs is in the title: access. Ms. Conklin-Wingfield believes the workshops are tending to special needs members of the community who are not being served. She hopes that families of those afflicted will see the museum as a comfortable place to connect with art and express an interest in creating art. From there, she hopes more experiences can be had with other programs the museum has to offer, Such as outdoor concerts.

“Seeing the art gives them ideas,” said Michael Darcy, the Life Skills teacher at the Southampton Intermediate School. “We encourage art because it’s very therapeutic and helps balance out the day. We see uniqueness and how each painting reflects a student’s personality.”

The Access Parrish Workshop with the Flying Point Foundation for Autism will happen Sunday, June 5 at 11 a.m. Call 631-283-2118 ext. 121 or email wingfieldc@parrishart.org to register. Paint at the Parrish with the ADRC starts Wednesday, June 8 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Call Michele Payne, Director of Programs at ADRC at 631-580-5100 ext. 304 to register. All Access Parrish workshops are offered free of charge.