The Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging will host the Art and Aging Exhibition on Feb. 16, showcasing paintings created by students from Assistant Professor Aitor Lajarin-Encina’s Fall 2021 Beginning Painting class.
Last year, the Center approached the Department of Art and Art History with the idea for a project to unpack ageism. Students were asked to create paintings that show what “healthy aging” means to them, and in their paintings, to avoid common ageist stereotypes of older adulthood.
“Projects like these give my students a chance to exercise their creative perspectives over critical issues: in this case, aging,” Lajarin-Encina said. “We expect the exhibition to introduce students to the feeling of a real art exhibit to reward them for the great effort they put into their work last semester.”
Professor Christine Fruhauf from the Department of Human Development and Family Studies assisted with the project by giving an interactive lecture to the students that prompted them to reframe aging not as a period of decline, but as a time when life goals are realized, and wisdom is abundant.
Christine Fruhauf teaches ART 260 students about ageism.
Top two will be purchased
Attendees at the Feb. 16 exhibition can expect to hear directly from the students about their paintings. A poll of the audience will decide the top two paintings of the evening, which the Center for Healthy Aging intends to purchase for permanent display on their walls.
The exhibition will be held from 4–6 p.m. at the Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging, located in the CSU Health and Medical Center at 151 W. Lake St. on the corner of College Ave. and Prospect Rd. Suite 1400 is on the first floor across from Associates in Family Medicine. CSU’s mask policy will be observed.
This event is open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Parking is available in the Health and Medical Center lot or across W. Lake St. in the lot beside the South College Ave. Parking Garage (CSU lot #575).
