Arts & Minds: Empowering Uptown’s Older Adults Through Art

When neurologist Dr. James M. Noble observed Carolyn Halpin-Healy at work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, he saw a powerful opportunity to better support his patients

Halpin-Healy, a long-time museum educator, was leading a discussion and artmaking group for older adults dealing with memory loss due to diseases like Alzheimer’s. Since that visit in 2008, Dr. Noble and Halpin-Healy have worked together to build Arts & Minds, an Uptown-based nonprofit and Columbia Community Service grantee that provides meaningful art-centered programs for adults with memory loss, including Alzheimer’s or dementia, and their care partners.

Serving as the executive director of Arts & Minds, Halpin-Healy wields her years of experience as an educator to implement Arts & Minds' programming at museums across Manhattan. These programs aim to provide positive emotional and cognitive experiences, improve communication, and build community.

Columbia Neighbors sat down with Halpin-Healy and Anthony (Tony) Gonzalez, who leads the organization’s community outreach work, to learn more about how art can empower this population.

Can you share how the connection between art and neurology was clear from your very first meeting with Dr. Noble?

CHH: I was facilitating a discussion when in walks this young neurologist, Dr. Noble, who quickly became very interested in the work, especially once he saw the interactions between care partners and heard what the caregivers had to say. For example, a daughter might say, “I never heard my mom tell that story before.” Or, “My dad is usually so quiet at home and, here, he’s super interactive and lively.” Dr. Noble was touched by that and he saw how this could make a real difference in his patients’ lives.

Can you describe what happens in an Arts & Minds program? 

AG: Every Arts & Minds program is a collective journey of discovery that’s inspired by a work of art. Every piece has multiple stories attached to it—from the artist themselves to the time in which it was created. In museums, we’ll sit around a work of art, talk about it in small groups, and then move to a classroom afterwards to create. We follow a very similar format in our community-based programs. At older adult centers, we’re set up to conduct our programs in-house with the image of a museum piece on a screen that everyone can see.

CHH: Our programs are offered in Spanish as well as English. In 2015, we began a long-term partnership with El Museo del Barrio and we offer Arts & Minds en Español at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Our online programs, which we started the day museums in New York City closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will always be available because they are helpful for people who may have trouble leaving the house. 

We rely on Dr. Noble to help us understand the symptoms people may be experiencing and the broader impact of Alzheimer's on our culture. The social worker on our Board, Joyce Visceglia helps us understand the psychoemotional impact of dementia on those who are experiencing it as well as on care partners. We combine this knowledge with our expertise in art to create programs that are open, accessible, and truly meaningful for participants living with dementia.

How have you seen art empower your participants?

AG: I’ve known this one participant, Bill, for a couple of years who's always been very engaged, but not always verbal. Recently, we were discussing an artist who uses found objects, or everyday items incorporated into art. I asked the group what objects they can think of that help to tell their life story, and then asked them to show us through a drawing. Bill seemed confused at first, but once we got onto the topic of basketball, he burst into this wonderful soliloquy!

He shared vivid stories about playing with the neighborhood kids—how they’d turn driveways into courts, how the games would get loud and competitive, and the neighborhood parents would encourage the cacophony. He became so vibrant, someone I had only ever seen small glimpses of. This made me realize how lucky I am to do this work.

CHH: I remember a session at Studio Museum in Harlem, where we were looking at a sculpture that represented the Black Star Line, a Black-owned passenger line created by Marcus Garvey that would repatriate Black Americans to Africa as part of the “Back-to-Africa” Movement. The conversation was so rich—stories were shared about Marcus Garvey, which led to conversations about the White Star Line and the Titanic. One person told stories about a relative who shoveled coal on a White Star Line ship, another was the son of a Titanic engineer, and someone else explained how her husband had escaped Nazi Germany as a 6-year-old, coming to New York by boat.

The most touching moment was when the wife of a veteran of the Royal Air Force who was no longer able to speak, shared his story of being shot down over France. Another participant, in a show of admiration and respect, left his seat and walked across to shake the man’s hand. It all felt like a moment of world peace—these deeply personal stories connecting people, all brought together by a single work of art.

You mentioned care partners earlier. Can you talk a bit about how they come to benefit from the programs as well?

CHH: It’s fascinating to see how professional caregivers, just like family caregivers, experience this program on a personal level. My colleague, Shanta Lawson, did a study for her master’s a few years ago, where she looked into how caregivers—both family and professional—were involved with Arts & Minds. She expected their connection to be purely centered around caregiving, but what she found was that it had a deeper, personal meaning. Caregivers were touched by the collective experience of art, discovering something new for themselves alongside the people they cared for. It wasn’t just about their role as caregivers—it became their own creative journey, too.

Arts & Minds has a strong presence Uptown. Can you tell us more about the work you do in those communities?

AG: We adapt the format of our museum-based programs and bring them to local community senior centers, from Uptown to Chelsea. Specifically, we’re currently doing programming at PSS Manhattanville Center, Riverstone Memory Center in Washington Heights, Morningside Retirement and Health Services, and also the Edie Windsor Sage Center in Chelsea.

CHH: Since 2012, we’ve also been offering training to museum staff and others who are interested in bringing similar programs to their institutions, through an online program that’s available to anyone. Our goal is for people to learn our approach and bring it to their local museum, community center, or even to create arts-based activities at home with the people they care for. At this point, we’ve helped more than two dozen museums start or strengthen programming for people with dementia and their care partners.

Why do you think working with the Uptown population is important?

AG: There is a real need to do outreach with the Uptown community, so they know that this programming is a tool that people with dementia can use to improve their situation. Especially in underserved communities, as dementia rates are disproportionately high among Black and Hispanic populations [and in the United States, these populations will see the largest increases in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias between 2015 and 2060, according to the CDC].

Our estimate at Arts & Minds, based on larger statistics by the Alzheimer’s Association, is that in West Harlem alone, there are between 2,000 and 2,500 residents living with dementia, and three times as many people providing unpaid care to them. It’s important for us to reach out to the communities here, where there is significant need.

You’re both longtime Uptown residents and you work with art on a daily basis. Is there somewhere you like to visit to recharge your artistic spirit?

CHH: For me, it’s The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There are so many nooks and crannies where I can discover new things and I can follow my mood and see where that brings me. If I want to visit old friends, I’ll go look at European paintings, but if I want to see something new I’ll go up to the roof garden or discover a new piece in the Asian art gallery.

AG: I live in the Heights, not too far from The Met Cloisters. It has a very special place in my heart because I’ve been here for about 30 years, and I know every inch of that museum. There’s also a beautiful Heather Garden in Fort Tryon Park that’s in full bloom now, but in the winter it’s also quite magnificent.