DECEMBER 2018—KISLEV-TEVET 5779—VOL 19 NO 4 Art and Soul

DECEMBER 2018—KISLEV-TEVET 5779—VOL 19 NO 4

President’s Message ..............................2Resident of the Month ............................3Art and Soul ..............................................4Art and Soul (con’t.) ..............................5December Activities ................................6

December Activities, cont. .....................7Health Notes ..............................................8December Birthdays ..............................9Dining .......................................................10Marketing .................................................11

Table of Contents

Art and Soul

Staff

Emma Davis, Director of Programming 415-345-5098 Adrienne Fair, Assistant Executive Director 415-345-5077Ira Kurtz, Executive Director 415-345-5080Eric Luu, Chief Financial Officer 415-345-5083Van Ly, Business Office Manager 415-345-5073Samson Legesse, Director of Facilities 415-345-5088 Candiece Milford, Managing Director of Marketing 415-345-5072Peggy O'Brien, Director of Resident Services 415-345-5082Corey Weiner, Director of Food and Beverage 415-345-5050

2180 Post Street San Francisco, CA 94115

415.345.5060 415.345.5061 (fax) www.RGPlaza.org RCFE #385600125

Rhoda goldman plaza

Don AbramsonKaren Aidem David DossetterNancy GoldbergDr. Carl GrunfeldDr. Lawrence HillDavid Melnick Bernie NebenzahlRaquel NewmanJaimie SanfordPaul SiegelVera SteinRonna StoneDr. Anita FriedmanKaren Staller

Board of Directors

Message from the Resident Council President Barry Adler

As a teenager, I fell in love with the music and lyrics of the two-fingered piano version called Heart and Soul. It gave this hip Dude a chance to do and learn some groovy stuff. I took drum lessons and had my own drum practice pad. It also gave me a chance to lean to dance the Lindy

Hop and other dances of the day too. I quickly real-ized that banging on a drum practice pad all day long was less fun than dancing. About the same time soul music was making inroads and hit you right in the heart to the music of Sam Cooke and Ray Charles. It just doesn’t get any better than Ray Charles singing America. It puts you and me right in the heart of a hipster era and soul and supported by the sounds of Big Band stuff done by Hoagy Carmi-chael and Frank Loesser.

Lets come back to earth and realize the topic of the day is Art and Soul. Art is wherever you can find it. And let it turn you on with a thank you to the wielder of the brush and builder of creative work. That brings us to soul. Either you got it or you ain’t.

Employee Holiday PartyDecember 11

The Dining Room will be closed for dinner on Tuesday, December 11th due to the Employee Party. Boxed Dinners will be delivered Tuesday, after lunch. You do not need to be home to receive them. Staff will put them in your refrigerator.

Movies will not be shown on December 11th.

Thank you for your cooperation.

page 2 The Olive press

The Olive press page 3

Resident of the Month—Ruth Miguel

“Our art is part of us,” Ruth Miguel said, indicating the artwork around her apartment. “My husband and I have purchased pieces because they speak to us—not because of their monitory value. We bought our first piece together, a metal sculpture, sixty-five years ago, a year before we were even married. It spoke to us and we knew we had to have it. We each put in $75, which was a fair amount of money in those days, and it still hangs on our wall. When something talks to you, you have to go for it,” she said. “All of our pieces are like that. It’s a response to the vision

that the artist is sharing. It touches your soul and makes you aware of new ideas and new feelings which you hadn’t known existed.”

“We didn’t consciously start out to collect”, she continued. “Our backgrounds really do not have much in the way of artistic ancestry. What we were fortunate to have was an exposure to art in all of its depictions. Ron worked at Gump’s through high school, and my parents owned a flower shop. We learned to appreciate natural and man-created beauty when we were quite young. Growing up in San Francisco during the Beat Generation, when so many artists, jewelers, poets, and musicians were actively creating, was a fantastic experience and a lasting education. We hung out in North Beach and upper Grant Ave and were fortunate to have some of these artists as friends. It was a time of new ideas and an openness which we were privileged to be a part of.”

“That’s the way we raised our family. As a result, all three of our children are involved to some extent in art—our son, Barry, in fashion design; some of Melanie’s sculptures are displayed throughout RGP; and Renee is an accomplished flower designer. Each has their own gift and outlet of expression. We firmly believe that parents have an obligation to expose their children to art in all of its forms—music, painting, sculpture, design, architecture, prose, poetry, and other expressions, so that they may develop their own aesthetic, understanding, and taste. This leads to an appreciation that is not constrained by the limiting concepts and rules developed by others.”

“The connection between art and soul? That should be obvious—they go hand in hand. To see and hear art opens one up to new thoughts and new ideas. You instinctively understand what the artist wishes to convey. It speaks to your soul. Allowing oneself openness to new ideas and new thoughts is vitally important. You should allow your mind to wander and be free enough to comprehend the artist’s language and intention. Works of art are created to convey a message. When you hear or view an original work of art you should breathe it in, visualize the person who created it, and feel that person’s intent.”

Ruth concluded by saying, “I am not a creator of art. However it is important for me to experience it and have it surround me. It is a blessing to be allowed to live with it.”


Art and Soul

At the beginning of every month, we blithely choose a theme for the Olive Press; the rest of the month, not-so-blithely, I try to nurture it into language. We thought Art and Soul would be broad enough to engage residents and hopefully deep enough to make it thought-worthy. How easy to contrast our RGP art with corporate art and extoll the benefits of art classes! Or so I thought. Some themes flow seamlessly into the newsletter while recalcitrant others have a life of their own. This month being a case in point.

Ruth Miguel expressed much more clearly and elegantly what I planned to write about, and Candiece Milford covered the caliber of RGP’s art. Another idea was to contrast RGP’s diverse and tasteful art to corporate art. “Rhoda Goldman Plaza art is eclectic and personal; it is art for art’s sake. Many visitors have exclaimed “I love the artwork here!,” possibly because it is not mass-produced. Corporate art is commissioned to provide uniformity, to send a message to the viewer-as-a-consumer, to indicate the character of the corporation, and in some cases to indicate how reliable, successful, or smart the corporation is. In corporate art, the product is important, not the vision of the artist.” Great! RGP has real art which people respond to. But, it turns out, I was thinking far too small.

Through my continuing research, I found a TED talk by Tim Carpenter about a senior living community that is an artist’s colony. People chose to live there because they could continue to create, and in some cases wanted to start creating, in retirement. Imagine a group of artists living together for thirty to forty years who are now getting old, but love creativity so much that they want to do it as long as possible. This story inverts the clinical approach that “art is good for older people because it reduces doctor’s visits, increases socialization, provides meaning, etc.” Carpenter proposes that art is fundamental to one’s life, that everyone is creative, and that expressing one’s creativity is an existential and essential activity.

That’s big. Bigger than the commercialism of corporate art. But the story grew as I ran into a blog How Art Can Save Your Soul which discussed a book called Art As Therapy by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong. They suggest that art need not be seen only through the lens of art history where art’s significance depends on the school of painting or epoch. Rather, de Botton looks on art as the repository of culture, Man’s existence—hope, empathy, care, sorrow, work, appreciation, relationships, and even consumerism—has been shared by mankind over the ages. Seeing works of art in this light, people will understand that they are not the only ones who have a bad relationship, a backbreaking or unrewarding job, or on the other hand, have joyfully contemplated natural beauty and appreciated friends; many others have done so as well. This understanding removes the isolation and despair of people who think they are the only ones in the world who suffer, and allows them to take an active part in their own healing. These ideas too, represented another revolutionary leap in an understanding of art and soul.

Art work by a Terrace resident


Art and Soul, (con’t.)

After wandering so far, I thought to return and re-look at art and residents at Rhoda Goldman Plaza. Do we have examples in our community to whom art is (almost) essential? Yes! Many residents attend art classes, love painting, ceramics, choose Fromm art history lectures, and join museum outings. Some, never having done art, have found art here; others continue making art as they have, long before they arrived. And there are residents whose life has been expressed in the art world as interior designers, art gallery owners, artists, and collectors to whom art makes life worth living.

Resident Art Show

Call for submissionsThe annual resident art show is fast approaching! Deadline for

submissions is

Monday December 24th.

Please bring your artwork for submission to the first floor art room. Be sure your name and

the title of your work is included.

Reception Sunday January 6th

Chanukah Candle Lighting 5:00pm

December 2 Activity Room




December 6 LIBRARY




Happy Chanukah

Another resident came to mind, a resident who took up art later in life, enjoyed it in assisted living, and now continues it on the Terrace. Her art is now exuberant and free, wildly colorful; she is prolific. I would like to offer a thought, in line with our deeper appreciation of what art can do, that, for people with memory loss, art integrates. It engages the part of the brain responsible for intuitive, creative, and imaginative impulses. Art-making reveals people’s internal experience in a safe secure way. It fills in where memory doesn’t quite connect and provides another place where the artists feel their true selves. “Art,” wrote Sir Kenneth Clark, “...must do something more than give pleasure; it should relate to our own life so as to increase our energy and spirit.”

Katheryn Allen-Katz


Decem

ber Activities

Special Events 9 Sun 10:30 Nails with Julia 12 Wed 2:30 Zenjoi Virtual Reality Exercise Demonstration 17 Mon 10:30 Joke Telling with Len 18 Tues 2:00 Meditation with Devon

Outings 4 Tues 10:45 Contemporary Jewish Museum 6 Thurs 1:00 International Art Museum of America 11 Tues 12:30 Hidden Sausalito and Its Floating Suburbs 13 Thurs 11:30 Chabot Space and Science Center 18 Tues 1:00 Legion of Honor 20 Thurs 1:00 Global Museum 27 Thurs 11:30 Spruce 29 Sat 2:00 Fort Mason: Museo Italo American

Lectures/Discussion Mondays 3:00 Eight Symphonies 6, 13 Thurs 10:30 Hitchcock Movie Discussion with Cary Pepper Fridays 10:30 Venice, Veneto, and Middle East: Golden & Silver Ages Saturdays 3:30 Joy of Science 10, 24 Mon 10:30 John Rothmann 12 Tues 1:00 Multidisciplinary Artist and Activist Aida Lizalde 13 Thurs 3:00 The Origins of Eastern Europe Jews with Ken Blady 19 Wed 10:30 Make ‘em Laugh with Bonnie Weiss

Classes Committees/Resident Council/Clubs 5 Wed 1:00 Activities Committee 5, 19 Wed 3:15 Memory Loss Support Group 9 Sun 11:00 Creative Writing with Dorothy Mondays 2:00 Weekly Movie Committee 14 Fri 1:30 History Committee 18 Tues 10:30 Gardening with Elizabeth 20 Thurs 4:15 French Club 21 Fri 10:00 Dining Room Committee 26 Wed 10:00 Creative Writing with Dorothy 26 Wed 2:00 Resident Council Meeting

Art Classes 3 Mon 10:00 Chanukah Collages with Collage Artist Denise Fielder 4, 12 Tues 3:30 Jewelry with Shannon Tuesdays 3:30 Painting with Kimberley 11 Tues 1:00 Art Studio with JFCS Young Professional Volunteers 23 Sun 11:00 Printmaking with Shannon 26 Wed 11:00 Flowers with Emma Thursdays 10:00 Ceramics with Jeannie Fridays 2:00 Knitting with Max


Decem

ber Activities

Music 1 Saturday 1:20 Chanukah Songs—Cable Car Carolers 2 Sunday 3:00 Lovin’ Harmony Trio 9 Sunday 2:00 Mark Levy Chanukah Concert 16 Sunday 2:00 Yakov Violin Concert 23 Sunday 3:00 Moonglow Duo 30 Sunday 3:00 Chelsea Wong Classical Piano Concert

Poetry and Drama 5 Wednesday 10:30 Storytelling with Bruce 11 Tuesday 10:30 Script Reading with Lauren 12 Wednesday 10:30 Musical Theater with Bruce 14 Friday 1:00 Greg Pond Poetry Reading 16 Sunday 11:00 Poetry with Elizabeth

Games Sundays 1:00 Card Games with Eric Mondays 1:00 Bingo Mondays 4:30 Crosswords Tuesdays 10:00 Dominoes Tuesdays 1:00 Rummikub 5, 12, 19 Wed 2:00 Scrabble 19 Wed 1:00 Blackjack with Ira Saturdays 1:30 Rummikub 31 Mon 10:30 Board Games with Joe

Exercise Classes Sundays 10:00 Exercise with Phil Mondays 9:00 Exercise with Caroline Tuesdays 9:15 Tai Chi with Janet Wednesdays 9:00 Klezmercise! with Bruce 5, 12, 19 Wed 11:00 Open Gym with a Trainer Thursdays 9:00 Exercise with Carl Thursdays 1:30 Chair Yoga with Ilya Fridays 9:00 Exercise with Caroline Saturdays 10:30 Chair Yoga with Ilya

Religious Services Fridays 4:00 Shabbat Services with Rabbi Me’irah 2 - 9 5:00 Chanukah Candle Lighting 19 Wed 4:00 Tea with Rabbi Me’irah


Adrienne Fair, MSN, RN, Assistant Executive Director

Health Notes

Tell it Like it Is

Anne Adams (1940-2007) was a chemist and cellular biologist who became a prolific artist in her 50s along with the onset of frontotemporal dementia. Her dementia caused primary progressive aphasia (PPA) meaning that she gradually lost the ability to communicate using spoken language. In the painting below, she visually represents the music of Ravel’s Bolero. Maurice Ravel, interestingly, also had a PPA diagnosis and continued to compose music despite losing his ability to speak.

UCSF neurologists William Seeley and Bruce Miller, among others, researched the progression of Anne Adams’ artistic style along with brain scans showing the increasing deterioration of her frontal cortex. The researchers noted that while the front of her brain was shrinking, other parts of her brain were gaining mass. “Specific forms of visual creativity” were “liberated by dominant inferior frontal cortex injury”, giving her “striking gains of function” with regards to artistic expression.1 In other words, as she lost verbal language, she gained visual artistic abilities.

On the Terrace, Emma Davis, MFT, and the activities staff offer a wide variety of forms of expression. There are sensory projects, visual arts, and music as well as story-telling and drama. These activities are not just a way to fill up the day and keep residents occupied. Memory care residents are free to express themselves even when conventional modes of speech are difficult for them.

One resident, for example, loves to paint mandalas while another resident prefers reading out loud to the group while they paint. A former resident had an operatic voice and would sing classic songs like Que Sera Sera in the hallway. When you visit the Terrace, you can see exhibits of resident artwork. Often, there is a central theme i.e. paintings inspired by Magritte—and each resident’s work is strikingly different from the others.

Art can be such a powerful tool for healthcare and healing. For people who have dementia and difficulty with verbal language, art can also be an alternate means of self-expression. Despite challenges of body and mind, each person has a unique perspective and insight into the world—what a gift it is to share our perspectives with each other.1 Seeley et al. (2008) Unravelling Bolero: progressive

aphasia, transmodal creativity and the right posterior neocortex. Brain, 131 (1), 39-49.

Anne Adams, Unravelling Bolero, 1994.


Madeleine Mulderrig, Assistant Activities Coordinator, has been at RGP since September 2017 and has worked on the Terrace from her beginning.

“In spite of memory loss, Terrace residents don’t forget to say “thank you and to show kindness toward each other,” Madeleine said. “Although it is easy to focus on what people with memory issues have lost, I prefer to focus on what they have gained—they have developed or strengthened a sense of gratitude for the very small things. This ‘thank you’ becomes a moment of connection between the resident and me. This sense of caring—seeing how residents look out for each other and sometimes requesting a staff member to give special attention to another resident—shows how connected residents are to each other.

I believe that I am drawn to working on the Terrace because there is a tradition in Ireland that women in particular are called into the service of their community, often as nurses or teachers. That’s reflected in the Gaelic saying of

Employee of the Month—Madeleine Mulderrig

“having a heart for service.” My parents always looked out for an individual or for a group of people whose voices were not heard. They encouraged me to put myself in the role of the dispossessed and think how I would like to be treated. Perhaps my grandparents who lived in a rural area were a role model for my parents; they also looked after others. If someone needed a job, they tried to connect them with someone who needed work done. They didn’t pull up the ladder when they reached a certain economic level. They were teachers who encouraged us to read and they helped us with our homework. I think it is this sense of neighborliness and of being aware of other’s needs that I value. I find that in my previous jobs that involved customer service, I’ve always advocated for those who are elderly, the overlooked, or those whose viewpoints were not given credence.

I wanted to work at RGP in Memory Care because I felt that this job would be a way of giving back for the wonderful care my aunt received in Ireland, but also it was a way of honoring my parents and heritage. I am very grateful that I am part of the activities program which concentrates on making life the best it can be for our residents.”

December BirthdaysMadge Sklar 2 Betty Sekhri 9 Andre Diedrichs 15 Paula Smith 17 Jerry Neuhaus 18 Donald Rice 23 Judith Rosenthal 23 Stephanie DiGiorgio 25 Rivka Spiegel 25


Corey Weiner,Director of Food and Beverage

Paint to Your Heart’s Content, But Don’t Put It on My Wall

When I first started putting food on the table at RGP eighteen years ago, I got a lot, repeat a lot, of complaints about the food. It seemed nothing I did was right. I had come from a very high-end senior living facility, where the bacon and crab were quite real, and nothing was faux, and meals were served on Lenox china. Even the feather dusters used by house-keeping had to quietly match the décor. There my talent was regaled, and I was everyone’s spare grand-daughter. To my new job, I brought the same great recipes and food service expertise, but the resident’s reaction was less than ecstatic. How could it be that it was (almost) the same food I had served at the high-end place, on commercial china, but the reaction was totally opposite???? I learned very early that reality was a conceptual and non-existent matter. You may think San Francisco has micro climates, and it’s true—dining rooms can be case studies of micro criticisms.

So, if reality is subjective, and art and food feed the soul, can bad food or “art” feed the soul too? A Banksy Painting recently sold at auction for $1.4 million, and at the sound

of the gavel, the artwork literally self-destructed through a paper shredder in the frame. The buyer happily went through with the purchase…. now how do you display and preserve shredded art? And food? My mother cooked cabbage into oblivion; (but everyone loved it); did that feed my bitter little soul? Something like that may have caused Van Gogh’s ear issue. Wolfgang Laib creates huge art pieces with hand-gathered hazelnut pollen which feeds the soul of any allergist, but how do you sell it? Sweep it up and redistribute? It will shrink with every sale. Please don’t open a window. We can’t open windows in the dining room either. Coincidence? I think not.

The famous Luncheon on The Grass by Monet drew almost universal criticism, but changed the world of art forever. Cezanne was said to paint in a delirium, and it was said of Renoir that if he could only draw, he might amount to something (paraphrasing here).

Does junk food feed the soul? No, it feeds the healthcare system. Soul food might nourish the body, certainly nostalgia nourishes both body and soul, but it also builds doctors and dentist’s second and third homes. You can alleviate bad moods, depression, and anxiety with chocolate, good or bad. What makes chocolate good? Nothing stirs my soul better than a Snickers bar, and don’t think I didn’t notice that those were the first to disappear at Halloween.

So, I love to paint, it feeds my soul, but it doesn’t put food on the table. No soul stirring $1,000 dinners at the French Laundry on an artist’s income. A bit of high fiber cereal at the dinner table and off to bed ...!

I know what art is,and a

splotchy canvas ain’t it.


Candiece Milford,Managing Director of Marketing

The Role of Art In Our Daily Life At Rhoda Goldman Plaza

The collection at Rhoda Goldman Plaza was thoughtfully selected eighteen years ago to add interest to the walls of our seven-story community. On the walls today, we have about 174 prints, paintings and photographs (there’s

even more in storage), two quilts, two murals, and ten three-foot tall vases in each elevator lobby that are breathtaking. Almost the entire collection is original art including the twenty-one beautiful watercolors that were donated for the dining room. On loan we have about six sculptures made by our very own staff member, Melanie Miguel. The collection is eclectic, diverse, and without doubt, the only community of our kind to commit the financial resources to aggregate such high-end art. I know. I visit competitive communities constantly, all over the Bay Area.

The commitment to purchase original artwork reflects the high caliber of services that we offer at Rhoda Goldman Plaza. No Art.com or Pier One Import pre-framed art here! All the artwork is consistently framed in maple in keeping with the furniture and the overall “Rhoda Goldman look.”

In that like-minded people self-select to live here, the many visitors who come through our doors continually praise the artwork and “those stunning vases” in the elevator lobbies on residential floors.

We also host a comprehensive art program conducted by real artists who provide instruction in watercolor, painting, ceramics, and drawing extending our support of the arts. Some residents have found new forms of self-expression through this program and exhibit their work during our annual Resident Art Show (coming soon in January!)

Providing a changing exhibition in a variety of media by our residents and Bay Area artists is a means of bringing art to residents who may not be able to get out as easily to view it on their own. Several staff members organize these shows and provide a printed invitation to all residents, their families, friends, people on our Wait List and welcome the public via our Facebook page. Residents of the Memory Caring floor are invited to show their work during the annual Resident art show and are always included in the festive Sunday reception that harkens the excitement of a real-world art gallery opening.

While I focused on the visual arts, let’s not forget to include the creative writing club, those who enjoy knitting, quilting, beading and other decorative arts. This kaleidoscope of choices of self-expression keep the heart and soul of this beautiful community beating strongly.

Rhoda goldman plaza 2180 Post Street San Francisco, CA 94115

415.345.5060 415.345.5061 (fax)

www.RGPlaza.org RCFE #385600125

Founded by Jewish Family and Children’s Services and Mount Zion Health Fund

Rhoda Goldman PlazaThe appeal of Rhoda Goldman Plaza is undeniable. Older adults and their families prefer our unsurpassed assisted living and memory care community enriched by culture and tradition.Residents enjoy superb, “made-from-scratch” cuisine that is always well reviewed by our most vocal critics; our residents! While our dining selections please the appetite, accommodations showcase spacious, private apartments designed to maximize space and comfort. In fact, we’re re-defining your life as Living Well With Assistance — we believe our community is every bit as good as a five-star hotel. And, professionally trained, courteous staff promotes your health and well-being with choices of activity programs both on and off-site.

Our Terrace Memory program provides specialized memory care to residents through therapeutic activities that enhance physical, mental, and emotional health. Both privacy and companionship are afforded on our self-contained Terrace. Living Well With Assistance is more than a promise, but a way of life for our like-minded residents and staff who share the vision of our upscale community.

Visit Rhoda Goldman Plaza today by calling 415.345.5072.

Founded by Jewish Family and Children’s Services and Mt. Zion Health Fund in 2000, Rhoda Goldman Plaza (RGP) was established as a non-profit assisted living facility to provide a better and more secure life for older adults.

Documents

DECEMBER 2018—KISLEV-TEVET 5779—VOL 19 NO 4 Art and Soul