For their efforts to support creative work and promote lifelong learning and healthy aging, two professors have received art grants by the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History.

The professors, Hanna Kozlowski and Sandra Reed, already have plans for how they will utilize the newly acquired funds.

Kozlowski is a second-generation Polish American, and after spending part of last fall at Sala752 in Rzeszow, Poland, she began research into wycinanki, a Polish cut-paper folk art.

She says that she continues to include wycinanki into her artwork and is especially interested in how it is connected to the working class.

However, Reed wishes to take a different approach with her allocated funds. Reed received her funding under the Creative Aging for Lifelong Learning program, and she hopes to use the funds to employ Marshall University art alumni to provide art training for adults ages 55 and older in four senior centers in the area.

These alumni will include Barb Lavalley Benton, Shyanna Ashcraft, Sophia Celdran and Karen Fry.

“By 2034, it is estimated that more than 30% of the American population will be 65 and older,” Reed said. “Motivated by its mission and statistics such as these, Marshall began a healthy-aging initiative in 2021, beginning with the formation of an interdisciplinary committee. What I’ve learned as a member of this committee inspired me to write a CALL program grant not for myself, but as a pilot training program for our art alumni.”

The Creative Aging for Lifelong Learning grant is focused on teaching new artistic skills over the course of multiple sessions, social engagement, mental stimulation and self-expression. Activity during spring 2023 is being funded by this grant and will end with a showcasing of the participants’ work at each participating center in the area.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Courtesy of MUOnline

Professor Hanna Kozlowski