We're Still Here
Experience what social isolation feels like in this powerful exhibition created by 186 seniors and advocates in our community.
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Exhibited from April 5th 2019 - January 12th 2020.
Experience what social isolation feels like in this powerful exhibition created by 186 seniors and advocates in our community.
Social isolation impacts all of us and is a growing health epidemic in our community. In 2017, people over 60 who reported feeling lonely saw a 45% increase in their risk of death and in that same year over 1 in 3 seniors in Santa Cruz reported feeling socially isolated. (Source)
Over the course of seven months, a community group of local seniors, advocates, and artists called C3 (the Creative Community Committee) poured their ideas, art, hopes, and stories together to create this inspiring exhibition. C3 created personal artwork about loneliness, brainstormed solutions to build connection and offered their words of wisdom for future generations.
Alongside incredible artworks, explore 45 action cards designed by C3 to offer solutions to this growing problem. Drive a senior to the grocery store. Translate written materials into Spanish for a monolingual elder. Donate an iPod for entertainment. If you have a special skill, offer it. Take home the action card/s that inspire you the most and you can help C3 create impactful change for seniors experiencing social isolation.
We're Still Here: Stories of Seniors and Social Isolation
“When we learned about this growing issue affecting senior health and well being, we felt the MAH was in a unique position to address it...
...We’re all about creating connections and hope to ignite stronger links between seniors and the larger Santa Cruz County community through this exhibition.”
- Stacey Marie Garcia, Director of Community Engagement
Related Events
Check out the MAH calendar to stay up to date on upcoming events co-created with amazing community partners.
See more We're Still Here related events.
Featured Artists
To help translate senior stories, the MAH connected the C3 group with four local artists: Wes Modes, Gina Orlando, Ry Faraola, and Cid Pearlman.
Wes Modes
"Working with these engaged and active seniors has been eye-opening... I felt like I'd met friends from whom I had a lot to learn."
When is the last time you picked up the phone to listen to an elder? Wes Modes met with seniors from across Santa Cruz County to record their words of wisdom. You can hear their stories by picking up any one of the seven telephones in this gallery.
Gina Orlando
“I've spent hours listening to seniors open up ... and I really connected with them. They feel like family and I care so much about what happens to them after this exhibition.”
What does a portrait of social isolation look like? Gina Orlando collaborated with local seniors to share their experiences with social isolation. She gave them each a camera and worked with them one on one to capture words and images from their daily lives.
Ry Faraola
“The C3 process has pushed me to experience closer forms of collaboration. To put trusted elder’s ideas first. To listen to the process and create artwork that reflects what we’ve learned together.“
Ry Faraola uses art to create empathy. For this project, Ry worked with seniors to design an interactive Game of Life. These prints explore some of the challenges and triumphs seniors experience each day.
Moving Through Loneliness: Cid Pearlman (Lead Artist/Concept Design/Choreographer), Kate Edmunds, (Collaborator/Installation Design), and Mara Milam, (Collaborator/Filmmaker)
Cid Pearlman
“The senior cohort created a deep pool of material to draw from, material rooted in the body and lived experience.”
Choreographer Cid Pearlman asked seniors to describe what social isolation looked like to them. Inspired by their imagery, she created three rooms. A bedroom, a kitchen, and a "room of the mind." Dancers will be activating these rooms with movement every First Friday from 7-8pm.
Pajaro Valley Quilting Association
Help us imagine a world without loneliness by adding your vision to the quilt.
Every few months the Pajaro Valley Quilt Association diligently stitches together the patches visitors make in the exhibition. Together, visitors and the PVQA create a quilt that envisions what a more inclusive and inter-generational Santa Cruz County could be.