{"id":204876,"date":"2026-04-21T16:49:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204876\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:49:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:49:41","slug":"brooklyn-heights-art-collaboration-bridges-generations-building-friendships-between-students-and-seniors-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204876\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Heights art collaboration bridges generations, building friendships between students and seniors \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art connects.\n<\/p>\n

For the past five months, high school students from Brooklyn Friends School\u2019s art club and residents of The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights, a luxury senior living community, have been meeting once a month for an hour of collaborative art at the residence\u2019s art studio.<\/p>\n

The initiative, \u201cMaking Friends: Forging Intergenerational Connections through Art-Making,\u201d is led by Elizabeth Deull, the art teacher at Brooklyn Friends Upper School, and aims to highlight the Quaker school\u2019s mission to create community and build intergenerational connections.<\/p>\n

Deull noticed the art studio during a tour of the facility with her father, who is now a resident at The Watermark, and thought it might provide an opportunity to volunteer one day. When Deull received an email from a resident whose grandson had attended Brooklyn Friends, suggesting that they display the students\u2019 artwork at the studio, it felt like \u201cKismet,\u201d she told Brooklyn Paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the universe telling me that something has to happen,\u201d she said.
\n\"\"Art teacher Elizabeth Deull noted that the students and residents formed a deep relationship during the art sessions.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann\n<\/p>\n

The email sparked the idea for collaborative art sessions, where students and residents have conversations and exchange stories while creating artwork side by side.<\/p>\n

Deull explained that the first session of the curriculum was an icebreaker with coffee and a collaborative poem-writing session; the second was a continuous-line portrait session; and the next launched the Mandala project, in which participants were encouraged to recall a moment in their lives they wanted to revisit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the prompt for the conversation, and it was setting an intention for the Mandala in which they were free to do whatever they wanted within that space. But the tone was set by this beautiful story they wanted to share with each other,\u201d Deull explained, noting that the students and residents formed a deep relationship during the sessions, which are filled with long conversations while nurturing artistic expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like a 16-year-old and a 90-year-old would have a lot to talk about, but they\u2019ve had beautiful, long, chatty conversations where I have to tell them that it\u2019s 3:30, you\u2019ve got to move along. You have to go, and [the conversation] continues,\u201d Deull said. \u201cSo I think the beauty of connection in unexpected places and just sort of working outside of your comfort zone creates deeper empathy for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Brooklyn Paper visited the art session on April 17, the studio\u2019s tables were decorated with flower bouquets for a botanical watercolor portrait project. The students and residents worked in pairs, selecting flowers that spoke to them, then painting them on a white scroll side by side while sharing personal experiences.<\/p>\n

\"\"Brooklyn Friends students and Watermark residents collaborate on botanical watercolor portraits project.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Friends student Darwin Chavarria Menendez, leader of the school\u2019s art club, and Watermark resident Anne Bauso have been a team since the first session.<\/p>\n

Darwin said the sessions offered an opportunity to build connections beyond the student community and learn more about others.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the biggest things I\u2019ve learned from just [listening to Anne] is just to enjoy life and just to be in the moment, and have fun,\u201d Darwin told Brooklyn Paper.\n<\/p>\n

Bauso, who shared with Darwin that she saw \u201cHamilton\u201d three weeks after its debut \u2014 the ticket was $25 \u2014 during their collaborative botanical watercolor session, said the most important part was meeting people with a wonderful heart like Darwin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is so wonderful. He is such a listener. He picks up on everything I say and wants to know more,\u201d Bauso said.
\n\"\"Darwin Chavarria Menendez and Watermark resident Anne Bauso have been a team since the first session.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann\n<\/p>\n

Bonnie Ford Woit, an abstract painter whose work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, said she has learned new ways to approach art from the young people, whom she described as \u201cvery talented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have good ideas. It\u2019s back and forth, believe me,\u201d the 95-year-old said. \u201cI like being with the young people. They have a different way of looking at things; very honest and fresh. I love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Bonnie Ford Woit described the students as \u201cvery talented.\u201dPhoto by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Ninth-grader Rebekka Bek, who focuses on fantastical sketches, worked on the mandala project with Ford Woit during the last session. Ford Woit showed her how to paint without planning ahead and to include artistic mishaps in the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought of painting like that. And I really liked it when we did that,\u201d Rebekka said.\n<\/p>\n

She told Brooklyn Paper she hadn\u2019t interacted with many seniors before the project, but because of the sessions, her compassion for them had \u201cdefinitely\u201d grown.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like a lot of people think that when you\u2019re older, you can\u2019t do anything anymore, but these people still have fun, and they like their lives; it\u2019s nice.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Kathy Thoresen, a Watermark resident, said she enjoyed the mandala session. She interpreted a memory from her childhood in the Midwest, when she and her sister had to climb a long driveway in deep snow, for the art piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been a very vivid memory. So it was fun to make it into a drawing in some way, and we just talked the whole time. It\u2019s so nice to be sharing an experience and talking about that and everything else at the same time. I really enjoyed it,\u201d Thoresen said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kathy Thoresen (right) enjoyed sharing memories with the young students.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Student Nina Skelton said she already receives guidance from her grandparents, and the interaction with residents almost felt like gaining new grandparents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get even more advice, and just spending time with such amazing people who have really cool lives, and [who] are still very interesting, is really fun,\u201d Nina said.\n<\/p>\n

Ellis Deull, Elizabeth Deull\u2019s father, said students often approached him to share how much fun they had collaborating with residents. He said the event was an opportunity for community building that does not happen every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great idea to bring together the collaboration of two diverse age groups with different points of view, different goals, different strategies, and very little experience, and just the combination of those things, including the lack of experience, makes for more experimental doing, and people seem to be having fun,\u201d Ellis Deull said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ellis Deull (right) said the event was an opportunity for community building, which doesn\u2019t happen every day.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Fiona White, Celebrations and Transportation Director at The Watermark, said it has been \u201cbeautiful\u201d to watch the collaboration, which will culminate in an art show in May, between high school students and residents as they exchange art styles and trends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very important for them to have that communication with the younger generation and help guide them. Art has changed so much, I feel like, over time. So it\u2019s really interesting to see them show each other how they work, or their different styles,\u201d White said, noting that many of the residents were artists. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see them be able to tap back into that creative side of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art connects. For the past five months, high school students from Brooklyn Friends School\u2019s art club and residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1149,81151,2571,98,81152,100,6748,99,71826,81153,81154,9,24,12,63,81155,81156,20588,32184],"class_list":{"0":"post-204876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-art-collaboration","10":"tag-arts-and-entertainment","11":"tag-brooklyn","12":"tag-brooklyn-friends-school","13":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","14":"tag-brooklyn-heights","15":"tag-brooklyn-news","16":"tag-community-building","17":"tag-intergenerational-connection","18":"tag-making-friends-forging-intergenerational-connections-through-art-making","19":"tag-new-york","20":"tag-new-york-city","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-quaker-school","24":"tag-senior-citizen","25":"tag-senior-living","26":"tag-the-watermark-at-brooklyn-heights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}