Elderly Education
In Oakland， at East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), a community program reached out to UC Berkeley’s Art Practice community because limited funding made it difficult to hire a paid instructor. They specifically needed a volunteer who could work in both Mandarin and English to serve elders across language backgrounds. I proactively responded and began leading weekly bilingual art sessions, creating an accessible space where both Chinese-speaking and English-speaking older adults could participate to build community through making.
Building on that foundation, last winter, I planned and curated a community art exhibition featuring residents’ work, and facilitated intergenerational art-and-story exchanges; I also gathered brief participant reflections to help me learn how accessible, collaborative art-making can relate to emotional well-being, identity expression, and social inclusion to show that arts, culture, and creativity are part of community-building.