Workshops and activities

Everyone is on an aging journey. Yet throughout life people are discriminated against and stereotyped en masse, based simply on the amount of times they have travelled around the sun. Ageism is compounded by other forms of discrimination: entrenched and insidious, easy to overlook and difficult to untangle. Intergenerational harmony is the key to stopping it, but how do we all get there? Join age activist Ryan Backer in shattering the young/old binary, and making way for a view of aging based on community care and social justice for all.

Join seniors and facilitators from the Digital Literacy Project of the Atwater Library to explore the area around Concordia’s 4th space and collect various media clips (sound, video and photographs). We will use some of our favourite approaches to media editing that participants have enjoyed using in the past at the Digital Literacy Project (slow motion, time-lapse, creative audio editing and green screen). The workshop will be co-facilitated by creative seniors who have participated in and Digital Literacy Project facilitators. We will put all of our pieces together to make a collaborative piece.

This workshop entails a screening of Ari Seth Cohen’s documentary Advance Style, framed by a discussion about image and aging. Before the screening, the participants are presented with a series of questions about image, self-expression, and aging, which they are invited to discuss in small groups. After the film, these questions and responses are revisited in a discussion over refreshments and sandwiches. At the end of the workshop, the participants have the option of getting their portraits taken by a local Montreal photographer.

Come make art or play in the sand in a hive of imagination and possibilities! Art Hives bring the tools of the creative arts therapies back into communities, and welcome everyone as an artist and scientist. These unprogrammed spaces invite people from all ages, abilities and backgrounds to explore their creativity, meet their neighbours, share their skills, break isolation and enhance their wellbeing. Join us, let your imagination run free and build community!

The ACT podcast is an audio series that brings researchers, activists, older adults into conversation about topics related to aging. From global warming to abusive practices of telecommunication providers, the team is interested in politically and culturally meaningful issues that matter to older adults. The ACT podcast team will be recording live from B/OLD, asking participants their thoughts on the realities of aging in Montreal.

This activity is designed to increase awareness of how the design of the urban environment poses functional challenges to those with age-related vision impairment. Participants will learn about the interactions between visual aging and mobility aging. They will be invited to complete vision and balance activities with and without goggles that simulate different levels of visual ability. These activities will include walking, reading with traditional eye charts, searching for visual information, and recording balance in real-time using the Wii Balance Board. Activities are designed to mimic everyday tasks that would be affected by age-related vision changes in order to increase the understanding of the types of challenges that seniors face on a daily basis.

“Linking generations through song” is an inclusive intergenerational singing group facilitated by a certified music therapist for those affected by Alzheimer’s or dementia, their care partner, as well as school-aged children and members from the community. This project came about due to a lack of social activities in the community available to the diagnosed individual and their care partner to do together. This is particularly true for the weekend, when lack of opportunities outside of the home can leave the caregiver feeling overwhelmed and isolated. This singing group addresses this need, providing care partners and diagnosed individuals with the opportunity to socialize with other members of the community, to seek out new support, and to benefit from the therapeutic effect that singing can have on everyone.

AddressKnown is an interactive documentary produced by Giuliana Cucinelli and Kim Sawchuk. It weaves together several stories of residents living in the Parc Extension neighbourhood of Montreal. These stories bring forth a multiplicity of perspectives which, together, provide a glimpse into a diverse neighbourhood that has undergone significant transformations in the past several years.

This film by Ramsay Blair details the dramatic and recent changes to Cabot Square since the former Children’s Hospital on Tupper Street closed on May 24, 2015. Since then, Ramsay has been documenting the abandon, decay and finally the demolition of the “Children’s,” as it was affectionately known in the neighbourhood of Shaughnessy Village for almost 60 years.

Since 2013, Concordia University students have been working with members of the community organization Groupe Harmonie to bring digital literacy workshops to local low income housing buildings for older adults in Montreal. As part of workshops, the residents have been invited to learn how to use various digital technologies and to experiment with digital media-making. Some have recorded their own stories, which bring into focus elements of their lives in Montreal.