Community members over the age of 55 are showing off their artistic skills in the Embracing Aging on the Square Art Show now on display in the Peter Youngers Art Gallery inside E.S. French Hall at Northeastern Junior College.
The show features 105 pieces of art in a plethora of mediums including origami, a hand-sewn memory bear, twig sculptures, paintings, pottery, pen and ink drawings, poetry and stained glass.
Creators encourage everyone to come and check out the show because research shows there are many benefits to viewing art. According to an article in The Telegraph, when Professor Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist at the University of London, scanned the brains of volunteers while they viewed 28 works of art, he discovered that they found it beautiful and it trigged an immediate release of dopamine into the brain, a chemical related feelings of live, pleasure and desire.
Additionally, a research study in Norway, the Nord-Trondelag Health Study conducted by Koenraad Cuypers, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, found that there was a definite correlation between participating in cultural activities -- like creating art or attending concerts -- and having increased rates of good health, satisfaction with one's life, and lower rates of anxiety and depression in both men and women.
According to a Mayo Clinic article, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine says making or even just seeing art can impact the brain. Whether it's part of a creative arts therapy exercise or something you experience in your everyday life, art can help:
* Increase serotonin levels.
* Increase blood flow to the part of the brain associated with pleasure.
The "Embracing Aging on the Square Art Show" will be on display until Oct. 31. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. If it is locked when you arrive ask for the key in the office.
If after viewing the art show you feel inspired to create, Jane DeSanti is offering a free greeting card-making class Tuesday, Oct. 29, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Logan County Heritage Center. The theme is "thankful/grateful" and cards will be delivered in Sterling to nursing home residents, hospice patients, Meet and Eat attendees, Meals on Wheels recipients and to rehabilitation center patients during the month of November.