The ART CART goes to harrisburg
The Exchange's Art Cart has visited the Nazareth Memory Center near Danville since 2016. Part of the Maria Joseph Continuing Care Community, Nazareth provides specialized, person-centered dementia care that helps residents remain active, maintain daily routines, and enjoy enriching social, recreational, and wellness activities in a safe, nurturing environment.
In the Spring of 2026, Art Cart facilitator Anne Cosper worked with a dozen Nazareth residents who ranged in age from 60 to 88 to create a 3-D collage entitled "The Bouquet of Us". The artists all came to the project with their own ideas about it, and all together they created something beautiful. One said "I don't want to do flowers. Can I just do leaves?" Well, yes, of course.
Through our friends at Dementia Friendly Susquehanna Valley, who come to the Exchange Gallery monthly for Art Cart sessions, we learned of the Older Artists of PA Showcase, a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Aging (PDA) and PA
Creative Industries (PCI -- formerly the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts) that emerged during the development of Aging Our Way, PA -- a 10-year plan to improve services for Pennsylvania's older citizens. The 2026 Showcase featured work in three categories: Professional, Non-professional, and Artist Over 60 Living with Dementia. Added this year, this latter new category recognizes that a diagnosis does not diminish a person’s creativity, identity, or ability to contribute. Artistic expression provides opportunities for connection and storytelling while allowing all of us to recognize the talents and perspectives of people living with dementia.
We submitted "The Bouquet of Us" for consideration for the Showcase in late May, and in June we received word that it had made the cut -- one of only thirty pieces statewide that would get displayed in the State Capitol in August. Woot!
On August 4th, our executive director, Oren B. Helbok, and our board member David Fazzino traveled to Harrisburg to take part in a reception at the Governor's Residence, where facsimiles of each of the thirty pieces hung in the front hallway. After speeches by officials and two of the artists, everyone in attendance then moved on to the State Capitol, where the original artwork hung in the East Rotunda.
Welcome sign at the Governor's Residence
Facsimiles of the artwork in the 2026 Older Artists of PA Showcase at the Governor's Residence, and originals, including "The Bouquet of Us", in the East Rotunda of the State Capitol. The Showcase hung there from August 3rd through 31st.
In the East Wing Rotunda of the State Capitol, the oldest artist in the show, 100-year-old Florence Lauria of Delaware County, enjoyed the exhibition along with two of her daughters.
The Exchange extends many thanks to the Pennsylvania Department of Aging for coordinating the Older Artists of PA Showcase and for including the piece made by our friends at Nazareth Memory Center at the Maria Joseph Continuing Care Community! We extend huge thanks to all of the artists at Nazareth who worked with Anne Cosper, and we extend huge thanks to Anne for everything that she does with the thousands of Art Cart participants every year.
Many thanks too to Margo Muchinsky, Meaghan Abbott, Natalie Douglas, and Jennifer Cave at the Department of Aging.
You can see all of the artworks in the showcase by clicking here.
For an album of photographs of the reception, posted by the Governor's Residence staff, click here.
The Art Cart is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
