Creative Aging at School One
School One partners with older adult communities across Rhode Island to offer innovative, intergenerational arts programs for adults 50 and older. Led by professional teaching artists, our classes introduce participants to new art forms while fostering meaningful connections with School One students.
Since 2016, with support from E.A. Michelson Philanthropy and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, we’ve been proud to lead the way in Creative Aging—where creativity and community come together.
Past Creative Aging programs have included:
- Storytelling
- Printmaking
- Memoir
- Painting and drawing
- Creative Writing
Current and past community partners:
- Providence Rotaries
- Providence Village
- Laurelmead Living Cooperative
- Hamilton House
- Ocean State Public Libraries
2025-2026 Arts Classes for Adults 55+: Creative Aging Offerings!
This year, School One offers three exciting visual art classes for older adults.
Studio Art: Drawing
In this nine-week class students develop essential drawing skills using various mediums such as pencil, charcoal, pen, pastel, and ink. We will delve into the fundamentals of line, perspective, value, space, shape, plane, texture, pattern, and design. Through a combination of structured assignments, quick creative warm-up activities, and imaginative exercises, you'll learn to draw with more confidence and greater spontaneity.
Dates: September 9- November 18
Time: Tuesdays, 3:00-6:00 PM
Register here.
Studio Art: Painting
Participants will explore how to make paintings using gouache, acrylic, and watercolor using various processes and subjects. Students will delve into processes such as plein air, using a grisaille, layering, and glazing. Through creating master copies, presentations of artists' works, color mixing workshops, and understanding brush selection we will learn to make paintings from the ground up. This section of the course is designed to introduce or level up your understanding of painting, layering, color mixing, and composition
Dates: December 1 - March 3 (includes school vacation December 20- January 5)
Time: Tuesdays, 3:00-6:00 PM
Register here.
Studio Art: Mixed Media and Printmaking
In this class students will explore a multitude of practical and mechanical print making methods to produce images. This course will introduce processes such as cyanotype, mono-printing, stenciling, and relief to build a foundation and toolbox of ways to replicate and reproduce an image or create a foundation to combine and layer on top of. We will discuss pattern, texture, and layers to complicate and guide how our printmaking apparatuses are used through iteration. This section of the course is designed to leave students with a collection of diverse prints and experiments that teach them how to make art through multistep processes that reveal how many ways you can use media through their different combinations.
Dates: March 4-June 4
Time: Tuesdays, 3:00-6:00 PM
Register here.
