StoryCorps

Aroha grantee Next Avenue has published a series of four conversations between Minnesota teaching artists and their students 55+. The moving and insightful interviews were conducted by StoryCorps, a national nonprofit media organization that has been recording personal stories since 2003, for Next Avenue’s Vitality Arts series.

• Dance instructor David DeBlieck, who expressed admiration for the “adventurous spirit” of his student, Roni Trulson, after she overcame her fear and returned to dance;
• Ceramics instructor Ken Ferber and his student, Linda Schmidt, who has learned how art can impact life in many ways;
• Karen Gasche, who tells how she ‘had nothing to lose’ by enrolling in an opera class taught by Marcia Aubineau; and
• Lynda Monick-Isenberg and Zach North, describing how they were inspired by their older students, who found joy and delight in a drawing class.