VANHOJEN TANSSIT/ELÄMÄN JUHLAT

Prom for Seniors/Celebrations of Life

CELEBRATIONS OF LIFE, HELSINKI 2023

TEAM: Jonna Wikström, Pirre Toikkanen, Paula Koivunen, and Tero Heinämäki

The Celebrations of Life event took place at the Kinapori Service Center in Helsinki in April 2023.

The video includes a summary of the project’s progress. The project concluded with a celebration held on May 4th. It was an initiative of the Reality Research Center.

PROM FOR SENIORS 2022 AND CELEBRATION OF LIFE , SEINÄJOKI

TEAM: Jonna Wikström, Pirre Toikkanen, and Paula Koivunen

The project was carried out in Seinäjoki.

The “Senior Ball” was a month-long performance art event, a happening, organized for elderly people who still live at home. The project took place in Seinäjoki in March 2022. It offered them the opportunity to meet each other and artists. The Senior Ball has three phases:

  1. Preparation for the event, acquaintance, and empowering photoshoot
  2. The Ball
  3. Exhibition

The project, led by applied arts professionals Jonna Wikström and Pirre Toikkanen, was first executed in 2019. The overall project consists of three parts: workshops, the celebration, and the exhibition. Combining narrative theatre and empowering photography, the project engages home-living seniors as active participants, with their own art and creativity being an essential part of the project. The celebration theme allows for reminiscing important moments in their life journey while also bringing joy and laughter to the present moment. The goals include enhancing the appreciation of the elderly, increasing their functional capacity, and promoting the realization of cultural rights.

The IKO project is a significant demonstration of how to create more meaning in the lives of the elderly and enhance their inclusion through concrete measures. The elderly also need mental stimulation, interactions, and engagement with new people, new perspectives, fascination with art, or confusion from the clash of different worldviews. Members of the IKO project aim to evoke emotions by working with elderly individuals from various backgrounds and life situations. They want to share their art, expertise, worldviews, and thoughts. They seek to make visible the lives, destinies, and emotions of the elderly they encounter, serving as a mirror to what is experienced and observed. Finland has numerous life stories that deserve to be made visible in some way. Cultural well-being and its promotion make these stories visible.

Important steps are:

  1. Cultural well-being is recognized as a crucial part of social and healthcare reform (goal of Kulta ry); each region will have a cultural well-being coordinator, service menus will be created, and each municipality will have its own cultural well-being plan.
  2. Increased funding for art communities from TAIKE to create long-term operational grants for promoting cultural well-being (dedicated funding).
  3. Municipalities will increase funding for arts and culture to develop grants that cover targeted events for specific groups.

The IKO cultural well-being for the elderly is a project funded by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM), implemented in collaboration with the Arts Promotion Centre, Theatre Centre and its member communities, the Culture for All service, and the Aili network. This Facebook page presents cultural well-being services provided by the Theatre Centre’s member communities within the project, specifically targeted at elderly individuals living at home or partially in service homes and centers. Tailored cultural well-being services offer participatory, experiential art where interaction and meeting others are part of the elderly’s daily life. The project ensures the continuity of activities by developing service pathways and operational models that promote accessibility to art and sustainable operations.

PROM FOR SENIORS, 2019 HELSINKI

TEAM: Jonna Wikström, Pirre Toikkanen, and Paula Koivunen

The project was carried out at the Palvelukeskus Päiväkumpu.

The initial idea was to hold workshops for seniors at their day center, using story theater methods and photographs to help recall various celebrations from their lives. After this, we organized a celebration with them. Alongside reminiscing and organizing the celebration, we took new (empowering) photographs of the elderly and had each of them framed as keepsakes. We also reprinted and framed old photographs in larger sizes, creating a photo exhibition for the final event.

Initially, the elderly participants were quite shy and didn’t know each other well. We wondered why the morning coffee moments were often very quiet. Gradually, the situation warmed up, and through the old photos and their stories, the group became more engaged with each other’s stories. By the end, they also remembered each other’s names and some of the stories. We received unsuitable flowers from a flower supplier as a donation for our event. This allowed us to decorate the familiar space in a truly new, festive way. We also made wreaths from the flowers and gave each participant a bouquet to take home. The celebration photos turned out to be really beautiful thanks to the flowers.

In the workshops, we discussed what makes a celebration special, and based on these ideas, we aimed to create exactly the kind of celebration they hoped for. We only needed flowers, white tablecloths, rose cups, and we also made wreaths from willow branches. Additionally, we prepared a slide show of old photos with the stories they told. The celebration itself included live music, singing, a dance performance, and non-alcoholic sparkling drinks, with one resident giving a speech. The entire artistic process was truly multidisciplinary. It was a magnificent and touching experience.

We felt we were doing meaningful work, and the residents’ gratitude will forever remain in our hearts.