BRATTLEBORO — Windham Art Gallery (WAG) recently completed a lengthy project in which selected artist members of the gallery painted and will now permanently install some 25 door panels at the Vermont Veteran's Home in Bennington.
The permanent installation process follows a month-long exhibit of the panels at the gallery in February.
"The original plan was to install the panels in March and after the WAG exhibition, because it just seemed the sooner-the-better," said gallery artist member Leonard Ragouzeos, head of the door project committee. "But the building is undergoing a good deal of refurbishing and outdoor construction, including getting a geothermal heating system, so it just made sense to wait for all the construction to be completed. The snow will be gone and the interior hallway walls will be freshly painted."
Once the construction project is completed around the end of the month, the Veteran's Home will host an open house to celebrate the newly renovated facility as well as the permanent installation of the door panels. "We will be delivering and installing the 24 panels on April 24," Ragouzeos added. "Right now I am not certain who will be going along with Pamela [Mandell, WAG program director] and I, but I am sure we will recruit the help of a couple other WAG artist members."
This unique project originated with Christina Cosgrove, program director of the dementia unit of the Veteran's Home as part of a plan to enhance the aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical approach to veterans living with dementia. After consulting with noted geriatric psychiatrist Susan Wehry, they decided to add colorful Vermont landscape photographs to the unit as well as the painted door panels.
The concept is that painted doors might assist patients in remembering the location of their rooms.
"Some of the veterans would come up to the nurse's station and ask what room they were in," Cosgrove said. "Staff would tell the veteran the room number but by the time they get down the hall, they no longer remembered the door number."
Visual cues from the unique and colorful doors "will not only assist veterans with memory loss to find their rooms but also, with the help of talented Vermont artists, we [can] transform and bring life to their environment," Cosgrove added.
When the VVH approached the Windham Art Gallery in June 2007 , the hospital was really seeing only the big picture. "We thought, 'How can we make life worth living for these veterans with memory loss?'" Cosgrove said.
Although Mandell liked the idea, she said she wondered whether the details could be worked out. "I wasn't certain that we could raise funds for this project or even that gallery members, who already work so hard and do so much to keep the gallery going, would want to paint door panels voluntarily," she said.
"As it happens, we were so happy that both Merchants Bank Foundation (who gave us $1,250) and the Vermont Community Foundation ($5,000) came through with full funding so that we could buy materials and cover some of the costs for exhibiting the doors at WAG before delivering them to the Veteran's Home for permanent installation there," Mandell said.
In turn, the participating artists of WAG grew very passionate about the project, Mandell said.
"I was so touched and inspired by the support and enthusiasm gallery members showed toward this project," Mandell added. "Two invited artists, Jason Alden and Caryn King, also agreed to donate their time and artistic skills. I think everyone understands how valuable this project is and how it will have a lasting effect on the lives of these elderly veterans."
To prepare for the project, Mandell, Ragouzeos, and artists Steven Mayer and Tim Allen paid a visit to the dementia unit and immediately realized the positive artistic impact of these door panels, not only functionally through helping the residents, but also through pure aesthethics and artistic beauty. It was then they decided to use Dibond panels - aluminum sheets bonded to a plastic core - and acrylic paint, and they also decided to create a list of various Vermont images and objects for the participating artists to choose from.
"We immediately understood how much these door panels would enliven a unit that is ordinary and without color or vibrancy," Mandell stated. "Not to mention the studies Christina cited which show how those with memory loss respond better to images rather than numbers, particularly in regards to finding their way around the unit."
Some of the other participating gallery member artists include Jill Auerbach, Amy Boemig, Carolyn DiNicola-Fawley,Stuart Copans, Trudi Crites, Judy Hawkins, Lesley Heathcote, Meredith Ingersoll, Steven Meyer, Petria Mitchell, Carolyn Nelson, Scott Nelson, Marlene O'Connor, Matthew J. Peake, Leonard Ragouzeos, Lori Schreiner, Robin T. Stronk, Susie Ulfelder, and Susan Wadsworth.
"We were just so pleased to see how eager the artists were to contribute their time, energy, and artistic abilities to this special project," Mandell concluded. "The door panels, featuring these vibrant Vermont images such as a snow-covered pine cone, various farm animals, a maple leaf, and covered bridge, will certainly aid the veterans in finding their way to their rooms."
"I don't anticipate that the task of installing the panels will be too difficult," Cosgrove concluded. "Each of the 40-inch-high by 30-inch-wide colorful panels will already have six Velcro strips attached on back, which we prepared when we had taken the WAG exhibit down."