"WE'RE STILL HERE" OPENS APRIL 5TH
AT THE MUSEUM OF ART AND HISTORY

Ry Faraola, Little Giant Collective member, is an artist-in-residence in the Museum of Art and History's latest exhibit entitled "We're Still Here." The exhibit explores senior isolation in Santa Cruz county and was created with local seniors and advocates. 

Ry Faraola uses art to create empathy. For this project, Ry worked with seniors to design an interactive Game of Life. These prints explore some of the challenges and triumphs seniors experience each day.

Social isolation impacts all of us and is a growing health epidemic in our community. In 2017, people over 60 who reported feeling lonely saw a 45% increase in their risk of death and in that same year over 1 in 3 seniors in Santa Cruz reported feeling socially isolated. (Source)

Over the course of seven months, a community group of local seniors, advocates, and artists called C3 (the Creative Community Committee) poured their ideas, art, hopes, and stories together to create this inspiring exhibition. C3 created personal artwork about loneliness, brainstormed solutions to build connection and offered their words of wisdom for future generations.

Featured artists: Wes Modes, Gina Orlando, Ry Faraola, and Cid Pearlman.