Rosemarie Oakman facilitates arts access programs in healthcare facilities, community arts organizations, art museums, and, most recently, on virtual platforms. Rosemarie has designed, implemented, and sustained programming at various institutions, always with a focus on the individualized needs of each person served.
Artist Bio
Rosemarie is a Creative Aging Specialist and Artist in Residence with the Memory Maker Project. The Memory Maker Project is a New York-based organization whose mission is to spark creativity, community, and connection with elders. Rosemarie creates engaging arts and cultural content to be utilized by older adults and people living with dementia throughout New York's Southern Tier, through virtual instruction emphasizing individual choice. Rosemarie teaches poetry, visual art, and storytelling workshops over Zoom.
Oakman currently serves as a board member on the Alzheimer's Association's Hudson Valley Young Professionals Alzheimer's Council. Rosemarie joined YPAC because she feels passionate about contributing her time, experience, and talents to advocacy and fundraising efforts that support Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias.
In the spring of 2020, Rosemarie earned a Master's Degree in Nonprofit Management Program and a Graduate Certificate in Arts Management at the University of Oregon. Rosemarie's research concentrations are in Arts in Healthcare Management, Museum Outreach, and Creative Aging. From fall of 2017 to spring of 2020, Oakman served as the Arts in Healthcare Program Coordinator, working within the UO's School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management in partnership with the UO's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA), planning and assisting in facilitating several of the University of Oregon's Arts in Healthcare initiatives.
The JSMA's Art Heals initiatives included facilitating arts access programs for individuals with traumatic brain and spinal cord injury and children with disabilities. In the summer of 2018, Rosemarie designed and implemented the JSMA's memory loss access program, Reflections in Connections, under the supervision of Hannah Bastain, the Museum's Educator for Studio Programs and Special Projects. Rosemarie also served as a research assistant to professors Patricia Lambert and Douglas Blandy for an upcoming book publication titled Arts Education and Cultural Engagement for Creative Aging.
In 2014, Rosemarie graduated from Alfred University with a Bachelor's in Fine Art and a minor in Gerontology, the study of aging. In 2013, her love for elderly populations and the volunteer work she was doing with the Golden Years Club (which she formed to connect college students with elderly community members) merged with her passion for metal casting to establish the Alzheimer's Glass and Iron Project. She is the founder and director of this multifaceted, cross-generational community arts project, now entering its eighth year. Alfred University awarded her the Richard V. Bergren Jr. Student Innovation Award in 2014 for this groundbreaking program.
After graduating from Alfred University, Rosemarie worked for a year at the Elant Nursing Home in Fishkill, NY, on their Alzheimer's/Dementia unit, where she was charged with developing and implementing an art-focused activities program. From 2015 -2017, Rosemarie worked as a grant writer, securing funds for Salem Art Works, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art center and sculpture park located in rural Upstate New York.
Artist Bio
Rosemarie is a Creative Aging Specialist and Artist in Residence with the Memory Maker Project. The Memory Maker Project is a New York-based organization whose mission is to spark creativity, community, and connection with elders. Rosemarie creates engaging arts and cultural content to be utilized by older adults and people living with dementia throughout New York's Southern Tier, through virtual instruction emphasizing individual choice. Rosemarie teaches poetry, visual art, and storytelling workshops over Zoom.
Oakman currently serves as a board member on the Alzheimer's Association's Hudson Valley Young Professionals Alzheimer's Council. Rosemarie joined YPAC because she feels passionate about contributing her time, experience, and talents to advocacy and fundraising efforts that support Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias.
In the spring of 2020, Rosemarie earned a Master's Degree in Nonprofit Management Program and a Graduate Certificate in Arts Management at the University of Oregon. Rosemarie's research concentrations are in Arts in Healthcare Management, Museum Outreach, and Creative Aging. From fall of 2017 to spring of 2020, Oakman served as the Arts in Healthcare Program Coordinator, working within the UO's School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management in partnership with the UO's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA), planning and assisting in facilitating several of the University of Oregon's Arts in Healthcare initiatives.
The JSMA's Art Heals initiatives included facilitating arts access programs for individuals with traumatic brain and spinal cord injury and children with disabilities. In the summer of 2018, Rosemarie designed and implemented the JSMA's memory loss access program, Reflections in Connections, under the supervision of Hannah Bastain, the Museum's Educator for Studio Programs and Special Projects. Rosemarie also served as a research assistant to professors Patricia Lambert and Douglas Blandy for an upcoming book publication titled Arts Education and Cultural Engagement for Creative Aging.
In 2014, Rosemarie graduated from Alfred University with a Bachelor's in Fine Art and a minor in Gerontology, the study of aging. In 2013, her love for elderly populations and the volunteer work she was doing with the Golden Years Club (which she formed to connect college students with elderly community members) merged with her passion for metal casting to establish the Alzheimer's Glass and Iron Project. She is the founder and director of this multifaceted, cross-generational community arts project, now entering its eighth year. Alfred University awarded her the Richard V. Bergren Jr. Student Innovation Award in 2014 for this groundbreaking program.
After graduating from Alfred University, Rosemarie worked for a year at the Elant Nursing Home in Fishkill, NY, on their Alzheimer's/Dementia unit, where she was charged with developing and implementing an art-focused activities program. From 2015 -2017, Rosemarie worked as a grant writer, securing funds for Salem Art Works, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art center and sculpture park located in rural Upstate New York.
