17 July 2019
On 13 June 2019, LASALLE welcomed over 100 seniors from NTUC Health’s Senior Care Centres to the College for an afternoon of drumming workshops, flower arrangement, painting, cake making and decoration, and a chance to glimpse LASALLE behind the scenes. The event was LASALLE’s second edition of The Joy of Art, a corporate social responsibility initiative specially designed for disadvantaged communities to enrich their lives through art with the involvement of staff, students and alumni.
After a warm welcome to LASALLE from President Professor Steve Dixon, seniors were treated to a tour of LASALLE’s various workshops and studios including the animation studio, recording studio, music performance space and fashion workshops. Our lecturers and technical officers shared more about the art-making facilities at LASALLE, and gave seniors the opportunity to view and interact with the students’ work firsthand.
Seniors then got to take part in a drumming workshop led by part-time lecturer Syed Ahmad Shafiq bin Syed Mohsen. The drummers got the crowd up on their feet and dancing to the beat!
As part of the Singapore Bicentennial celebrations, students and seniors also collaborated to paint two Singa figurines in support of Raffles City Singapore and Singapore Kindness Movement’s ‘Arts in the City: We Love SINGApore’ campaign. These will be part of an exhibition of about 200 Singa figurines at Raffles City from 18 July to 18 August, with proceeds from their adoption going towards the President’s Challenge 2019.
Fine Arts alumnus Glenn Lim and two seniors painted a Singa figurine in the Singapore Armed Forces uniform, a cross-generational artwork that reflects their shared experience as Singaporean men serving national duty to their country. Two other seniors carefully selected the colours and themes for a ‘Singa the Merlion’ which they painted together with Fine Arts alumni Peggy Ong and Foo Hui Wen.
Other art-making activities the seniors enjoyed that afternoon included line dancing, terrarium-making as well as painting and drawing on mugs, plates and canvases that they could bring home. Seniors also had a chance to decorate a tasty home-baked treat of cupcakes, and take part in nostalgic games such as five stones at the game station.
“It was an eye-opening experience for me and my wife to visit LASALLE to see the painting, drumming and the College facilities. I will definitely want to visit LASALLE again if opportunity arises,” said Mr Loy Kwong Yue, senior beneficiary from SilverACE (Telok Blangah).
Ms Low Xiu Hui, NTUC Health, said: “We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to LASALLE for planning and hosting our senior beneficiaries. Our seniors gained better insight into an art school and enjoyed the art jamming and drumming session.”
