Vibrant Art, Vibrant Senior Living
At The Carillon in Boulder, art enriches daily life
When Nyla Witmore and her husband decided it was time to move from their large family home in Boulder into a senior community, Nyla’s first criteria wasn’t excellent food, a spacious apartment or engaging social programs (though she valued all those features too). Instead, her primary desire for her new home was north light.
A professional artist who has taught, painted and lived in Boulder for more than three decades, Witmore craved a home that would minimize distractions and provide, yes, ideal light. She explained, “I love having perfectly balanced north light, a must for a painter.” She and her husband, a retired business executive, found the right fit for them – and for her art – at The Carillon at Boulder Creek, the highend, luxury hotel-style senior living community tucked between Folsom Field and the University of Colorado Boulder east campus. “I knew I could have more focus here,” she said. The Witmores rented two adjacent one-bedroom apartments on the north side of The Carillon, one for their residence and the second for an art studio. “From our balcony we can view people rafting down the creek and watch people learning to play tennis and walking back and forth on the path. We are looking into nature. When winter comes and the leaves drop, we’re looking down the Front Range; the views are terrific.”
Creativity at The Carillon
Life at The Carillon has been good for Witmore and her art. As the former president of the Boulder Art Association, she participated in Boulder’s Open Studios for years, and she continues to paint weekly with the Plein Air Artists of Colorado. Her work, exhibited in galleries internationally, is mostly representational and impressionist in style, and she enjoys capturing intimate landscapes while “creating a feeling but also an interpretation of the scene before me,” Witmore said. She added with a laugh, “My work has been a great excuse to travel.” Nonetheless, at The Carillon, Witmore prefers to “be one of the group” and to “inspire others to express their creativity,” whether that’s curating a gallery wall or spurring on her fellow residents in their imaginative pursuits, she said. Though she paints a few hours most days in her studio, she religiously attends The Carillon’s Tuesday art class, taught by resident and former public school art teacher Mary Hamlin.
“Mary’s approach is very freeing, focusing on exploration,” Witmore said. “In community living, we have residents with some artistic experience and others are embracing their leisure time to discover or develop latent art skills. Both the experienced and novice participants come together once a week to explore creativity. I have observed considerable growth in the three years we have lived here.” Even her husband of 57 years, who never once picked up a paintbrush before their move to The Carillon, attends class. “And he gets excited about it,” Witmore said.
Hamlin’s welcoming and adventurous approach to art reflects The Carillon ethos. After all, The Carillon is about nurturing and stimulating the whole person, from fitness classes and lectures to brain games and book clubs, noted Carillon community sales manager Bryan Sanchez, so the art program weaves intuitively into community life.
Hamlin launched her class about nine years ago. “When I first came to The Carillon, we had some craft things and funny little paints, that was it. I started the program, and it took right off,” she recalled. “We’re people who are willing to give it a try, to look at great art, talk about the composition and then say, ‘Maybe we can try to work like that person did.’” The class experiments with extensive media, including pencil drawings, acrylics, pen and ink, printing, collage and small sculptures.
“Art allows us to think bigger than the obvious, to extend our world so we really are more observant and sensitive, to express our feelings, to react,” Hamlin said. “I tell them to ‘show me what you see,’ and there’s a lot of satisfaction in it.”
Art For Brain Health
The Carillon’s focus on resident creativity may also support physical health, Witmore said. “Creativity engages a different part of the brain, and as we age, it is so important that we stimulate more places in the brain to keep the brain healthy, to keep depression at bay.”
Witmore compared the cognitive benefits of producing art to those of exercise, saying, “My balance has improved 75 percent from the exercises classes here, and my husband and I are both healthier than when we moved in three years ago. The fitness and balance classes involve brain training, and this improves everything.”
A Treasure Box of Life Stories
Witmore came to art late in life professionally, not seriously studying painting until her 40s. She practiced briefly as a speech therapist, cared for her sons, wrote full-time and published three books before “discovering I had some talent and started adult education,” she said. Soon her work attracted students and galleries, such as Smithklein Gallery on Pearl Street.
“Stories like mine,” Witmore said, are “one of the most important parts about The Carillon.” She expounded, “It’s like this treasure box that gradually unfolds, as we learn more about each other and discover these interesting people and stories.” Several other Carillon residents are devoted to the arts, including a former CU professor who gives regular piano concerts at The Carillon and a former art professor and museum curator.
To celebrate resident skills and promote artistic development, Witmore has been asked to organize a gallery wall at The Carillon. The wall will feature select resident artists’ mounted work every few months and will give residents an opportunity to create a themed show. In addition, The Carillon devotes a wall to Hamlin’s art class and displays residents’ recent projects. “There is so much encouragement and stimulation here,” Witmore said. “The Carillon encourages older and newer residents to continue using the talents they already have.”
Finally, Witmore said, “Everyone puts off a move to senior living, but we realized it’s more prudent to pare down while you still have the energy. I had been an avid gardener for years, and my wrists were tired from the weed pulling. I made a choice for art.” To schedule a tour or learn more about the opportunities for creativity and personal development at The Carillon at Boulder Creek, email Sanchez at bsanchez@leisurecare.com or call 720.565.6844.