Online “Pop-Up Pages” Workshop Offered to Older Adults in Queens, NY

MAKING A POP-UP MEMORY PAGE with Spica Wobbe & Karen Oughtred | PART 1: Materials and Tools | Making the Base Page

Queens, NY is one of the most international places in the world. The Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts have set up a program called FTH at Home: Global Arts for Global Kids! to cater to families and people of all ages during the COVID-19 quarantine.

Based on the Creative Aging classes that they teach at senior centers, Spica Wobbe and Karen Oughtred have developed an online class called, Pop-up Page Making, which is part of the FTH at Home offering. In addition, the two have also posted similar instructional videos on Facebook and on Spica’s YouTube Channel, to inspire older adults to make art from their lives. 

“Using the available technology, it is possible to design a virtual class,” they said. “It is important though, to break each step down, while considering the availability of resources at hand.”

Pictured above is LaGuardia Senior Center student, Margaret Yuen, sharing her pop-up memory book, “A Prosperous Family全家福,” Margaret used materials found around her home to create this pop-up using Spica and Karen’s instructional videos. Credit: The Memory Project: Storytelling through Visual Arts, Theater and Puppetry

Overcoming Communication Barriers

Spica and Karen use a variety of tactics to to stay connected to the older adults they love to teach.

They have a WhatsApp group chat with those who use the app, who, in turn, relay information to others in the circle who do not. They also send texts, and as some of their participants only speak Cantonese, they rely on a translator to check in and share information with that population. They also lean on mechanisms that some senior centers already use, i.e., Facebook pages.