Creativity is ageless. In January 2022, Carol Zou began a two-year Creative Strategist residency with the new Department of Aging and Disabilities (formerly the Workforce, Development, Aging and Community Services) to pilot intergenerational arts programming at four community and senior centers in the County’s First Supervisorial District.  

Carol is a community-engaged artist whose work engages themes of spatial justice, public pedagogy, and intercultural connection in multiracial neighborhoods. Carol has been involved in a number of residencies and initiatives, including with Enterprise Community Partners for Little Tokyo Service Center, the US Department of Arts and Culture, Project Row Houses with the University of Houston, and many more. 

As part of the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative, all Creative Strategist residencies have a foundation in equity, inclusion, access, and belonging. This particular residency and Carol’s work also supports the Purposeful Aging LA initiative action plan, which includes recommendations to expand social connectivity and reduce social isolation through participation in the arts. This work contributes to a national movement, led by the Surgeon General, who issued an Advisory in 2023 on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community to combat our epidemic of loneliness and isolation. 

Step 1 - Research

During the research phase of the residency, Carol and their collaborator Leo Alas visited the centers, met with staff, and listened to community members, which informed their residency proposal: mini-residences, one with each center, that would explore four themes of arts-based community engagement: Care, Community, Culture, and Connection.  

Residency 1: East LA Service Center

In June 2022, Carol kicked-off the first four-month residency at the East LA Service Center with a town hall, during which community members who frequent the center co-created a tapestry vision board, noting their desire for a community garden. Following the town hall, Carol curated a series of garden-related workshops on herbalism, cooking, flower arranging, and nature-inspired artwork led by guest artists. 

The residency concluded on August 27, 2022 with a Garden Build Day, where community members, Carol and Leo, and staff worked together to build garden beds, plant vegetables and herbs, and participate in art activities. Master Gardener Joseph Juarez led a demonstration on container gardening and Marlene Aguilar provided a lunch of seasonal plant-based dishes. Carol documented the activities of the mini-residency in a bilingual Garden Zine, with poems and recipes. 

Residency 2: Potrero Heights Park Community and Senior Center

For the second mini-residency, Carol focused on supporting an active center director and enhancing their existing programming and a busy events calendar. To activate the center’s new amphitheater, Carol hired Christopher Ramirez and Freedom Drum Circles to lead a participatory drum circle. They hired guest artists to amplify the Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon, Cancer Awareness Tea Party, Holiday Party, and Arts Showcase. Finally, Carol worked with staff to honor the center’s many active volunteers by creating a wall collage that was installed in December 2022. 

Residency 3: San Gabriel Valley Service Center

For this residency, Carol focused on language interpretation and community building to provide activities that would attract the Spanish-speaking and Mandarin-speaking community members that frequent that center. Recognizing that food is a conduit for bringing people together, Carol planned a series of trilingual volunteer-led cooking demonstrations. On May 4, 2023, a joy-filled community potluck, with trilingual karaoke and line dancing, closed out the residency. The recipes were compiled into a trilingual recipe book.  

While the cooking demonstrations helped bring people from different cultural groups together, Carol noted that the center could benefit from more support around language translation. Carol hired Jen Hofer to facilitate language justice training for County staff and community volunteers who frequent the center. The training sessions focused on best practices for translation, active listening, and how to build a multilingual vocabulary tree. 

Residency 4: Centro Maravilla Service Center

For their fourth and final mini-residency, Carol and Leo were presented with a new challenge: a request by the center’s director to recruit youth from the local high school to engage with Centro Maravilla’s older adults. Although the timing presented a challenge – this mini-residency kicked off right as the school year was ending – Carol and Leo ultimately succeeded in engaging two teen volunteers. Carol programmed a series of workshops for the teens to learn about public art, public engagement, and interior design, under the mentorship of Genelle Brooks-Petty. The teens were paired with two seniors to develop projects that would enhance and beautify the center with art.  

One teen, Dwayne Gonzales, developed a two-part project. Part one addressed way finding through the use of colorful banners on interior doors to make the services the center offered easier to find. For the second part of his project, he built garden beds for the outside patio. 

Leo Garcia was inspired by the senior he was paired with to develop a community-designed puzzle. With a request by the center to create a mural in the multipurpose room, Carol combined the puzzle and mural projects into one. The mural design included local landmarks significant to the center’s participants. On July 21, 2023, Carol organized a Puzzlepalooza, where members of the community were invited to add to the puzzle mural, plant vegetables and herbs in the community garden, and share a meal.