Drawing connection: Art class unites formerly unhoused men with case managers

Brad Schubert carefully flips through a stack of his photorealistic drawings of famous folk: Britney Spears, Paul McCartney, Ronald Reagan, LeAnn Rimes, Richard Nixon.

Schubert has been drawing on and off since high school, but recently completed a unique drawing class for residents of the Catholic Charities Twin Cities Higher Ground campus. The facility is located in downtown Minneapolis and serves men who have struggled with homelessness or housing instability. Schubert has been a resident since 1999. 

“I don't know how many times I've had my day saved by doing one of my drawings,” Schubert says. “I've had crummy days that were made better with my artwork. If it's a good day, it makes it even better, and that's a great feeling of accomplishment."

The six-week drawing course took place over the summer and was a collaboration between Higher Ground and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The course was part of the museum's Vitality Arts program, aimed at offering art workshops to different groups of adults aged 55 and older.

Twelve residents participated in the course, which culminated with the “55 and Better: Vitality Arts at Mia” exhibition, now open at the museum.

In the show, Schubert has five drawings including a landscape, three John F. Kennedy portraits and one of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“The people really responded to my artwork from what they’ve seen, so I really appreciate that,” Schubert says. “I learned that some of my drawings that I didn't think were very good are actually pretty good.”

One of the art instructors, Lynda Monick-Isenberg, has long been teaching community classes like these.

“It's about believing that people 55 and over can learn something new, that every one of us can be inspired by something through the rest of our lives,” she says. “It's about believing in the older adults and their capabilities and their interests.”

This course focused on drawing fundamentals like shading. Participants would receive drawing assignments to work on outside of class and then bring them in for constructive group critiques.

One aspect that also made the course unique, Monick-Isenberg says, is that the residents’ case managers were participants as well, learning to draw alongside their clients.

“This was a really unique model, which I've wanted to try out for a long time,” says Monick-Isenberg, a former Minneapolis College of Art and Design professor. “It was a really joyful time, I think for all of us, because everybody was on the same page as they entered.” 

For case manager Dynecia Smith, it was her first time taking a drawing course.

“I thought that drawing was something that was just a talent that you were born with. I didn't really think that I would be able to learn to draw something,” Smith says.

She now has a landscape drawing in the show at Mia. “I’m definitely excited to see it. I’ve never had something posted in a museum before.”

Smith has been working in the field for five years. She says the drawing class helped the residents and case managers experience a communications breakthrough.

Before, the residents “just kind of kept to themselves, so with us even having this program, we were able to take them out of their shells a little bit and learn new things about them that we just wouldn't even know,” Smith says. “This gave us a time to get to know their history, their hobbies, things that they like to do, things that they think about in their own personal time that they may not be able to express outwardly to everyone.”

During the course, the group also went on a field trip to view and learn from art at Mia. Smith says she wants to continue bringing residents on regular field trips there now that the class is over. Schubert wants to return to study the portraits of George Washington.

“I hope the classes will continue,” Schubert says.

“55 and Better: Vitality Arts at Mia” is on view through Nov. 12.

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