Project postcard: Local museum, artists, youth collaborate to show gratitude to seniors
After being colored in, mostly by local youth, the black-and-white designs created by seven local artists become more vibrant and joyful. Once they're colored and returned to the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center, they are distributed to long-term care facilities, whose residents have been particularly isolated during the pandemic.
Photo courtesy of the City of Moses Lake
Fran Church, a museum volunteer and mother of Museum and Art Center Manager Dollie Boyd, colors in a handful of postcards which will later be sent to a local long-term care facility.
The seven artists who worked on Project Postcard's designs were given the theme "Gratitude."
MOSES LAKE — To some of the artists who took part in the designs, gratitude took the form of spring’s bounty, or an autumn display or the love shared between friends and family.
Earlier this year, the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center put out the call for artists in the community to draft a number of joyful designs, creating the outlines that would then be printed on 500 postcards, said Museum and Art Center Manager Dollie Boyd in an interview.
Their theme was “Gratitude,” and the postcard’s intended recipients were Moses Lake senior living facilities whose residents, among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, have often been particularly isolated during the course of the long pandemic.
“We hope these postcards bring a smile to those who receive them. The designs were created by local artists and colored by members of the community,” Boyd said. “The people who made these cards were really excited to be able to reach out and connect with people who may be isolated at this time.”
The idea for the socially distanced social connection had come from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, Boyd said, which in June distributed postcards designed by local artists to health care facilities and nursing homes across Northwest Arkansas.
Seven artists were commissioned for the Moses Lake museum’s rendition of the project, including the museum’s customer service representative, Angela Hunt, and art coordinator, Erika Kovalenko, as well as local artists Mike and Roz Reed, Zhane Serrano, Sara Wilkes and Rachel Harrison.
Their playful, vibrant outlines were colored in by local youth before being sent on to Moses Lake’s long-term care facilities. They were sent to local schools, the local Boys and Girls Club, and other groups, before being sent back to the museum, where they were routed to a local eldercare facility. The first batch of 266 postcards was sent out last week to seven such facilities, just in time for the holiday season.
“We thought Thanksgiving and Christmas would be a good time to distribute these out to people,” Boyd said.
The reception from the postcard’s recipients has been very positive, and the museum hopes to be able to send out additional batches as fully colored postcards continue to be sent back in, Boyd said.
People who have postcards to return can mail them to the museum, at 401 S. Balsam St., Moses Lake, or bring them to the utility dropbox behind the Civic Center.
