America’s Fastest-Growing Population is Caregivers. In Michigan, Their Creativity Matters.

It’s a Thursday night at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center in Birmingham, Michigan. A group of artists catches up over wine and charcuterie before moving into the gallery. Gentle music plays as they take their seats. This week, they’re drawing still lifes.

Despite a wide range of art experience, these artists share a major life experience: They are caregivers.

The number of caregivers in the United States is skyrocketing. More than 60 million Americans provide care for someone who needs it: an aging parent, a chronically ill spouse, a disabled child. Yet even with so many in this role, it often feels lonely.

Paid professional caregivers are welcomed alongside volunteers. The BBAC hopes to bring more onsite Art of Caregiving© visits to care facilities, so those caregivers can participate after work. “These are people often earning minimum wage, yet they still have the stress of what it takes to be a care partner,” says VanGelderen.

Enter the Art of Caregiving© at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center (BBAC). Here, caregivers—called care partners—gather twice a month for free art classes and so much more.

“Care partners are overlooked in the whole system,” says Annie VanGelderen, President & CEO of the BBAC. “They take on the stress [and] the financial stress as well. That’s why we’ve been adamant about keeping the program free.”

The Art of Caregiving bloomed out of another program: Meet Me @ the BBAC. Modeled after Meet Me at MoMA in New York, this program welcomes adults with dementia and their care partners to view and create art in a safe environment.

“After the first session, all the care partners were saying, ‘I want to do my own art project,’ and who are we to say no?” says VanGelderen.

The Art of Caregiving was initially developed for care partners of people with Alzheimer’s. “But then we started getting requests saying, ‘I’m taking care of my husband who has cancer’ or ‘I’m taking care of a child who is critically ill,’ and we thought, ‘Why should we just target one group?’” she says.

The sessions are flexible to accommodate unpredictable schedules—if you can’t make the morning, come to the evening one. Socializing is a vital component, forging friendships with people who “get it.” But the focus is on art—and developing creative skills that carry into their daily lives.

VanGelderen emphasizes that they are creating sophisticated art projects, from sketches to collages, clayware to paintings. They take home free kits to continue creating—with the person they’re caring for, if possible. They receive journals for “visual journaling”: doodling, writing, sketching, anything they want to express during their days.

The Art of Caregiving© has become so popular that there is a waiting list, and the BBAC is considering adding another session.

“We change the projects and the medium every single session. And it’s always designed for success,” says Annie VanGelderen. “We don’t want [anyone] to feel frustrated doing an art project.”

The social element of the program is very important, even though the primary focus remains on the art.

Many BBAC staff members have been or currently are caregivers, so the program was designed with personal experience in mind. Take-home art kits encourage participants to take what they’ve learned and create more on their own time, including with the person they’re caring for.

The creativity and connection shows caregivers that they, too, are cared for. And it makes a difference. VanGelderen points to a clear example: A “regular” who cares for his wife with early-onset Alzheimer’s wrote a book, My Journey with Sumi, which garnered national attention. And it features all the art he has made through the Art of Caregiving.

“I’m going to get teary here, but we’re constantly humbled by how many lives we touch and how important this program is,” says VanGelderen. “A number of the staff here have been care partners. We know how important it is to be a care partner and also to have some kind of relief somewhere.”