Celebrating Casa and Su Casa Programs 2026

Queens Center for Gay Seniors

By Clare Stokolosa, CASA Teaching Artist

This year the SuCasa Grant for 2026 workshops at the Queens Center for Gay Seniors began with a concentrated 3 day drawing series in April, Better Drawing Methods. As the facilitator I used reference drawings that could be built on and applied to create original drawings. My focus was to introduce skills to participants of all levels of drawing abilities from novice to advanced participants. We concentrated on the elements of art: line, shape, form and space.

These could later be applied to the participants’ watercolor painting compositions. I introduced a short film about artist Wayne Thiebaud as an example of how simple everyday shapes and forms could be turned into drawings. He was a famous Pop Artist that made paintings of cakes and pastries. His art work allowed me to show how one could use triangles, circles and other simple shapes to make interesting drawings and paintings. I used this to make a connection between drawing and painting and to segway into watercolor painting.

Starting in May The Demystifying Watercolor sessions began regularly once a week on Thursdays through June. There were two additional sessions on the last Friday and Monday of June. Totally 22 hours. In watercolor we worked with watercolor pencils and palette paints. The focus was on landscape and seascape painting. For pride week we did a seascape that began with a rainbow. I used the rainbow to focus on the element of art ,color and mixing colors with primary colors to get secondary colors. I use music by Patti Lobell, Look to the Rainbow and Judy Garland’s Over The Rainbow for inspiration.For the last session on Friday, June 26, 2026 participants prepared their own work for the presentation on the following Monday June 29, 2026.

Everyone was able to select up to 3 of the artworks. All artist were also given their folders to keep all their drawings, sketches and paintings in which they were given to take home. They then used matboards and backings and clear cellophane coverings which they prepared for display and to take home. Being able to prepare one’s artwork for presentation is part of an artist’s practice. Participants invited outside family, friends and neighbors to the art exhibit with light fare, dips, cheese, crackers and other snacks, along with soda, water and coffee and tea. Each participant was given a personalized certificate of participation. They were also given a small watercolor pad size 5” x 7”, a small set of watercolor pencils and a watercolor brush and plastic reusable bag so they could continue their watercolor art practice at home. I feel fortunate to be a part of this wonderful SuCasa art program. I enjoy working with many of the same participants and meeting new participants. It is also a pleasure working with the people who run the center, Bert Shankle-Reyes and Patrick Lin and the staﬀ and volunteers at the Queens Center for Gay Seniors. Thank you Jason Antos for considering me to be the art facilitator of this year’s workshop.

“Exploring the Magic of Mixed Media Art”

By Deborah Camp, CASA Teaching Artist

During the Spring 2026 semester my students at PS 209, focused on the exploration of various kinds of media to use for interactive art projects that encapsulated traditional and nontraditional materials. We explored different artistic techniques from painting on plexiglass to create a stained-glass style window and printmaking using aluminum foil to magazine collage and designing custom planters. We utilized recyclable materials to highlight the value of repurposing one material to bring it new life such as our dioramas made from a cardboard box.

Children learn through interaction and I strongly believe in teaching each lesson as a hands-on learning experience that is process focused so that they can participate and appreciate each step that they took to complete their piece. We also emulated the style of historical artists with modern perspectives such as when we learned about Piet Mondrian’s abstract compositions and utilized a technique called tape resist where we built layers of tape to create shapes on paper then filled in the space with pastels and peeled the tape to reveal the white lines underneath.

I introduced each class with a dynamic question and answer dialogue and gave them a background of what we will be doing each session. I showed a completed example piece to my students as a guide as well as created a new one step by step to demonstrate the process visually as I gently guided them. The example piece served to show that this is one out of many interpretations depending on the lens of the artist and encouraged them to explore and find their style and pace of creating. By offering a diverse range of projects varying the subject matter and materials it ensured that each student discovered a new way of making art.

The CASA program promoted positive mental health by providing the tools and guidance of cultivating and nurturing positive coping mechanisms for each student to express their feelings and thoughts in a visual way. The act of creating art provides a sense of purpose and emotional empowerment to my students. Creating art opened up a dialogue for my students to talk about techniques and what they have created therefore expanding their vocabulary and ways to interpret art and instilled perseverance and patience by aiding my students to focus on the project step by step and come up with solutions such as making a custom paint color by mixing 3 together. By participating and creating a piece of art, each of my students felt a great sense of accomplishment for completing the project in their own unique way to freely express their creativity. Each class, I encouraged my students to grow and develop as eager creative thinkers by expanding their horizons on new artistic techniques therefore fostering development of a deeper appreciation for the arts and how it is interconnected in various subjects.

It was a pleasure to teach tomorrow’s innovators by providing them with artistic guidance for the duration of the CASA program.

Funding provided by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs