Zhenrui on Artmind & the Power of Creative Connection

Well, hi, everyone.

I'm so excited to be here today, and my name is Zenrei Gu.

I'm currently 16, a senior from Chandler, Arizona, and, um, I just recently started my senior year, so it's been a lot of fun in that.

And the main reason and the backstory behind Art Mind, so I actually started Art Mind my freshman year of high school because ever since I was around five years old, I've always been super passionate in the arts.

I've loved either doing art classes, like I've done painting, charcoal, different sketches, things of that nature, and then at the same time, I actually do Chinese classical dance since I was nine.

So, um, both of them combined together really harbored my love for art, and I always thought art was a great way for me to not only express myself, but also unwind from the stresses of my day.

So I love, after a super stressful week, going into my art teacher's studio and being able to focus on a painting or some art project that I'm doing and working on that week.

And so because I saw how much art really positively benefited me, I wanted to reflect that and give back to the community in that way.

And so my freshman year of high school, I, um, was introduced to the senior citizen community, which is what Art Mind is focused on, through another service project that I did where we, um, set up a card-making station at the front of my own local library.

And over three days alone, we got over 100 cards for seniors.

And after that, um, I went to a senior home.

I handed out those cards, and just being there and seeing the seniors, like for example, I saw one just, like, staring, uh, meaninglessly out of a window, and I just, um, had questions for the activity director, and she basically told me that a lot of senior citizens feel really isolated and lonely in these senior homes.

And after doing more research, I found out that in Arizona alone, around 40% of senior citizens feel isolated, and so I wanted to bridge both of these, um, gaps through, um, art actually.

So since then, I've been hosting art classes for senior citizens, especially ones that are focused on memory and movement disorders because I found out that those are the ones who feel, um, that, like, need and that gap especially.

And over, um, my work through Art Mind throughout high school, this has been something that I'm genuinely super passionate about, and I'm just super grateful that every single time I host a class, I see the smiles from the senior citizens being so happy to be there, and a lot of times it actually harbors connection in them.

Like, when they're doing an art class, they make a new friend.

They, um...

It really makes their day just being able to connect with other people that, um, maybe they normally don't have the opportunity to connect to in their senior home, and doing that through my art classes.