SPOTLIGHT: THE HEART OF SENIOR LIVING


Custom Mural Brings in Bright Spirit of a Popular Miami Art District


By Sara Wildberger T


he Wynwood Walls and surround- ing neighborhood, a huge “outdoor museum” of immense murals and


street art created in Miami’s old warehouse district, is one of Florida’s top tourist draws. International artists compete to get a spot on the neighborhood’s walls. Now, thanks to leisure services director


Nancy Venezia and Galera Collective’s Glayson LeRoy, The Club at Boynton Beach assisted living and memory care com- munity has a piece of Wynwood: a bright, splashy, and hip activity-room wall. Venezia, 74, sparkling with energy and once an interior designer, is not the kind of person who can easily tolerate beige. Before the makeover, the bland wall “was putting residents to sleep,” she declares. She had to do something, but she had


only a tiny budget for the wall mural she en- visioned. A friend told another friend, who then told LeRoy, one of the co-founders of the Wynwood project and point person for a collective that now does large-scale art pieces from New York to Los Angeles. When LeRoy visited the community,


he says, “Nancy showed me this amazing collection of art the residents had painted.” He thought of all the older people who had been part of his life—and said yes. The budget would cover paint with enough for a small stipend for two mural artists. Venezia worked with them on a design.


“I wanted something for their minds, not just for their eyes,” she says; an allusive ab- stract that would offer residents something new every time someone looked at it from a different angle. Then the artists, known as Ripes and


Buns, came in with a load of spray paint. “It took them seven hours,” she says. “It would have taken me seven years!”


A portion of the mural wall at The Club at Boynton Beach, above, and artists Buns and Ripes at right.


“We’ve had such a positive response,” she


says, and people have said it brings positive energy into the building. “The residents love it, the families love it. And nobody falls asleep.” Venezia calls herself a “free spirit” and


has designed an activities program around art, music, meditation, and creativity. “Senior care does not have to be boring!”


she says. “I change the program all the time. I like to bring things in from outside and keep it current.” “If a program doesn’t challenge you, we’ll do something else.”


NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 ARGENTUM.ORG 51


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