The Penelope Project

The Arts of Penelope: Art-Making and Making Artifacts, by Ellie Rose and Shannon Scrofano -- Who Is a Hero in Your Own Life?, by Jolene Hansen -- Mamie's Story, by Beth Meyer-Arnold -- On Playing the Suitors: In Dialogue, by Daniel Cohen and Rusty Tym -- On Playing Penelope: In Dialogue, by Joyce Heinrich and Nikki Zaleski -- Five Seconds after the Audience Left, by Anne Basting -- The Magic of the Movement, by Anne Basting and Leonard Cruz -- Finding an Ending, by Maureen Towey -- Excerpt from Finding Penelope, Scene 5, by Anne Basting -- Part Five: Evaluation and Evolution -- Beyond Penelope at Luther Manor, by Ellie Rose -- On the Challenges of Continuity in Civic Arts Projects: In Dialogue, by Michael Rohd and Anne Basting -- Making Structural Changes in the Curriculum through Penelope, by Robin Mello and Anne Basting -- What Did the Research Tell Us?, by Robin Mello and Julie Voigts -- The Essential Elements of Penelope, by Robin Mello and Julie Voigts -- The Landscape beyond Penelope, by Anne Basting, Ellie Rose, and Maureen Towey -- Appendices -- Appendix 1. Penelope Project Timeline -- Appendix 2. Penelope Project Team -- Appendix 3. Partnership Agreement -- Appendix 4. Prompts for Penelope Activities and Challenges -- Appendix 5. Storytelling and Playwriting Syllabus -- Appendix 6. A Note on the Program Evaluation, by Robin Mello -- Appendix 7. Funding Partners -- Appendix 8. Survey Questions -- Contributors -- Index

Of the 15,000 nursing homes in the United States, how many are places you’d want to visit, much less live in? Now that people are living longer and more of the population are elderly, this question is more important than ever, particularly for people with disabilities. We must transform long-term care into an experience we and our loved ones can face without dread. It can be done. The Penelope Project shows how by taking readers on an ambitious journey to create a long-term care community that engages its residents in challenging, meaningful art-making. At Milwaukee’s Luther Manor, a team of artists from the University of Wisconsin’s theatre department and Sojourn Theatre Company, university students, staff, residents, and volunteers traded their bingo cards for copies of The Odyssey. They embarked on a two-year project to examine this ancient story from the perspective of the hero who never left home: Penelope, wife of Odysseus. Together, the team staged a play that engaged everyone and transcended the limits not just of old age and disability but also youth, institutional regulations, and disciplinary boundaries. Inviting readers to see through the eyes of residents, students, artists, staff, family members, and experts in the fields of education, long-term care, and civically engaged arts practice, this book underscores the essential role of the arts and humanities in living richly. Waiting, as Penelope waited, need not be a time of loss and neglect. The Penelope Project boldly dreams of how to make late life a time of growth and learning. If you dream of improving people’s lives through creative endeavors, this book provides practical advice.

Penelope Kingston tries to convince the new girl in town to become her best friend in this charming start to the brand-new Penelope Perfect chapter book series. Penelope Kingston wants to be perfect. And most of the time she is good, sensible, and calm. But then sometimes Penelope is bossy, angry, and frustrated. She is never quite sure which side of her personality is going to be stronger on any given day. But there’s one part of her life that is definitely not perfect: she doesn’t have a best friend. It is time for Penelope to get a best friend of her own. But it isn’t easy finding a best friend, and it definitely isn’t easy trying to be perfect all of the time. Penelope learns that sometimes the best idea is to forget to try!

Inspired by a true story, Jake learns the value of you love who you serve. As the prospective valedictorian, wide receiver and favored tenor in show choir, Jake knows he's at the top of his game. He sets his sights on Lexi, the sweetest and hottest girl at Palmdale High and can't miss. However, racing to class one morning, he plows into Penelope, the overweight new girl. Books and papers fly everywhere. He helps her with her things, even holds her hand so she can stand up. CLICK! Someone snaps a picture and sends the text all over school. Egged on by his friends and desperate to squash any rumors before Lexi gets back from Mexico, he pulls a juvenile prank. NOT his brightest idea. As punishment he must tutor Penelope three days a week. Her grade is now his grade. He sees his chance at a full ride scholarship disappearing faster than a missed field goal. And to make matters worse, Lexi sides with Penelope.

How can we plan, organize, distribute, and offer care in ways that treat both those who need it and those who provide it with dignity and respect? Using the example of residential services, Troubling Care: Critical Perspectives on Research and Practices investigates the fractures in our care systems and challenges how caring work is understood in social policy, in academic theory, and among health care providers. In this era defined by government cutbacks and a narrowing sense of collective responsibility, long-term residential care for the elderly and disabled is being undervalued and undermined. A result of a seven-year interdisciplinary research project-in-progress, this book draws together the work of fourteen leading health researchers, including sociologists, medical practitioners, social workers, policy researchers, cultural theorists, and historians. Using a feminist political economy lens, these scholars explore and challenge the theories, work organization, practices, and state-society relations that have come to shape long-term care. Troubling Care offers critical perspectives on the often disquieting arena of care provision and proposes alternatives for thinking about and meeting the needs of some of our most vulnerable citizens in ways that go beyond residential care. This book seeks to bridge not only the gaps between disciplines, but also those between theory and practice. Features: takes an interdisciplinary approach, making this work appropriate for courses in a variety of disciplines including sociology, medicine, social work, health policy, cultural studies, and political economy includes the work of fourteen leading health researchers, including sociologists, medical practitioners, social workers, policy researchers, cultural theorists, and historians bridges the gap between theory and practice by incorporating both theoretical research and specific case examples

Painting Shawls is a collection of thirteen knitted shawl patterns designed by Stephen West. Each pattern features Westknits' signature architectural style and bold graphic color combinations. The instructions are easy to follow and appropriate for adventurous beginners and advanced knitters alike. This hardcover book is filled with inspirational photos, showing multiple samples of each design to inspire your own color interpretations. In addition to patterns, this book includes several technique chapters like how to substitute yarns and customize the size of each shawl along with how to swatch and weave in your ends. There are also several cast on photo tutorials and video links throughout the book to teach and guide you through the artistic shawl knitting process. Each book includes a free download code, so you can access individual PDFs of all thirteen shawl patterns. Dive into the woolly world of Westknits and use these playful shawl designs as landscapes to paint with yarn. If you're going to make it by hand, make it grand!

The Heart of Penelope is the absorbing story of a young girl Penelope who falls in love with a man but doesn't marry him. Penelope goes through a series of life-altering events after that. But fate brings them together again, and they share an intimate relationship. When everybody starts foreseeing that she will marry him at last, another character enters the story. Whether Penelope will marry her old lover or not unfolds later in the story. The stories of diverse characters in this book are woven skillfully into a novel of unique power and interest. The characters are drawn deftly and seem to be inspired by real life. It presents a subtle and strong analysis of character. Throughout the story, the reader cannot imagine how it will end.

Making a case for cultural participation by older adults to enhance the quality of their lives and building on concepts of adult human development and empowerment, Elizabeth Brooke reframes 'active ageing' to include forms of creative expression and cultural participation crucial to transforming later stages of the life course.