The Business Monthly, March 2006

Arts Patrons Flock to Vantage House
Retirement Community Loves Cultural Events

If you’re looking for a rich cultural life, look no further than Vantage House.  Responding to the interests of the educated arts patrons living in the Columbia retirement community is the job of program coordinator Denise Love, who recently launched an innovative lecture series for the intellectually curious.

The new series of free lectures presented by instructors from Howard Community College is called Arts AdVantage; it is open to all interested seniors in Howard County free of charge. 

“This is a real benefit for everyone involved,” says Roxanne Cathey Farrar, HCC’s Continuing Education coordinator. 
           
While it does offer lectures on campus, having a comfortable, state-of- the- art site off campus like Vantage House is considered a big plus, adds Farrar.

“Space is so tight,” she says.  “Vantage House is such a nice place to offer courses for seniors.” 

Arts AdVantage began in February with a discussion of the book and film, Dead Man Walking.  The next month the lecture shifted to Dead Man Walking: The Opera, which was performed in Baltimore this spring.
 
By sharing these discussions with other seniors in the community at large through Arts AdVantage, more perspectives can be heard, says Love.

“I love intermingling,” says Elaine Goldstein, an avid opera fan and Vantage House resident.  “This is a very good idea,” she adds, recalling a series of four book discussions held last summer at Vantage House.  Conducted by Howard County Public Library, the discussions were open to the public.

“There was a huge crowd, of all ages,” says Goldstein.  “They had a lot to offer. It’s good to hear what others think and not just the people you see everyday.”

Vantage House residents also travel as a group to the library for the various programs it offers there as well as to area museums and theatres.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Vantage House residents are enthusiastic concert goers and art lovers.  They selected Vantage House after all, and it is an art-filled environment.

“Art is an integral part of any décor,” claims former Vantage House Board Chair Richard G. McCauley, who personally selected each of the more than 300 prints now adorning Vantage House’s walls.
The majority of prints are American and French Impressionists, a universally popular style especially favored by those born in the 1920s and 1930s.

“I wanted to create a feeling in the building that was familiar,” says McCauley, noting that lots of family members visit Vantage House.  

Matisse prints help give the café a relaxed, informal setting.  In the dining room, on the other hand, exquisite Audubon bird and botanical prints provide an elegant Victorian aura and suggest previous home decorations for many residents.           

In addition to the events at Vantage House and the trips to cultural events in Howard County, Baltimore and Washington, Vantage House residents create their own opportunities for creative expression.

At 88, Rachel Wasser’s knees aren’t what they used to be. When they start to ache, she keeps moving, right to her next dance class. 

“I get so interested in teaching, my knees are the last thing I think about,” says the former ballerina, who at age 17 went to New York to study ballet before later joining the Cleveland Opera Ballet Company.

Today, not only does Wasser teach tap dancing and line dancing at Vantage House where she lives, but she also holds classes and puts on musicals at another retirement facility as well as at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Ellicott City.

And Wasser is not alone.  Music is Lillian Kersh’s passion. Today the 78-year-old’s big, beautiful and very old Steinway sits in the living room of her apartment in Vantage House.  But she can often be found in the community’s living room accompanying the residents’ choir on the piano.
           
“This is a good place and I’m taking full advantage of all it has to offer,” Kersh says, “so I like to give something back by making use of my music skills,” she says.