Teaching Artists

Diane Jarvenpa

Diane Jarvenpa has combined poetry and music in assisted living residences as well as memory care units and nursing homes for the past twenty years. She has provided intergenerational teaching experiences that have included high school students and pre-school children with assisted living and memory care residents, and nursing students and older adults. She enjoys exploring their world of words together with music in all her poetry project sessions.

She is the author of The Way She Told her Story, The Tender Wild Things and Divining the Landscape, swift, bright, drift and Ancient Wonders, The Modern World and Shy Lands. She has received The Midwest Independent Publishers Association Award and an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. As a singer-songwriter she performs under the name Diane Jarvi. She was the recipient of the 50 over 50 Minnesotans award in 2020 from Pollen Midwest and AARPMN for intergenerational teaching of poetry and music.

dianejarvenpa.com
[email protected]

Teaching History

  • Poetry/music sessions with Senior Companion/Memory Care programs on site and in their outlying communities
  • Shared Creative Space stories and music for those with memory loss living at home as respite time for caregivers
  • Sharing Our Stories with Long Term
  • Intergenerational sessions with Memory Care and preschoolers
  • Group poetry sessions with Assisted Living, Memory Care, Long Term, and Adult Day.
  • Intergenerational classes with Assisted Living and nursing students

Facilities and Centers where I have brought APP-MN

  • Lyngblomsten – St. Paul: Writing class w/assisted living, intergenerational class with assisted and nursing students, work with senior companion/memory care programs on site and in their outlying communities, Creative Space stories and music for those with memory loss living at home, Writer in residence with Long Term.

  • Ebenezer Martin Luther Care Center – Bloomington: Assisted living, Long Term, Adult day, Memory care

  • Ebenezer-Ridges – Burnsville: Assisted-living w/ Preschool, Adult day, Assisted Living

  • Harbor Crossing – White Bear: Memory care

  • Hmong Elders Center – Minneapolis: Adult day

  • The Pillars at Shoreview: Memory care

  • Orchards of Minnetonka: Assisted living mixed with memory care

  • Towerlight – St Louis Park: Intergenerational sessions Preschoolers w/ Memory Care

  • Riley Crossing – Chanhassen: Intergenerational sessions, Preschoolers w/ Memory Care

  • Shorewood Landing: Memory care

  • Norris Square – Cottage Grove: Memory care

  • Northern Lakes Senior Living – Baxter, MN: Memory Care

Diane Jarvenpa