The Barnes Foundation Announces Barnes Create & Connect
A new workshop series for individuals living with Parkinson’s disease and their care partners
Philadelphia, PA, August 20, 2025—The Barnes Foundation has announced Barnes Create & Connect, a new workshop series designed to support individuals living with Parkinson’s disease and their care partners through meaningful experiences with art and creative expression. Presented in partnership with the Parkinson Council, this free program focuses on connection—between participants, with works of art, and through shared moments of reflection and making.
Barnes Create & Connect is made possible with support from the Parkinson Council, Deborah Glass, and other generous individuals.
Taking place on select Saturdays in fall 2025 and spring 2026, the workshops begin in the Barnes galleries, where trained staff members guide participants through slow-looking exercises and conversations about selected artworks. These guided engagements are followed by a hands-on art-making experience led by a teaching artist. Together, staff and participants create a welcoming and supportive space that honors each individual’s pace, perspective, and presence. No prior experience with art is necessary to participate in these workshops—just openness to explore, create, and learn.
“We believe meaningful experiences with art should be available for everyone, and our hope with Barnes Create & Connect is to create new opportunities for individuals living with Parkinson’s and their caregivers to step outside their daily challenges and experience the wellness-enhancing effects of engagement with the visual arts,” says James Claiborne, Fleischner Family Deputy Director for Community Engagement at the Barnes. “We are proud to be working with the Parkinson Council on this new program, through which we aim to reach diverse audiences, including those who have historically had fewer opportunities to participate in such programs.”
Barnes Create & Connect is part of the Barnes’s suite of art, health, and wellness-related programs, which draw upon the Barnes collection and educational approaches to support the well-being of individuals experiencing health-related challenges as well as the general public. These programs also include our Art, Well-Being, and Medicine workshops, designed to help medical students and healthcare professionals develop a more empathetic and humanistic approach to patient care.
Barnes Create & Connect workshops kicked off in August and take place on select Saturdays through October 2025, and from April through June 2026. A schedule for fall 2025 is included below. Light snacks and beverages will be provided. Space is limited, and registration is required.
September 13, 10 am–noon (More info and register here)
September 20, 10 am–noon (More info and register here)
October 11, 10 am–noon (More info and register here)
October 25, 10 am–noon (More info and register here)
“Barnes Create & Connect is a wonderful opportunity for the regional Parkinson’s community,” says Wendy Lewis, chief executive officer of the Parkinson Council. “The Barnes, with its rich history of creating dynamic programs that engage myriad groups in meaningful and transformative experiences with art, is an ideal partner for the program, which aims to reach audiences who are typically underrepresented in Parkinson’s programs. I look forward to seeing how our community responds to the incredible opportunity to be transported and inspired by the renowned works in the Barnes collection, while connecting with others in a supportive, creative space.”
SPONSORS
Barnes Create & Connect is made possible with support from the Parkinson Council, Deborah Glass, and other generous individuals.
Programs for patients with Parkinson’s disease are supported by the Parkinson Council through a gift from the Peggy and Ellis Wachs Family Foundation.
Lead support for community engagement and family programs is provided through the Comcast Center for Community Engagement at the Barnes. Generous endowment support for community engagement programs is provided by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and additional annual support for these programs comes from generous individual, corporate, and foundation donors.
ABOUT THE BARNES FOUNDATION
The Barnes is a nonprofit cultural and educational institution that shares its unparalleled art collection with the public, organizes special exhibitions, and presents programming that fosters new ways of thinking about human creativity. The Barnes collection is displayed in ensembles that integrate art and objects from across cultures and time periods, overturning traditional hierarchies and revealing universal elements of human expression. Home to one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings—including the largest groups of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne in existence—the Barnes brings together renowned canvases by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Vincent van Gogh, alongside African, Asian, ancient, medieval, and Native American art as well as metalwork, furniture, and decorative art.
The Barnes was established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” A visionary collector and pioneering educator, Dr. Barnes was also a fierce advocate for the civil rights of African Americans, women, and the economically marginalized. Committed to racial equality and social justice, he established a scholarship program to support young Black artists, writers, and musicians who wanted to further their education. Dr. Barnes became actively involved in the Harlem Renaissance, during which he collaborated with philosopher Alain Locke and Charles S. Johnson, the scholar and activist, to promote awareness of the artistic value of African art.
Since moving to Philadelphia in 2012, the Barnes has expanded its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and social justice, teaching visual literacy in groundbreaking ways; investing in original scholarship relating to its collection; and enhancing accessibility throughout every facet of its programs.
The Barnes is situated in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. Read our Land Acknowledgment.Hours and ticket prices are listed on our website.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Deirdre Maher, Director of Communications
215.278.7160, press@barnesfoundation.org
Online press office: barnesfoundation.org/press