If you’re only as old as you feel, then Willie Baez is still in his 20s.
At 70 years old, he still keeps a full schedule as an artist. When he’s not teaching workshops at Oolite Arts in Miami Beach or bartending for exhibit receptions, he’s overseeing figure drawing classes or, simply, making art himself.
“We are conditioned to think that when you get to retirement, it's all over. The first two years, it's like a vacation. However, you're gonna wind up sitting on the couch, watching TV all day long. Don't do that,” he said.
Baez left the corporate world and retired early before pursuing the arts full-time. His latest venture led him to a sculpture workshop at the Perez Art Museum Miami. It’s part of the museum’s Creative Aging series — a free six-week immersive workshop for adults 55 and older. About 20 students are selected to learn a specific medium from a local artist. Past workshops include ceramics, textiles and book making.
Baez completed his fourth workshop with the program, in which he and a dozen students cast plaster molds using body parts. Some people used their arms, their legs and even their faces.
“This is my experience with things in life. I'm always willing to try something once,” he said.
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Due to high demand for the classes, there is an application process to join. However, prior artistic experience is not required, which has appealed to people from all walks of life. That runs the gamut from doctors or judges to individuals who might have found their art practice later on in life.
Nicole Combeau, PAMM’s Vitality Arts program coordinator, helped to develop the hands-on curriculum. She wanted to provide a space for older adults to share their wisdom, express themselves in a creative environment and cultivate a sense of agency.
“We definitely wanted to make sure that there was a level of seriousness to this program — that people were committing to something that felt like it was going to be enriching to them,” said Combeau.
In 2023, PAMM was approached by the organization, the E.A. Michelson Philanthropy to join a cohort of small museums across the U.S. that would receive dedicated funding for arts initiatives for independent, older adults.
“ I think in the U.S. in particular, we have this mentality that once someone becomes a certain age, they're not useful to us. And so where we really try to shift some kind of thinking in this program is to say these people are ripe — at this age, they have so much to offer,” said Combeau.
Over the course of six weeks, the students come to the museum twice a week to work on two projects that will be showcased at the end of the program.
Liene Bosquê, a visual artist and art educator who taught a sculpture workshop for the program, found the collaborative nature of the program conducive to their craft.
“I'm teaching them, but they should be the ones teaching me, right?” she said. “I feel like a lot of them really connected their own stories to the pieces, like bringing some personal issues or personal things to the sculpture.”
For students like Baez, the class was not just a place to learn a new skill. It also provided a source of comfort after experiencing a spate of deaths in his family — it gave him a sense of community.
”Love — being more conscious of love, I found that in this class there was a lot of that going on,” Baez said.
