Cypress Cove has been awarded a grant from the Florida Blue Foundation for funding of a year-long resident distance learning program provided through the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The program, beginning this January on the HealthPark Florida 48-acre life plan community campus, features monthly visual arts learning classes presented by an educator from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Classes, given live via interactive videoconferencing, will allow participating residents to communicate in real time with class instructors.

Monthly class topics have been selected from dozens of educational visual art subjects offered through the museum. Among those topics chosen by Cypress Cove are America’s Story through Art, a Cleveland Museum of Art Tour, Impressionism, Contemporary Art – Mid Century and Beyond, and much more. “Each topic,” explains Resident Services Director Mary Franklin, “has been chosen to coincide with our campus-wide resident and staff monthly-themed wellness program (REACH).”

Cypress Cove’s REACH program provides residents with ways to engage in active aging through activities focused within seven dimensions of wellness (physical, spiritual, cognitive, educational, social, medical, and emotional health).

The Cleveland Museum of Art distance learning classes, says Franklin, “fits perfectly into the community’s REACH programs.” Research for viable senior educational programs by Cypress Cove Philanthropy Coordinator Lucinda Henry led the South Fort Myers life plan community to selection of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s nationally acclaimed educational learning program.

“It will be an excellent source of educational and cultural exposure for Cypress Cove residents. We are especially appreciative to the Florida Blue Foundation for their funding of this project,” says Franklin.

“We believe that this year-long distance learning art education program,” explains Henry, “will serve as a catalyst for residents to remain on a journey of life-long learning while enhancing their lives with culture and history.”