Creative arts for the most important members of our community.
The story of our founder.
Multi-disciplinary artist and founder of Sprat,
Ryan Elisabeth Reid’s career is rooted in the power of multi-generational creativity and collective action. Ryan studied with artists and designers at Parsons School of Design as well as writers and poets at Eugene Lang College. She continued to lead with her passion for the arts and wrote a play for her college thesis called ‘One Day in the Life of Henri Shnuffle’ about the daily life of an elderly man living in New York City. This play turned out to be so much more when it was recognized as an illuminating portrayal of elders, memory, and daily rhythms by the New York Times. This would become the guiding force of the next decade in Ryan’s career. Following her college graduation, Ryan worked in the dementia unit of the Isabella Geriatric Center, where she provided music therapy to residents and began appreciating the power of connecting with elders and listening to their stories. Ryan also had the honour of joining the Isabella Geriatric Center’s Board of Directors, the youngest member in its history.
In 2014, following the premiere of her second play Henri, a multi-generational piece about aging and connections across time, Ryan founded Sprat with a mission to share the transformational capacity of art between elders and youth. Shortly after launching, Ryan ventured to Nepal on a Fulbright Creative Arts Grant where she worked with a multi-generational group of Nepali women and girls to create performances, visual art, and written pieces about their collective experiences.
From there, Ryan had the privilege of being mentored by the wise elder and artist, Anna Halprin, from whom she was able to deeply learn about working collectively and bringing art into all aspects of life. It was under Anna’s mentorship that Ryan began ideating the future of Sprat – envisioning the possibilities of her work for herself and future generations. Through this experience, Ryan learned how to lead more intuitively and began establishing a creative process to offer science-backed art programs for communities who need them most. Throughout this time, Ryan also became the Founding Director of Rogers Art Loft, an artist residency program focused on community connection and support of emerging artists.
Today, Ryan continues her quest of serving elders and youth through her diverse offerings and exploring all of the possibilities uncovered when people from different generations come together and express themselves through the arts. Inspired by her personal art practice, Ryan continues to develop and enhance the curriculum of Sprat in order to better serve diverse communities, open the door to new opportunities, and extend the healing power of creative arts to others.