Resilia
Arts & Health
Institute
We help senior care communities transform everyday engagement into meaningful creative experiences that strengthen cognitive and emotional resilience in older adults.
About Resilia
Arts & Health Institute
Resilia Arts & Health Institute is an applied creative health organization dedicated to strengthening the cognitive resilience and emotional well-being of older adults through structured arts-based engagement, professional training, and curated exhibition systems.
We operate at the intersection of arts, aging, and care—translating creative practice into practical systems that can be implemented in real-world care environments.
What if aging didn’t mean decline—
rather a different kind of creative growth?
Resilia began with one question inspired by Ellie’s grandmother, Ruth:
What if aging didn’t mean decline — rather a different kind of creative growth?
Ruth’s life and later years revealed something essential: even as memory changes, the need for expression, purpose, and recognition does not disappear.
That insight became the foundation for Resilia—bringing together lived experience, gerontology, and creative practice to build a new model for aging and engagement.
WHY WE EXIST
Traditional care environments often separate wellness, engagement, and expression into isolated activities that are difficult to sustain and scale.
Resilia was created to integrate these elements into a unified system—where creativity becomes a practical tool for care, not an occasional enrichment activity.
We aim to shift how organizations understand engagement in aging:
from passive programming to active participation, meaning-making, and connection.
Our Three-Part Model
Resilia Arts & Health Institute operates as an integrated ecosystem built across three interconnected areas of practice:
Public Exhibitions of Creative Expression
The Resilia Gallery showcases curated artwork created within senior living communities, adult day programs, and care environments.
These exhibitions make visible the creativity, identity, and lived experience of older adults while demonstrating the impact of structured creative engagement.
Brilliant Minds Arts-Based Engagement Program
The Brilliant Minds Studio Program provides structured, facilitator-led creative experiences designed for care environments.
We equip organizations with practical tools to implement consistent, meaningful arts engagement that supports participation and connection across varying cognitive and physical abilities.
Brilliant Minds Arts-Based Engagement Program
The Institute provides the systems that support implementation at scale.
We train staff, certify organizations as Studio Sites, and provide access to our proprietary frameworks, including:
- the Brilliant Minds Symposium
- the LEMONS Method (6 techniques for cognitive engagement)
- the More Than Memory model
- the CATA-Log creative activity system
Our Approach
Creativity as a System of Care
We believe creativity is not an activity or enrichment layer.
It is a structured, repeatable system that supports:
- cognitive engagement
- emotional expression
- social connection
- identity reinforcement
- and meaningful participation in daily life
Resilia exists to make this system accessible, scalable, and sustainable within aging services and care organizations.
Meet Ellie
Resilia was founded in 2021 by artist and social gerontologist Ellie Rose Schoessling, whose vision is to unlock the creative potential of organizations and transform how we approach aging and senior care.
Blending science with art, Ellie inspires others to reimagine aging through creativity, showing how the arts can enhance brain health, emotional well-being, and resilience.
With over 17 years of experience in the U.S. and Mexico, she has led and operated adult day centers, memory clinics, home health agencies, and a nurse training school. Ellie’s work continues to redefine gerontology and creative aging—bringing hope, innovation, and vibrancy to care communities big and small.
Level-Up Your Value
Resilia works with thriving senior care organizations to unlock and level-up the value of their people, programs, and physical settings with the arts and health sciences.
- Certified Senior Centers
- Adult Day Care Centers
- Home Care Agencies
- Hospice Programs
- Independent Living
- Life Plan Communities
- Continuous Care Retirement Communities
- Assisted Living
- Memory Care
- Skilled Nursing Homes
Our Initiatives
Resilia has three immersive initiatives to improve your community with essential tools
and skills training for your staff teams and volunteers.
Make Brain Health programs your differentiator! Combine neuroscience, gerontology, and the Arts to offer the most engaging interventions that exercise the brain, elevate resilience, and enhance purpose and emotional well-being.
Bring more vibrance to your care setting! Artified communities use visual arts, music, storytelling, and other hands-on experiences to elevate engagement, narrate legacies, and enrich their physical environments with person-centered productions.
The commitments of your Certified Nursing Assistants, Aids, and volunteers are one of your greatest assets. Unlock their full potential and capitalize on their ability to lead your person-centered care, brain health, life enrichment, and care excellence initiatives.