Mary Crescenzo is a Topanga, California resident and Native-born New Yorker. She is a master teaching artist, multidisciplinary artist, and author of  The Planet Alzheimer’s Guide: 8 Ways the Arts Can Transform the Life of Your Loved One and Your Own.  A pioneer teaching artist for decades, Mary works with all ages, including older adults (well, frail, those with special needs, and those with Alzheimer’s) and has taught in community and library settings through Lifetime Arts, a national non-profit that brings quality arts programming to older adults. She is also an independent teaching artist who has presented workshops for various ages and populations in U.S. cities, including Santa Fe, Tulsa, New York and Los Angeles, and in the town of Caltanissetta, Sicily. Mary designs and facilitates multidisciplinary arts programs for diverse groups as well as risk populations, such as Haven Hills, a California domestic violence shelter. She teaches classes in visual, literary, and performing arts, and often incorporates multidisciplinary and intergenerational perspectives.

As a consultant, she works with organizations that wish to include arts engagement in their programming. She has facilitated professional development workshops for Lifetime Arts for teaching artists in New York City and State. Mary is a founding roster member of Lifetime Arts and has participated as a member of the Lifetime Arts’ panel to evaluate candidates for its roster. Mary has is a public speaker on arts advocacy. Part of her mission is to bring art to unlikely places.

Mary is a member of AlzAuthors, The Dramatist Guild, Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, SAG-AFTRA.  She has a BA from Lehman College (City University of New York) in arts education, a Master’s degree in Liberal Studies from the University of Oklahoma, and graduate studies in Art Therapy through the College of New Rochelle, New York. Mary is a permanently certified, retired arts instructor for the City of New York Board of Education.   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HG2T691