Juni Van Dyke.   

 These Beautiful Hands:  A Tribute to Our Elders

Opening reception, Friday, January 16, 5-7 pm | Exhibition dates: January 16-February 14, 2026. at THE AVA GALLERY in Lebanon, New Hampshire

Juni Van Dyke | These Beautiful Hands: A Tribute to Our Elders, A Multi-Media Installation | Elizabeth Rowland Mayor Gallery at THE AVA GALLERY

“They came of age during the great depression and the Second World War and went on to build modern America — men and women whose everyday lives of duty, honor, achievement, and courage gave us the opportunity for a better world.” —Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation

Exhibition Statement | Juni Van Dyke’s work seeks to challenge a widespread American notion that equates aging with diminished value and fading beauty. She aims to recast this narrative by honoring the wisdom, grace, and quiet strength that accompany the passage of time. She sought to shift this stereotype by creating a tribute to the wisdom, grace, and dignity of advancing age—indeed, to the marvel of being old. Her project honors elders through a focus on their hands: hands worn smooth like river stones by years of loving, caring, laboring, and living. Wrinkled, callused, arthritic, spotted, and veined, these are the beautiful hands of time. The artist spent many hours visiting with the participants of the projects. Each cast hand represents a soul, and a life lived well. The work unfolds across sculpture, dialogue, painting, drawing, and photography. Gifts (Sculpture and dialogue); Memories (drawing); Gratitude (painting); and Then (photographic imagery).

Gifts: plaster-cast hands. Each plaster cast represents the passage of time, set above each cast, a brief text– an anecdote revealing major life experiences or points of view, which was revealed while chatting with each participant. Plaster-cast hands and handmade paper

Gratitude: acrylic on panel. The small paintings are intentionally composed and represent a gesture of gratitude to the elderly. The artist made these for and about people she has known and loved, in addition to those who have participated in the project. The painting image used in the exhibition postcard is a tribute to her grandmother.

Memories: charcoal drawings: These drawings explore a connection between the artist and her mother. She made them while holding her mother’s hand; together their united hands elicited a variation in mood and emotion that catalyzes her fascination with drawing and bears witness to communication and loving familial connection.

Then: Images of anonymous participants as they were in their youth during the 1930s and 1940s, juxtaposed with music from that era, place the work in a historical context and evoke the inevitability of time passing. Mood for Love, Louis Armstrong

Biography | Juni Van Dyke is a graduate of The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and holds a BFA and MAT from Tufts University.  Since 1996, she has been the director of the arts program for Senior Citizens in Gloucester, MA. Under her direction, work created by Senior Citizens has been exhibited in museums and public institutions in New England. Van Dyke is the recipient of the St. Botolph Foundation Award, Boston.  Van Dyke’s work is held in the permanent collection of The Cape Ann Museum and in numerous private collections.  Her work was selected by Room & Board for inclusion in its limited-edition art series and is on view throughout the U.S. in Room & Board’s major city locations.