“Lola Fraknoi collaborated regularly with the Community Music Center to offer musical programming for the residents of the senior housing center where she worked and for the community. She is especially gifted at bringing people together, honoring the diversity in a community of older adults, and weaving the arts into the lives of the people she touches. She opened up arts activities to the community, encouraging multi-generational exchange between residents and the broader public.”
Christopher Borg, Executive Director, Community Music Center
“It takes an exceptional person to embody imagination, talent, lively curiosity, rigor, an artistic sensibility, administrative excellence, and the ability to engage others on multiple levels. Lola Fraknoi engages others in her work on multiple levels. I have seen Lola work with professional artists, older adults, undergraduate students, and children — people from all cultural backgrounds and walks of life. She is able to bring out their best — and in some cases previously unknown — selves. Lola is a rare, and, in my opinion invaluable individual.”
Amie Dowling, Chair, UCSF Dance Department
“Moving to a new city can be a daunting experience—unless you happen to come under the spell of Lola Fraknoi, whose genius is creating community. In her role as program director, Lola pulled me in as soon as we met. She opened my imagination, encouraged my ideas, and welcomed my participation. I watched Lola repeat this process with others—listening, asking, connecting—making each of us feel like we ‘count’. Her ability to enlist talent in the service of a vision is extraordinary. When I am part of a workshop or class that Lola has made possible, it is truly a shared experience. Not only am I enriched, but, in that time and place, a mini-community comes alive.”
Sharon Cox, Program Participant