Lifetime Arts Tapped to Support Aroha “Seeding Artful Aging” Initiative

SAA_1080x1080-V1Aroha Philanthropies has awarded nearly $500,000 in grants to 15 nonprofits through its “Seeding Artful Aging initiative,” and we are proud to announce our involvement in the upcoming initiative. We will provide training, program development, and technical assistance services to all grantees throughout this two-year project.

 “Chosen from a highly competitive field of more than 200 applicants, the 15 selected organizations will form the first cohort of grantees to partner with Aroha and Lifetime Arts in this exciting initiative to expand Artful Aging opportunities, awareness, and impact…”

To read the full press release see below or click here.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 25, 2016

CONTACT: Ed Friedman
(914) 355-2304

Lifetime Arts Tapped to Provide Support Services for Aroha Philanthropies’
National “Seeding Artful Aging” Initiative

NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Aroha Philanthropies has awarded nearly $500,000 in grants to 15 nonprofits through its “Seeding Artful Aging” initiative to develop and enhance successful Artful Aging programs throughout the U.S.

Lifetime Arts, nationally recognized as a leader in the Creative/Artful Aging field, will provide training, program development, and technical assistance services to all grantees throughout this two-year project. “It’s a great opportunity to work together with a foundation that so clearly sees the benefit of instructional arts programs for older adults. The wide spectrum of organizations supported will demonstrate the viability of these programs across multiple sectors,” said Lifetime Arts CEO and Co-Founder Maura O’Malley. Aroha Philanthropies founder and president Ellen Michelson notes, “Lifetime Arts has trained and consulted with countless organizations, from state and regional arts councils to public libraries, to develop artful aging programs. We’re proud to partner with Lifetime Arts to help these 15 grantees become successful leaders of this emerging movement.”

Aroha defines “artful aging” as a subset of the broader field of creative aging. Artful aging programs inspire and enable older adults to learn, make and share the arts in ways that are novel, complex and socially engaging. Successful artful aging programs are led by teaching artists whose creative process and understanding of older adults bring joy, connection, improved health and well-being, and a renewed sense of purpose to older adults in community and residential settings. More information is available at arohaartfulaging.org.

Chosen from a highly competitive field of more than 200 applicants, the 15 selected organizations will form the first cohort of grantees to partner with Aroha and Lifetime Arts in this exciting initiative to expand Artful Aging opportunities, awareness, and impact. Grant awards range from $17,000 to $50,000 and will fund innovative programs to run between January 1, 2017 and November 30, 2017.

Lifetime Arts staff will provide grantees and their arts and community partners with training on the design, development, implementation and sustainability of Artful Aging programs. They will also provide hands-on technical assistance in all programmatic aspects throughout the grant period.

Grantees will collaborate with Aroha to document their effectiveness and share that information widely in order to:
• demonstrate the power and impact of Artful Aging programs to a broad national audience;
• encourage arts and cultural organizations to develop participatory arts education programs for older adults;
• encourage organizations that serve older adults to develop arts education programming; and
• disseminate program implementation models.

About Lifetime Arts
Founded in 2008, Lifetime Arts is a nonprofit arts service organization that offers a positive, modern, artistic and social lens through which to serve, inspire and engage America’s growing population of older adults. Lifetime Arts works nationally to improve the quality of life of older adults through arts education. It offers innovative programming and provide practical support to arts and community organizations, libraries, senior residential facilities and others who serve older adults. Lifetime Arts builds the capacity of these organizations to respond to the changing needs and interests of today’s aging population. It helps develop programs that actively engage older adults in arts learning; build new social networks; and create community partnerships to support positive aging.

About Aroha Philanthropies
Aroha Philanthropies is devoted to the transformative power of the arts and creativity, inspiring vitality in those over 55, joy in children and youth, and humanity in adults with mental illness. We believe that learning, making, and sharing art enriches everyone throughout their lifetime. Aroha Philanthropies works to improve the quality of life of people 55+ by encouraging the funding, development, and proliferation of arts programs designed to enhance longer lives, and by advancing the development of professional teaching artists working with those in their encore years. More information is available at arohaphilanthropies.org.

The 15 selected grantees and their funded programs include:

Grafton County Senior Citizens Council, Inc.
Experience/Arts in New Hampshire’s North Country
Lebanon, New Hampshire

Integrace Fairhaven
Cultivating Creativity
Sykesville, Maryland

Johnson City Public Library
Fullness of Time: Exploring the Arts and the Gifts of Aging
Johnson City, Tennessee

Keshet Dance Company
Fine Wine Dance (Moving FWD)
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Minnesota Opera
Voices of Opera
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Newark Museum
Creative Aging at the Newark Museum
Newark, New Jersey

Paramount Theatre and Visual Arts Center
Growing Art-FULL!
St. Cloud, Minnesota

School One
Working Stories
Providence, Rhode Island

Silicon Valley Creates
ShakeXperience: Life Experience Meets Classic Texts
San Jose, California

Space One Eleven
Art in the Making
Birmingham, Alabama

Taller Puertorriqueño
Imagine the Possibilities
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Teachers & Writers Collaborative
Storytelling: Poetry, Stage, and Song
New York, New York

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
Create at The Carle: Art Classes for Adults
Amherst, Massachusetts

United Methodist Retirement Communities Foundation
Story Lines: Sharing Life Experiences with the Generations through Art, Music and Drama
Chelsea, Michigan

YMCA of Rock River Valley
YMCA Senior Arts Project (Y-SNAP)
Rockford, Illinois

For more information about this project, please visit arohaartfulaging.org.