Let’s Change How We Age! Give to Our “If Not Now, When?” Campaign Today!


We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our “If Not Now, When?” Campaign, dedicated to making arts education opportunities accessible and affordable for all. As a valued member of our creative aging community, we’re seeking your support to help make this possible. Your gift would help us:

  • Make our trainings more accessible to independent teaching artists and staff from small-budget organizations.
  • Offer two new “deep dive” trainings focused on accessibility and anti-ageism in 2024.
  • Launch a campaign to crowd-source case studies featuring diverse creative aging models. 
  • Grow our free, online educational resources.

Together, let’s change how we age by creating a world where creativity and lifelong learning are seen as a human right. If not now, then when?

Make Your Tax-Deductible Gift Today!

OUR MISSION

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. Our approach rejects outdated stereotypes that define older people as needy, incapable or frail. While we partner with and advocate for creative aging initiatives that serve all older adults (55+), our work focuses on serving independent adults interested in exploring creative expression in a social group setting. Our mission has 3 main components:

1. Encourage creative aging by promoting the inclusion of arts education programs in organizations that serve older adults

2. Prepare teaching artists to develop the creative capacity of older adult learners

3. Foster lifelong learning in and through the arts by increasing opportunities for participation in community based programming

WE WORK AT THE SYSTEM LEVEL

Lifetime Arts connects the people, funding, ideas and strategies necessary to increase the number and quality of arts education programs for older adults. Through a variety of services and initiatives, we provide practical support and resources to individuals and organizations that serve older adults or should serve them.  Lifetime Arts provides technical assistance, professional development, training and information services to support the design, funding and implementation of creative aging programs nationwide.

Creative aging workshops are anti-ageist, non-discriminatory, and succeed in enriching the lives of older adults because they are designed by professional teaching artists, include intentional social engagement and focus on building art-making skills over time.

Lifetime Arts is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate. We are doing the work to take our long-held anti-racist beliefs and turn them into intentional actions that impact our work and the way we run our organization.

OUR IMPACT

Since 2008, Lifetime Arts has professionally developed and trained 6,000+ individuals and 350+ organizations across 9 sectors to design, fund, and implement diverse, high-quality arts education programs for older adults in their communities. 

To date, we have supported 770+ creative aging programs consisting of over 6,000 workshop sessions across 400+ sites in 42 states. Nearly 11,000 older adults learned artmaking skills, created new artworks and then shared their accomplishments through culminating events with over 23,000 community members.

NEWS & UPDATES

Two older adult participants smile at the camera while painting at a table.

New Initiative Catalyzes State-Level Partnerships to Advance Creative Aging in Western States

November 20, 2023

Lifetime Arts Co-Founder Named 2024 AARP Purpose Prize® Award Fellow

October 5, 2023

Cross-Sector Training Highlights: Building Leadership & Investment

September 25, 2023

ACCESS OUR FREE DIGITAL RESOURCES

 

Explore 6 learning modules of multimedia content in whatever order you choose, and walk away with a roadmap for your team, organization, and community. Lifetime Arts produced nearly 80 videos that detail the creative aging arts education learning model, demonstrate creative aging classes, and feature interviews, case discussions, and programming examples with experts in the field. All of this content is available in video, audio, and text formats.

To learn more and access this course, please visit our course promotional site at beagefriendly.org. Please reference the promo kit linked below for access to promotional media, messaging, and access instructions when sharing this course to your colleagues, partners, and followers!

Access the free course

Download the course promo kit

The Creative Aging Resource logoLifetime Arts’ The Creative Aging Resource website is a free info hub populated with hand-curated resources covering creative aging research, media coverage, case studies, organizational and expert profiles.

We launched this site for the benefit of community educators, programmers, teaching artists, decision-makers, and funders entering or working in the field. This project is made possible through generous and continuous support from the E.A. Michelson Foundation and The New York State Council on the Arts, and The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. 

By subscribing to The Creative Aging Resource Journal on Substack, you’ll receive enlightening research and media in the rapidly expanding field of creative aging.

Visit creativeagingresource.org

Subscribe to the journal for free

OUR WORK IS MADE POSSIBLE BY

E.A. Michelson Philanthropy The New York Community Trust
Westchester Community Foundation The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation
May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust The New York State Council on the Arts
The New York State Office for the Aging Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund
The Overbrook Foundation Laura Jane Musser Fund
Laura B. Vogler Foundation Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation
MetLife Foundation AARP Foundation