In March 2024, Lifetime Arts launched a brand new training course, Inclusive by Design: Engaging All Older Adult Learners. Designed as a follow-up to Creative Aging Foundations, this course enables teaching artists to deepen their practice and helps program leaders ensure creative aging courses are meeting the widest range of older adult needs. Lifetime Arts’ …
This summer, Lifetime Arts had the opportunity to train hundreds of teaching artists, library workers, museum educators, and arts organization staff in Missouri, Wyoming, Hawaii, Tennessee, and Arizona as part of our major projects Advancing Creative Aging Through State Library Leadership and Vitality Arts Project for Art Museums and in partnership with the Phoenix Center for the Arts, Indiana Arts Commission, and Creative Aging in Memphis. These creative aging leaders will go on to impact the lives of more than 3,500 older adults in this year alone. Below are training highlights and reflections.
From 2021-2022, Lifetime Arts trained and coached nearly 1,000 teaching artists, librarians, and community-based organization staff across 22 states on building creative aging programs, partnerships and practices via the National Assembly of State Arts Agency’s (NASAA) Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging Initiative.
Our final training sessions with state art agencies in Oklahoma and Nebraska concluded in October. In November, Lifetime Arts staff and members from the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and Ohio Arts Council presented the impact of this initiative at NASAA’s 2022 virtual Creative Aging Institute. Read on to learn more about these engagements and how state art agencies are building on the success of this initiative
This fall, we trained 100+ teaching artists, library programmers, arts council staff and stakeholders through continued partnerships with the Connecticut Office of the Arts, Delaware Division of the Arts, Utah Division of Arts & Museums and Michigan Arts and Cultural Council. Our work with these state agencies builds on projects they launched with Lifetime Arts’ support through the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies’ (NASAA) Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging Initiative (May 2021-September 2022).
On October 7, 2022, Maura O'Malley, Lifetime Arts' CEO/Co-Founder, and Annie Montgomery, Senior Education Designer and Trainer, are invited to participate as leading creative aging experts in the in-person event, Arts and Ageing Forum 2022: The Future of Arts and Ageing in Singapore, hosted by the National Arts Council (NAC) Singapore. Maura will present Lifetime Arts as the featured keynote, participate in a live panel discussion with local industry leaders, and co-lead an interactive workshop with Annie.
In May and June, 2022, Lifetime Arts provided nearly 40 hours of training and professional development services (in-person and via the Lifetime Arts Portal) to over 200 state arts agencies, museum staff, and teaching artists across the country as part of the national and statewide initiatives Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging and Advancing Creative Aging in Arizona's West Valley. Below we share some highlights from these professional development opportunities and emerging partnership opportunities this fall.
From May 19-22, 2022, museum and arts educators from across the U.S. reunited in-person at the American Alliance of Museums' Annual Meeting & Museum Expo in Boston, Massachusetts to explore and address the pressing issues, challenges, and opportunities that museums are facing today.
During the conference, Lifetime Arts delivered the workshop, "Creative Aging: Paving the Way for Lifelong Learning," to museum leaders and educators. Lifetime Arts also participated on a panel which featured our museum programming partners.
n the Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging Initiative supported by E.A. Michelson Philanthropy, Lifetime Arts partnered with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies to grow their creative aging programs, practices, and partnerships with 21 state arts agencies across the country. In this post, teaching artists and organizational staff share their insights on the impact that our training has made in their practices, institutions, and communities. Additionally, the Lifetime Arts team shares insights on working with our partners and trainees.
In the Creative Aging in Wyoming Public Libraries Initiative, Lifetime Arts partnered with the Wyoming State Library and Wyoming Arts Council to implement creative aging programming in 23 county libraries throughout the state. In this post, we highlight some examples of creative aging programs that were offered through this initiative, and share insights from library program coordinators, older adult participants, and the Lifetime Arts team.
The New York State Creative Aging Initiative, an innovative partnership between The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York State Office for the Aging, and Lifetime Arts launched during the middle of the pandemic concluded in February 2022. Lifetime Arts trained and coached staff members from 7 area agencies on aging and nearly 70 New York state based teaching artists to plan, design, and implement 14 remote creative aging programs throughout the state.
“BETTER WITH AGE: ALABAMA’S CREATIVE AGING INITIATIVE” As part of the “Creative Aging Program Expansion” initiative, the Alabama State Council on the Arts is developing stronger support for creative aging efforts through identifying and recognizing creative aging work already occurring in Alabama, focusing the 2021 Bill Bates Leadership Institute on creative aging, offering workshops for …
“CREATIVE AGING PROGRAM EXPANSION” As part of the “Creative Aging Program Expansion” initiative, the Maine Arts Commission will offer more creative aging teacher training across the state and increase the award amount (and the application volume) of the Creative Aging Project Grant. Additionally, the arts council will generate greater awareness through promotional materials and refine …
As part of the "Lifelong Arts Learning for Remote and Rural South Dakotans" initiative, the South Dakota Arts Council will expand South Dakota Arts Council’s Art for Life program and provide start-up funding for a new grant program that will pay teaching artists to provide arts learning projects in remote and rural communities.
In recent years, Lifetime Arts' work has focused largely on state, system, and sector-wide capacity building initiatives. In this post, we provide an overview of our training and executive coaching engagement on this front from July through mid-October.
As part of the "Creative Aging across Oklahoma" initiative, the Oklahoma Arts Council will hire an arts learning in communities director to conduct an environmental scan of Oklahoma’s older adults to determine needs, access to services across different communities, and key areas of programmatic focus.
"What has been fascinating to me ... is that each arts agency — whether with a staff of 10 or 100 — has embraced this opportunity with serious, strategic and passionate effort," said Maura O'Malley.
As part of the "The Tiny Press Kit" initiative, the North Dakota Council on the Arts, in partnership with the North Dakota State University’s School of Design, Architecture and Art, will develop a set of four unique art kits that will include sequential, skill-based art instructional videos online for older adults and be distributed to paired eldercare/service organizations and schools in 36 communities statewide.
As part of the "Nevada Arts Council Creative Aging Initiative" initiative, the Nevada Arts Council, will implement in-person and online creative aging programs for all of Nevada’s libraries and for teaching artists in all 17 Nevada counties.
As part of the "Advancing Creative Aging in Maryland: Creative Aging Arts Provider and Venue Training" initiative, the Maryland State Arts Council will expand their existing #mcreds Creative Aging Provider training, a 15-hour virtual course open to community teaching artists and arts educators, in addition to a new Creative Aging Vendor training, two biannual networking events, and an annual convening at the Maryland Arts Summit.
As part of the "Creative Aging for All Communities" initiative, the New York State Council on the Arts, in partnership with the New York State Office of the Aging, will expand its current creative aging initiative, the New York State Creative Aging Initiative, in an effort to serve older adults in communities of color, rural regions, veterans, the disabled, LGBTQIA+ communities and other vulnerable populations.
As part of the "Creative Aging for Idaho's Veterans" initiative, the Idaho Commission on the Arts, in partnership with the Idaho Division of Veterans Services, will provide creative aging services for Idaho’s senior veterans.
As part of the "Creative Aging Training and Grants for Wyoming Arts Organizations" initiative, the Wyoming Arts Council will expand the capacity of the council’s current creative aging programming with the inclusion of nonprofit arts organizations in an effort to bolster the long-term viability of Wyoming communities' ongoing creative aging programs, and develop partnerships between local arts nonprofits, libraries, artists and aging communities.
As part of the "Creative Aging Louisiana" initiative, the Louisiana Division of the Arts will expand their existing creative aging pilot across the entire state to seniors and senior communities.
As part of the "Creative Aging Planning & Partnership Development for Montana" initiative, the Montana Arts Council (MAC) will focus on the development plan and implementation of training and support services for those who will lead and design creative aging programs throughout the state.
Continuing the work of Creative Aging Ohio, a 2013 initiative developed by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) designed to expand arts programs for older adults in visual, literary, and performing arts, the "Ohio Intensive Creative Aging Training" initiative will provide leadership, funding, administration and professional development resources to support Ohio’s professional teaching artists and their communities.
As part of the "A Lifetime of Arts Elevated" initiative, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums (UA&M) will advance creative aging across the state through a series of professional development training sessions for cultural institutional staff members and professional artists. Additionally, the UA&M will partner with the Utah Commission on Aging to ensure creative aging programs are present in senior centers across the state as well as on the Utah Virtual Senior Center, a new platform that allows seniors to engage in activities from home.
As part of the "Kansas Creative Aging Project" initiative, the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission will strengthen the state’s creative aging infrastructure through professional development, networking and multisector programming.
As part of the "Building Vermont's Creative Aging Capacity" initiative, the Vermont Arts Council partners with the Central Vermont Council on Aging to advance creative aging programs throughout the state by building awareness, relationships, and skills amongst teaching artists and area agencies on aging.
As part of the "Creative Aging Tennessee II" initiative, the Tennessee Arts Commission, in partnership with the Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability, will increase the capacity and knowledge of 50 Tennessee-based artists and arts organizations through training provided by Lifetime Arts. This project will also address resource gaps, especially in rural areas, by providing seed funding for up to 10 nonprofits throughout Tennessee to serve older adults.
As part of the "Creative Aging Communities of Practice" initiative, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts will develop a deep and collaborative network of creative aging service providers and teaching artists and increase the opportunities for social engagement and arts education within New Jersey’s older adult communities.
As part of the "Lifelong Arts Indiana" initiative, the Indiana Arts Commission will expand the capacity of teaching artists across the state and prepare them to deliver arts education programs to Indiana’s growing population of citizens, specifically people over the age of 65.
As part of the "Creative Aging through the Arts" initiative, the Nebraska Arts Council will develop a diverse cadre of professional teaching artists to deliver professional, sequential arts instruction to older adults across the state.
As part of the "Access Creative Aging Initiative," the Delaware Division of the Arts, in partnership with the Delaware Division of Libraries and the Delaware Institute of the Arts in Education, will advance arts education for up to 300 older adults in approximately 10 public libraries across the state.
On September 30, Lifetime Arts’ Director of Education, Annie Montgomery and Education Associate, Julie Kline, will deliver an interactive virtual session on the topic of creative aging programming during COVID-19, part of the 2020 Louisiana Arts Summit and hosted by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge in partnership with the Louisiana Division of the Arts.
On August 25, Lifetime Arts' Education Associate, Julie Kline, will deliver the virtual workshop, "Creative Aging During COVID," part of the 2020 Mid-Atlantic Teaching Artists Virtual Retreat. This event will take place via online video conferences over a period of four weeks, from August 10 through September 2, 2020.
Wyoming Arts Council Receives $20,000 Grant from the Wyoming Community Foundation for Creative Aging Training in Partnership with the Wyoming State Library and Lifetime Arts The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce the receipt of a $20,000 grant from the Wyoming Community Foundation’s McMurry Library Endowment Fund. Through a partnership between the Wyoming Arts …
In this, the second and final year of the New York City Creative Aging Initiative, Lifetime Arts delivered nearly 20 free, in-person training sessions, networking salons and webinars to hundreds of NYC teaching artists, arts organization and senior center staff members. These training events were designed by our Director of Education, Annie Montgomery, to not only share …
To meet the growing demand for Creative Aging programming across the U.S., for the first time ever, the National Guild for Community Arts Education introduced a Creative Aging Track at their 82nd national conference held recently in Austin, TX. The Conference brought together more than 700 leaders and educators from all backgrounds to share knowledge, …
On October 15, the National Guild for Community Arts Education presented the professional development workshop, “Age Equity: The Impact of Ageism on Arts Funding and Programs,” at the 2019 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference: Cultural Intersections in Denver, CO. Adam Johnson, Chief Operating Officer at National Guild for Community Arts Education, moderated the workshop, which also featured …
On July 29 and 30, Aroha Philanthropies and the Minnesota State Arts Board offered the third in a series of Creative Aging trainings for teaching artists working in all arts disciplines. The event, held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, was designed to equip teaching artists with the skills to design and teach successful, skill-based, …
Lifetime Arts conducted training events in May to support the arts organizations, teaching artists, and senior center staff offering Creative Aging programming in NYC as part of the NYC Creative Aging Initiative, made possible through the generous support of the New York Community Trust, and offered in partnership with the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College and LiveOn …
Lifetime Arts conducted several training events in March to support the arts organizations, teaching artists, and senior center staff offering Creative Aging programming in NYC as part of the NYC Creative Aging Initiative, made possible through the generous support of the New York Community Trust, and offered in partnership with the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging …
“Training Chicago teaching artists was so inspiring. They are hungry for this work and the day was filled with the space to share ideas and work together to imagine what Creative Aging programs in Chicago could be like.” -Annie Montgomery Director of Education Lifetime Arts Lifetime Arts delivered two days of extensive teaching artist training …
“I appreciated the enthusiasm of the presenters and the possibility of inspiring my community.” On April 4 and 5, in continuation of a statewide training being conducted by Lifetime Arts, Education Director, Annie Montgomery, and teaching artist, Julie Kline, traveled to northern Wisconsin to deliver two full-day professional development workshops on Creative Aging programming for public librarians …
This week long training program draws people from around the country and focuses on the role of the arts in healthcare and creative aging, providing theoretical and didactic approaches to implementing and sustaining high-quality arts programming in a variety of settings serving older adults across the aging spectrum. Lifetime Arts is a regular presenter at …
On February 25 and 26, Lifetime Arts traveled to Minneapolis to take part in a re-convening of the Minnesota organizations who were awarded funding through Aroha Philanthropies’ Seeding Vitality Arts Initiative in 2018 and who have been invited to continue their programs in 2019. The event celebrated the accomplishments of 2018 and reflected on any challenges the …
On Thursday, January 31, Lifetime Arts presented to over 70 social workers, senior center program coordinators, directors, arts therapists, advocates, and other senior staff interested in bringing high quality arts programs to the older adult constituency at Live On’s 29th Annual Conference and Vendor Expo. The Creative Aging Lifelong Learning Model (registration-based, sequential art workshop …
This fall Lifetime Arts has delivered of live Creative Aging training sessions in New York City, around the state, and across the country. Community Centers In October, Lifetime Arts made two separate trips to the YMCA of Greater Syracuse. On the first trip, the team oriented the executive director and key program leaders to the …
Twenty nonprofit arts education organizations have been selected to participate in the National Guild for Community Arts Education’s Catalyzing Creative Aging Program. This multi-phase initiative, provided in partnership with Lifetime Arts, is designed to support the establishment of new, professionally-led arts education programs for older adults that increase social engagement and mastery of one or …
Lifetime Arts is currently training teaching artists and staff at New York City senior centers and arts organizations how to plan, design, and deliver Creative Aging programming. Annie Montgomery, Lifetime Arts’ director of education, led a training for senior center staff this month at the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch. Through our experiential, hands-on seminars …
“I want to get started immediately!” This week Lifetime Arts traveled to southern Wisconsin to deliver two full-day professional development workshops on Creative Aging programming for public librarians working in suburban and rural libraries there. We began the week on Tuesday in Brookfield where we worked with 26 librarians from the greater Milwaukee area. The …
The National Guild for Community Arts Education is pleased to announce that 10 nonprofit arts education organizations from 9 states have been selected to receive seed grants of $7,000 each to support the launch of new, innovative arts education programming for older adults in their communities. Research shows that participation in activities that foster creative …
Creative Aging in Westchester County Lifetime Arts is pleased to announce the launch of Creative Aging in Westchester County a capacity building and seed grant program to improve the lives of older adults through arts education. Creative Aging connects older adults with professional teaching artists through active learning programs in all arts disciplines. Across the …
Lifetime Arts is pleased to announce the launch of Catalyzing Creativity, a major Creative Aging initiative for New York City. Creative Aging connects older adults with professional teaching artists through active learning programs in all arts disciplines. Across the U.S., older adult advocates, researchers and artists are promoting the benefits of arts education for older …
National survey results: Ageism heads the list of challenges in developing teaching artist training in Creative Aging This first report of three national surveys investigating Creative Aging and Teaching Artistry offers an interesting snapshot of the state of teaching artist training in Creative Aging. 50 arts organizations told us about their programming for older adults …
