Year: 2021

Lifetime Arts Works with 21 State Art Agencies to Increase Capacity for Creative Aging Programs via NASAA Effort

A trainee holds up her collage to the web cam.

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.

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Wyoming State Agencies Partner with Lifetime Arts to Provide Accessible Creative Aging Programs in Rural Communities

A photo of a group of participants from a program. They are posing for the camera, with paintings hung up on the wall behind them.

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.

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Remote Creative Aging Programs Addressed Social Isolation in 7 New York Counties During Pandemic

A participant's photograph of a first-person perspective on a blue kayak. The view beyond the kayak is cloudy skies and calm, open water with tree lines in the distance.

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.

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Creative Aging Programs Centered in Black Cultures Enrich Connection & Community in Museums Across the U.S.

The following are examples of programs offered in museums across the U.S. — during and immediately prior to the pandemic — in which teaching artists centered their curriculum in Black cultures and history and/or taught media inspired by Black and Brown artists.

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Maine Arts Commission

“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 …

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Radio Storytelling: Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services

An older adult speaks into a microphone at a radio station

Writing a radio play is part storytelling, part playwriting, and part sound design. During this 6-week workshop, students will gain the essential skills in making a captivating radio play. Students will work with instructor, Vinny Mraz, on writing techniques, exploring what makes a story unique to radio, and creating their own sound effects from objects around their homes. This workshop is for everyone, regardless of experience or knowledge of radio.

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How We Build Capacity of State Arts Agencies + Partners

Teaching artists in Ohio hold up cards indicating how old they feel "internally."

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.

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Programming Roundup: State Agencies, Urban Library Systems, Museums, & Arts Organizations

A participant painting on an easel outdoors with a landscape of trees, water, and blue sky in the background.

A run-down of creative aging work we have been doing with state agencies, urban library systems, museums, and arts organizations around the U.S.

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Watercolor: Clinton County Office for the Aging

A colorful painting of a village surrounded by a snowy mountain lined with trees.

During this 8-week workshop, students will see that beauty by looking intently and using watercolor to bring those objects to life on paper. Instructor Antonia Perez will guide learners through traditional and contemporary watercolor painting techniques to depict still-life objects from their personal surroundings. By the end of the workshop, students will be able to construct a watercolor painting from initial sketch to a finished piece.

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Memoir: Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services + Saratoga County Office for the Aging

Two women stand at a microphone before a storytelling performance.

Storytelling is how we communicate who we are and learn about our shared histories. Register for “Into the Wild: A Memoir Class by Lifetime Arts” to join a small group of up to 12 adventurous writers and storytellers aged 55+ willing to explore and unearth poignant and meaningful memories and learn to transform them into stories with universal appeal.

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Chinese Brush Painting: Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services + Essex County Office for the Aging

A black and white brush painting of orchids

This 6-week course will introduce participants to the fundamental concepts and techniques of Chinese brush painting. Learners will study and practice brushstrokes unique to this art form, mastering basic techniques which will allow them to develop their artistic expression.

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Memoir: Schoharie County + Clinton County Office for the Aging

A participant stands at a podium and reads their story in front of a live audience.

Everyone has a story to tell and writing our stories is an important opportunity for pushing our memories, expanding our creativity, and making meaningful connections with others. In this 6-week workshop, led by instructor Kate Bell, students will read and discuss short memoir essays, write their own original short memoirs, and receive constructive feedback from their peers and the instructor.

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Ballroom/Social Dance: Saratoga County + Rockland County Office for the Aging

A close-up image of an older adult smiling and dancing.

Stay social while apart and learn the basics of social dance from home! During this 6-week informative workshop, participants will learn the Mambo, West Coast Swing, Waltz and Merengue.

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Drawing/Collage: Essex County Office for the Aging

What if you could document your life in pictures? What kind of stories would they tell? What would influence those stories? The workshop, “Mapping a Life in Collage,” will provide participants the opportunity to gain new tools for self expression and develop new frameworks for sharing and interpreting their experiences through collage.

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Photography: Westchester County, Essex County + Saratoga County

Closeup image of dewdrops on green grass.

“Photographing the Beauty Around Me” is a 6-week course designed to teach older adults to capture excellent, artful digital photographs of their environments and the people they come into contact with on a daily basis. 

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In-person, Virtual, Onsite, Offsite, and Blended: Making Responsive Programs Happen for Older Adults

Image of a teaching artist sitting at a desk on a computer. She has clay on the table in front of her. She is smiling at the screen.

In this post, we highlight a series of programs that are happening this summer as part of new and ongoing creative aging initiatives.

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Fifteen Wyoming Public Libraries to Receive Financial Support for Creative Aging Projects

Wyoming State Library logo in color

Fifteen Wyoming libraries will soon offer arts-based programming that will enrich the lives of older adults (55+) in their communities through the Creative Aging in Wyoming Public Libraries Project. The project is made possible through a partnership between the Wyoming State Library, Wyoming Arts Council, and Lifetime Arts with funding from the Wyoming Community Foundation and the May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust.

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North Dakota Council on the Arts

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.

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Maryland State Arts Council

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. 

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New York State Council on the Arts

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. 

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Wyoming Arts Council

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. 

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Ohio Arts Council

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. 

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Utah Division of Arts & Museums

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. 

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Tennessee Arts Commission

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.

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New Jersey State Council on the Arts

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.

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Delaware Division of the Arts

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.

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Combating Ageism in a Socially Distanced World

Screenshot of participants during a remote training workshop.

On February 10, Lifetime Arts Director of Education, Annie Montgomery, and Pushcart Prize Nominated Poet, Mary Moore Easter, delivered the virtual workshop, “Combating Ageism in a Socially-Distanced World,” during Roowork, an online learning series hosted by the National Guild for Community Arts Education.

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14 Community Arts Ed Organizations Receive Seed Grants for Creative Aging Programs

National Guild for Community Arts Education logo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 16, 2021 CONTACT Jenina Podulka, National Guild for Community Arts Education jeninapodulka@nationalguild.org nationalguild.org Shannon McDonough, Lifetime Arts smcdonough@lifetimearts.org  Research shows participatory arts learning for older adults provides significant wellness benefits critical to counteracting social isolation  New York, NY—The National Guild for Community Arts Education and Lifetime Arts are pleased to announce that …

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