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National Guild 2019 Benchmarking Data Report: Creative Aging

“I just look out the window and see what's visible but not yet seen.” -- Peter Drucker

The National Guild for Community Arts Education (Guild) is dedicated to ensuring all people have opportunities to maximize their creative potential. But when we examined the student population of Guild member organizations in 2017, it was clear that adults 55+ were being left out. Only 8% of students were 65+ and less than 30% reported having any engagement with older adults. And virtually none of that programming was in alignment with Creative Aging’s framework of intentional integration of skills-based arts learning and social engagement. By 2030 there will be more Americans over 65 than under 18 years old: it’s not just bad business to ignore this important audience, it’s inequitable and harmful to everyone.

In response, Aroha Philanthropies and the Guild announced Catalyzing Creative Aging, a large-scale, multi-year, cross-sector partnership to build the capacity of community arts education organizations across the country to launch new Creative Aging programs. Building on previous efforts, the Guild, Aroha and program partner Lifetime Arts developed a multi-pronged approach centered on creating new programs, expanding the knowledge base, and advocating for Creative Aging in the community arts education field and beyond. For many in the community arts education field, eyes have been opened to what was there all along: the profound need for—and community benefits of—arts education and engagement for adults 55 and better. In addition, is becoming clear that building a Creative Aging movement demands ageism that is knowingly and unknowingly perpetuated by individuals, organizations, and communities.

As part of the Guild’s transformational journey to confront ageism and promote inclusion for community arts education students of all ages, we needed to dig deeper into the practice of our members. With Aroha Philanthropies’ support, the latest version of our biannual Benchmarking Data Report featured a new section dedicated to Creative Aging practice of Guild members. Key findings from responses show that Creative Aging is a growing program area for Guild members:

● 41% of members report they offer a Creative Aging program (a 37% increase from 2017!)
● 11% have offered their Creative Aging programming for less than one year
● 26% reported their program has been offered for one to three years
● Among those who do not currently offer creative aging, 23% plan to launch programming within the next 12 months.

We are delighted to see the growth of implementation of (and plans to launch) intentional skills-based arts programming for adults 55+! The twist? This report—with data collected in Winter 2020—is a snapshot of the community arts education field just before COVID-19’s arrival.

So, what does this mean for our new pandemic reality?

To find out, the Guild’s Creative Aging Member Network Steering Committee developed and launched a specific Creative Aging field survey to inform community arts educators. 116 administrators and teaching artists completed the survey in October 2020, which included questions on how Creative Aging programs have adapted since the pandemic, what challenges and successes they are experiencing, and how they are addressing racial equity and/or serving vulnerable adults 55+. Not surprisingly, a key takeaway is the tremendous need for Creative Aging programs to combat social isolation in the face of formidable challenges to engaging participants, partners, and funders. It has also opened our eyes to the possibility of integrating remote learning into the time-tested Creative Aging program model. As always, we find inspiration in the expertise and passion of our peers, as evidenced by one respondent, “Moving to a virtual environment has shown us new ways to interact with individuals in our community, as well as allowed us to move outside of our community to work with new folks. We have found that people are much more flexible with learning new technologies and new ways of interacting as learners/teachers than originally imagined. We know that some of these new methods of working together will continue beyond this pandemic.”

Ironically, our current best efforts to protect ourselves from COVID-19—self-isolation—has been identified by WHO as a “serious public health concern” for adults 55+ because of the heightened risk of cardiovascular, autoimmune, neurocognitive, and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. However, at this stage, we are all coping to some degree with physical and social isolation. COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on adults 55+ has served to underscore the value of Creative Aging for those who might have not been mindful of it before March 2020. The health crisis has presented a new opportunity to advocate with funders and cross-sector partners about the impact of Creative Aging on social isolation.

More than ever, it’s clear that ensuring access to creative expression and engagement for adults 55 and better is not just a program, it’s a matter of public health and social justice. The Guild and the broader community arts field is building a coalition to sustain and expand the Creative Aging movement with a depth and breadth of thoughtful, relevant, and innovative responses to rapidly changing conditions. Together, we will forge pathways beyond the pandemic that increase accessibility to programming while delivering the positive physical and mental health outcomes associated with Creative Aging. And we are more hopeful than ever that we will emerge stronger and more resilient on the other side of this crisis.

 

--This post was written by Kate Riley, Development Manager at the Guild.


Seeding Vitality Arts Evaluation Results

Aroha’s Seeding Vitality Arts (SVA) grantees gathered data on participant outcomes pursuant to an evaluation process designed by Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry. High-impact outcomes were reported in post-program surveys of 2,187 participants in the SVA U.S. and SVA MN programs between 2017 and 2019. Read the full report here.


Create+Collaborate: Quarantine Edition

What do you do when one of your program goals is to help diminish social isolation through creativity and collaboration and then your city declares a social lockdown?

At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), we were three visits into Create+Collaborate, a 10-session printmaking class for older adults, when we got the call that all art programs were suspended and the museum was closing temporarily to protect our communities from COVID-19. At first we wallowed in the irony, waited for curves to flatten and art classes to start up again. And then we called all our students, the most vulnerable to the virus. “How are you doing?” “Do you have access to the internet?” “Oh! On what device...?”

Nine of the fifteen original students were game to take the challenge and try printmaking from their kitchen tables via videoconferencing. We sent them detailed instructions on how to join Zoom from their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. They called their adult children to borrow computers. There were students who got bullied by log-ins and meeting ID’s but Pattie Esquivel, the senior program coordinator, always found a secret backdoor. Everyone proved their perseverance and ability to learn new technologies.

Teaching artist Marianne Sadowski started each class with a warm welcome and a round-robin check-in. Participants shared anger with our rudderless president. They shared the loss of loved ones and fear of getting sick themselves. They shared sadness that birthdays with grandchildren were socially distant and without hugs. But they also listened deeply to one another, rallied around each other, and gave tips for better Zoom angles and lighting. Everyone proved their empathy and ability to make new connections, even online.

Art stores weren’t considered essential businesses at the beginning of the pandemic. So printmaking kits were ordered from Blick, which sadly sat in transit purgatory for weeks! Marianne adapted her lesson plans to accommodate a printmaking class void of brayers and inks and linoleum blocks. Students looked around their houses to find unexpected art materials. One woman experimented with items from her kitchen—rolling blackberries dipped in food coloring across her pages. We begged our boss to let us on the locked-down museum campus to raid our art studio! Marianne and Pattie, masked and well supplied with Purell and Google maps, drove all over Los Angeles delivering paper, cutters, inks, and soft cut linoleum blocks! Everyone proved their resourcefulness and ability to innovate in the face of challenges.

Carolyn shares her fruit prints. Photo Credit: Karen Satzman

What do you do when another program goal is to collaborate and your co-creatives are on social lockdown? You make a pandemic-themed book! The students’ prints, writings, and experimentations were accumulated and bound (bookbinding, another new skill they learned) to reveal their collective creativity. Twelve brilliant, beautiful, and heartfelt books titled The Utility of What is Not - Reflections from Quarantine are to show for it. No surprise, but everyone proved their generosity and ability to collaborate—together yet apart.

Students created the collaborative book The Utility of What is Not - Reflections from Quarantine. Photo Credit: Karen Satzman

Create+Collaborate was launched in 2017 and every single class demonstrated that older adults have the ability to learn new skills, experiment and take risks, learn from and help others, and discover the ways in which creativity can uplift your spirit. There was a uniqueness, however, to this class that we didn’t see when we were together in the studio. Outside of class time students emailed each other encouraging words, recommended books and artists, shared their vulnerabilities, and cared for each other. As Marianne stated in the book’s dedication, “Moving quickly to an online world, we found a different way to connect, some ways deeper and more open. Together we moved to explore how the pandemic’s dark reality also carried bright hope.” And, as one student commented in the post-class survey, “The regular class has many benefits, but during the pandemic, the online class was a lifesaver.”

Written by Karen Satzman, Director, Youth & Family Programs, Los Angeles County Museum of Art


The High Cost of Ageism

The High Cost of Ageism

Did you know that people who are ageist may live shorter lives? Becca Levy of the Yale School of Public Health has studied the effects of ageism for more than 20 years. She reports that those who held more positive self-perceptions of aging lived 7.5 years longer than those with negative self-perceptions. (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 83, No. 2.)

Can Ageism Make Me Ill?

According to Levy, the negative effects of age stereotypes on health outcomes, including stress, depression and a higher risk of heart disease, are well documented.

These beliefs also may be linked to brain changes related to Alzheimer’s disease. A major 2017 study studied age stereotypes of participants who had been measured decades before, when they were dementia-free. They found more instances of two physical conditions associated with Alzheimer’s in those who had negative age stereotypes earlier in life.

According to Levy, people take in a lifetime of ageist stereotypes, unconsciously direct them inward toward themselves and then act accordingly. Their behavior then reinforces these stereotypes, both in their own minds and those of people around them. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Medical research has often enforced these prejudices. British writer Anne Karpf notes that until recently, much of the research on aging has been conducted in nursing homes, despite the fact that the vast majority of older people don’t live in these less-than-stimulating environments. Research subjects simply haven’t adequately represented older people.

But are the Negative Stereotypes True?

No. A June 2018 report from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states:

Decades of social science research document that age does not predict one's ability, performance, or interest… Many older people out-perform or perform as well as young people, and intellectual functions can actually improve with age. While speedy thinking may decline over time, middle-aged brains adapt to reach solutions faster, make sounder judgments, and better navigate the complex world of today. Innovation and creativity span the age spectrum as well.

Positive Attitudes about Age Improve Health

Here’s the good news: people's positive beliefs about older people appear to boost their mental health. Levy found that older adults exposed to positive stereotypes have significantly better memory and balance, whereas negative self-perceptions contributed to worse memory and feelings of worthlessness. In fact, the positive-age-stereotype intervention even yielded greater physical improvements than a six-month exercise regimen. (McAuley et al., 2013)

Changing the Narrative

So why does all this ageist behavior continue? Cultural norms are slow to change. It’s hard to shed long-held beliefs, even when the facts show they’re false. But there’s hope. The World Health Organization has called for a global campaign to fight ageism, saying, “Combatting ageism presents a major opportunity for achieving healthy aging ... Experience with sexism and racism has shown that changing social norms is possible and can result in more prosperous, equitable and healthier societies.”

Are you lucky enough to already be an older adult? If so, you can help demonstrate the absurdity of ageism. Immerse yourself in positive images of aging and push conventional wisdom out the door. Learn something brand new. Ignite the creativity you didn’t know you had. Take improv or dance classes. Join a choir or a band. Join us in pushing back against ageism.


San Francisco Launches Ageism Awareness Campaign

San Francisco is one of the first cities in the country to launch a campaign to raise awareness of ageism. The campaign was developed after a review of the 2016 and 2018 Department of Disability and Aging Services (DAS) community needs assessments and recommendations from the Age-and Disability-Friendly San Francisco Task Force. Research from the Frameworks Institute also influenced the campaign.

The California Department of Finance indicates nearly 30 percent of San Francisco residents will be age 60 or older by 2030.

When people think of our City’s reputation for innovation and vibrancy they often think of young people, but in fact older adults are the fastest growing age group in San Francisco. Their experience and energy are assets that we need to draw upon, not minimize,” said Mayor London Breed. "Negative stereotypes about older people hurt all of us, and cause us to miss out on the skills, intelligence, and other strengths that older San Franciscans contribute to our workplaces and communities.”

The San Francisco Reframing Aging Campaign was developed as a partnership of the San Francisco Human Services Agency’s Department of Aging and Adult Services, the Metta Fund, the Community Living Campaign and a network of over 30 community providers and advocates to disrupt negative stereotypes of older adults and connect residents with resources and services in the San Francisco area.

The community is encouraged to visit EndAgeism.com to learn more about ageism, read about local older adults making a difference in their community, discover volunteer opportunities and learn about available services.

You can view the campaign press release here. Visit EndAgeism.com for more information.


Supporting Teaching Artists with Creative Aging Trainings

In 2019, 100 Minnesota teaching artists participated in two teaching artist trainings in creative aging, co-presented by Aroha Philanthropies and the Minnesota State Arts Board, in partnership with Lifetime Arts. Today on the Blog, Sarah Drebelbis of Aroha Philanthropies describes the reasoning, design and impact of two successful training events held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Why Creative Aging?
For the past 50+ years, the work of arts and cultural institutions has centered on providing professional arts productions or exhibitions for audiences to enjoy. Today, the role of our cultural institutions is broadening to include facilitating the creative and expressive lives of our richly varied communities.

The older adult population is historically underserved and overlooked. Meanwhile, the number and percentage of adults in the U.S. who are 55 and older is growing dramatically. Today, about one in seven people in the U.S. are over 65. By 2030, it will be one in four or five. This group spans 50+ years of life, incorporating up to three generations of people with every level of ability, energy and potential.

Aroha champions programs that enable active older adults to learn, make and share the arts. These programs are based on the same arts education principles that drive youth arts education, including sequential skill-based learning over a period of time, but they are tailored to the unique strengths and needs of older adults. We hope to help people understand that aging is about growth, not just decline; about opportunities, not just challenges; and about the contributions older people can and do make.

Investing in Teaching Artists
One aspect of championing creative aging programs is supporting the teaching artists who lead them. According to the most recent Creative MN report, there are 108,755 creative and artist workers and 1,903 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in Minnesota. To further the creative aging movement in our home state, Aroha developed a teaching artist training model to support, inspire and equip teaching artists on how to create successful, effective arts education programs for older adults. A diverse group of Minnesota teaching artists who are experienced in the creative aging field advised on the development of the training, which was led by Lifetime Arts.

Teaching Artist Trainings
In 2019, Aroha and the Minnesota State Arts Board sponsored two free two-day training opportunities for Minnesota teaching artists of all artistic disciplines and all levels of experience.

To garner interest and include teaching artists from across the state, an open registration period was held before 50 participants were randomly selected for each training. We saw an overwhelmingly positive response from Minnesota teaching artists, with more than 250 total lottery submissions.

The trainings included an exploration of ageism, a hands-on deconstruction of a creative aging workshop, a review of best practices in curriculum design and tangible ideas on how to include social engagement in all artistic mediums in creative aging programs. Participants had the opportunity to network and connect with peers interested in this field, hear from a panel of teaching artists who have experience working with older adults and see directly the impact of creative aging programs through live student performances and panel discussions. Presentations from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Springboard for the Arts shared grant opportunities and resources for teaching artists to support creative aging programming.

“There is lots to learn if you want to work with seniors. Aroha and Lifetime Arts have created a powerful, illuminating and fun training that will give you all the necessary knowledge and tools you need to be a successful teaching artist. You will learn about creating professional and concise curriculums, the do’s and don’ts working with seniors, developing successful partnerships and learn how to apply for [funding opportunities]. Teaching Artists of all backgrounds and experience levels will greatly benefit from this Teaching Artists Training in Creative Aging.” – Mike von der Nahmer, participant

Looking Ahead
Creative aging programs empower active older adults to dive into learning an art form in an environment that fosters community, friendship and engagement. By providing these trainings, our hope is that the 100 newly trained Minnesota teaching artists will advocate for and seek out opportunities to develop sequential, skill-building programs that engage older adults, both individually and within arts and cultural organizations across Minnesota.

For more information, please contact Sarah Drebelbis (sarah@wordpress-727831-2428852.cloudwaysapps.com).

Training attendees participate in a hands-on creative aging mask-making workshop. Photo Credit: Sarah Drebelbis

Training attendees participate in a creative aging curriculum design discussion. Photo Credit: Sarah Drebelbis 

 Experienced Creative Aging Teaching Artists share best practices during a panel discussion. Photo credit: Jacqueline DuMont


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