News
Connecting LGBTQIA+ Youth and Elders
In the spring of 2019, several LGBTQIA+ adults and youth at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson came together to share their stories, either real or imagined, through the art of drag performance. Featured in an American Alliance of Museums (AAM) blog post, the intergenerational “School of Drag” program recently showcased a successful culminating event.
“LGBTQIA+ youth and elders can learn so much from one another if we can just create the opportunities for them to do so,” says Eli Burke, Education Director at MOCA Tucson. Learn more about this inspiring Seeding Vitality Arts® program by reading the blog post.
Photo Credit: Eli Burke
Barry’s Blog
Members of Aroha’s Seeding Vitality Arts® (SVA) initiative are showcased in an exciting new creative aging series by Barry Hessenius of Barry’s Blog. The series encourages arts and other kinds of organizations to fully engage in the creative aging agenda by creating and launching their own programs. The series includes interviews with SVA grantees, testimonials from older adult participants, and results of a midterm evaluation of SVA grantees from Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry. Check out the blog posts by visiting blog.westaf.org.
StoryCorps
Aroha grantee Next Avenue has published a series of four conversations between Minnesota teaching artists and their students 55+. The moving and insightful interviews were conducted by StoryCorps, a national nonprofit media organization that has been recording personal stories since 2003, for Next Avenue’s Vitality Arts series.
- Dance instructor David DeBlieck, who expressed admiration for the “adventurous spirit” of his student, Roni Trulson, after she overcame her fear and returned to dance;
- Ceramics instructor Ken Ferber and his student, Linda Schmidt, who has learned how art can impact life in many ways;
- Karen Gasche, who tells how she ‘had nothing to lose’ by enrolling in an opera class taught by Marcia Aubineau; and
- Lynda Monick-Isenberg and Zach North, describing how they were inspired by their older students, who found joy and delight in a drawing class.
State Arts Agencies Feature Creative Aging
NASAA’s report summarizes the many ways state arts agencies can foster creative aging as well as the current status of the field in a number of states. It lifts up model programs and discusses how the arts can support older adults in community settings as well as medical facilities. The research report notes, “State arts agencies are poised to be key facilitators in leveraging the arts—including music, poetry, literature, storytelling, dance, theatre and the visual arts—to ensure our nation's population ages not only with sound health, which will lead to significant medical cost savings, but also with independence, dignity, purpose and joy.” The report highlights creative aging efforts supported by state arts agencies and offers an array of resources to readers.
NY Times
An April 26, 2019, New York Times article examines “prevalent and insidious” ageism and the World Health Organization’s fledgling efforts to curtail it. According to the Times, “Four teams around the world are collecting and assessing the available evidence on ageism — its causes and health consequences, how to combat it, and how best to measure it.”
AAM Launches National Creative Aging Initiative
In 2018, Aroha and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) announced a new national partnership to support creative aging. AAM collaborated with Aroha and Lifetime Arts to create a cohort of 20 museums that will develop Vitality Arts® programs in 2019 and 2020.
AAM also created the position of Aroha Senior Fellow for Museums and Creative Aging, which is funded by Aroha. Over the course of two years, the Fellow will work with museums and with organizations and individuals in the creative aging sector to:
- Raise awareness about the pervasive and negative effects of ageism
- Instigate change by using the Alliance’s extensive network and diverse platforms to disseminate information and tools museums need to implement age-inclusive practices in all areas of operations, including programming, marketing, and hiring
- Promote evaluation and research that contributes to the growing body of knowledge on creative aging, and encouraging application of the latest research findings on the benefits of arts participation
- Foster partnerships between museums and organizations devoted to creative aging
AAM writes, “It is our intent that, as a result of the fellow’s work, more museums will integrate creative aging practices into their work as a matter of course, and we will increase the number of national and community-based organizations dedicated to creative aging that see museums as vital partners for their work. The major components of the fellow’s work will be generating content (writing and speaking); networking; and organizing a multi-day symposium to be held in the fall of 2019.”