We are very grateful for the generous support that our funders and individual donors have provided throughout the past year. This year, instead of sending a letter, we are fundraising through Custom Ink. In return for your donation of $35 submitted via the fundraising site, you will receive a limited edition sweatshirt emblazoned with our logo. Traditional donations may also be made via our website. We thank you for your support!
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If you have been following along this year, you may already know that we have had the honor of working with forward-thinking funders and partners on multiple Creative Aging initiatives across the United States. Below are selected highlights summarizing our national activity and output in 2018.
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Earlier this month the
Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund added their support for Creative Aging in New York City through a generous grant to Lifetime Arts. We are grateful for their support.
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The team at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, grantees in the Catalyzing Creative Aging initiative, were very astute in integrating their grant-funded Creative Aging workshops into their Adult Studies offering. Lifetime Arts asked PCM's Matthew Bookman to talk us through their planning process:
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"The
National Guild for Community Arts Education and Lifetime Arts' Catalyzing Creative Aging program came around at a good time for us. In September 2017, the
National Endowment for the Arts released a report called
Staying Engaged: Health Patterns of Older Americans Who Participate in the Arts. We all read that report, part of which breaks down health outcomes for older adults who participate in "creating art" (painting, music making, singing, dancing, etc.) vs "attending art" (going to a museum, concert, play, etc.) vs both vs neither. Without getting too in the weeds, some of the results were really eye-opening. From previous studies, we knew that creating art and attending arts events have a general positive impact on health, but
Staying Engaged helped quantify that impact. For example, according to
Staying Engaged, older adults who both created art and attended arts events reported cognitive functioning scores that were seven-fold higher than those that neither created nor attended arts events. Similarly, adults that created art and attended arts events reported lower rates of both hypertension and limitations to their physical functioning.
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"We were inspired by the NEA report and wanted our Adults Studies Department to offer engaging, high-quality "music attending" and "music making" programs for the adults in our community (regardless of previous experience and/or skill level). For years, we've offered compelling music history & appreciation classes, and we've always had adult students taking individual lessons here on campus, but we felt we might be missing more accessible ensemble classes on folk instruments like the ukulele and recorder that are fun to play and have a lower barrier to proficiency than instruments like the piano, violin, etc. Basically, we wanted to create a completely non-intimidating, lively group learning environment for adults and that seemed to be what the Catalyzing Creative Aging initiative was all about.
"Ultimately, these group classes -- which the Catalyzing Creative Aging seed grant and working with Lifetime Arts in general, helped us kick start -- have fit nicely into PCM's Adult Studies Department. They've both broadened the department and impacted our community in a really positive way. We're even adding two new group classes (Glee Club and Drum Circle) for the winter quarter!"
Thank you to Matthew and everyone at PCM.
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TEACHING ARTIST OF THE MONTH
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Peyton Scott Russell
Born in Minneapolis, MN, Peyton’s earliest memories as a child were making art and being creative. This continued into high school where he discovered graffiti art from the film
Style Wars in 1984. This consumed his art interest. As a Bush Fellowship recipient, 2012-14, Peyton formed SPRAYFINGER. This is a program used for teaching, Graffiti: The Art of Creative Lettering, to youth, adults, seniors and the community at large. Peyton’s focus is to increase the awareness of graffiti as a teachable art form by teaching, doing more community events, exhibitions and writing grants.
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Finding Your Arts Community When You Relocate for Retirement
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I spend a lot of column inches talking about generating (or regenerating) an interest in artmaking but what if you already have the interest, belong to an artist community (avocational or professional) and you’re considering relocating in retirement? We certainly live in a world connected by the internet but as we’ve learned from participants in many of our Creative Aging programs, there’s no substitute for engaging with others in artmaking activities.
So what do you do if you’re considering a move and want to choose a location where you’re likely to find arts enthusiasts in your discipline?
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A YEAR WE WON'T SOON FORGET!
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Finally, we feel fortunate to do this work, to have the opportunity to have a positive impact on the growing population of older Americans, and to employ something as healthy as arts education to combat ageism, open up minds and hearts to the fact that "older" can very often mean better, wiser, prouder, friendlier, more creative, and happier. We appreciate your attention, continued interest, and support for our work and mission.
The Lifetime Arts Team:
(L to R: Annie Montgomery, Director of Education; Lindsey Francis, Program Manager; Maura O'Malley, co-founder and CEO; Nathan Majoros, Director of Programs; Shannon McDonough, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communications; Ed Friedman, co-founder and Executive Director; and Abigail Jefferson, Program Coordinator.)
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