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 adults. Sequential, skill-building arts workshops - embedded in socially rich community settings - help combat isolation and reinvigorate learning. Senior service organizations who add Creative Aging to their menu of services improve their programming, expand their reach and attract new partnerships and clients.
Catalyzing Creativity, a two-year, city-wide initiative is generously supported by the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation’s Healthy Aging Program. It will build the capacity of selected NYC senior service organizations to develop and sustain new arts learning programs that address the needs and interests of today’s older adults (60+). This multi-phased initiative includes informational webinars and a series of FREE live training workshops across the city. Organizations that complete the training will have the opportunity to apply for a $7,500 grant to seed new Creative Aging programs. Up to ten organizations will receive grants and the technical assistance necessary to design and implement up to three projects. Each project must include at least 8 sessions, plus a culminating event – and serve at least 10 older adults. Projects can begin as early as the fall of 2017 and continue through 2018. The initiative has the following goals:
Lauren Weisenfeld, Program Director at the Samuels Foundation said:
We are proud to support Lifetime Arts’ work again here in New York City. All across the country, they are demonstrating the value of arts engagement for older adults in diverse settings, providing an antidote to social isolation and expanding the reach of community based organizations by helping them create meaningful programming for today’s older adults. Catalyzing Creativity in NYC will move the needle forward in terms of shifting practice around aging and the arts.”
This webinar provided an overview of Lifetime Arts, the field of Creative Aging, this initiative, training and application instructions. We also took questions that potential applicants had about the initiative and/or the application.
View the archived informational webinar here, before starting your application for training.
Following the informational webinar the application for training will be available here.Please Note: The deadline to submit an application for training has been extended to March 3, 2017. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.
Lifetime Arts' mission is to encourage Creative Aging by promoting the inclusion of professional arts programs in organizations that serve older adults; to prepare artists to develop the creative capacity of older adult learners; and to foster lifelong learning in and through the arts by increasing opportunities for participation in community based programming.
We strongly encourage potential applicants to submit questions by emailing them to info@lifetimearts.org or by calling (914) 355-2304.