Antonia Perez, Lifetime Arts Trainer, leads a drawing demonstration class with Delaware teaching artists. The trainees created mark making sketches from observation, memory and imagination. The exercise was followed by a Q&A session and reflection of the artists’ work and process, which demonstrated social engagement techniques during a real session with older adult learners.
“My experience with this training supports Dr. Martin Luther King’s principle of nonviolence: ‘The beloved community is the framework of the future.’ Your training beautifully embodies this in practical ways.”
— Connecticut Teaching Artist
This fall, we trained 100+ teaching artists, library programmers, arts council staff and stakeholders through continued partnerships with the Connecticut Office of the Arts, Delaware Division of the Arts, Utah Division of Arts & Museums and Michigan Arts and Cultural Council. Our work with these state arts agencies builds on projects they launched with Lifetime Arts’ support through the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies’ (NASAA) Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging Initiative (May 2021-September 2022). Below are highlights from these engagements.
“We are thrilled to continue to work with state arts agencies to help build their capacity to serve older adults through creative aging programming far into the future.”
— Julie Kline, Lifetime Arts’ Director of Education and Training
Teaching Artists Hone Creative Aging Practices in Connecticut and Delaware
We trained cohorts of Connecticut and Delaware teaching artists who specialized in various visual and performing artforms. Lifetime Arts trainers and trainees share their “ah-ha” moments of learning and discovery during the sessions below.
Sarah Jacobus, Lifetime Arts Trainer, said that Connecticut teaching artists were “…engaged and enthusiastic. There was a flood of responses in the chat to questions about ageism and adult learning. Concepts presented in the training seemed to resonate easily with participants.”
Annie Montgomery, Lifetime Arts’ Senior Education Designer & Trainer, said that she and Delaware teaching artists “…had the deepest and most transparent discussion about bias, how we all hold bias, and how it is only in reflection that we recognize our ageism and can dismantle it.”
And Clark Jackson, Lifetime Arts Trainer, noted: “A [Delaware teaching artist] put forward the idea of partnering with your local ‘Meals On Wheels’ to get flyers out to older adults that you might otherwise miss if they don’t reside in a senior living community, attend a senior center or even go to the library. This way, you can connect with older adults who may be more isolated and inform them of creative aging programming that you’re offering.”
A Connecticut teaching artist shared that the training helped them integrate storytelling techniques into their personal and professional life. “As a puppeteer, I have focused more on the integrity of the movement and layering of nonverbal elements to allow audiences to draw from their own experiences to fill in the blanks. I am curious about integrating more concrete storytelling now after our lovely and enriching storytelling session with Sarah [Lifetime Arts Trainer].”
Organizational Assessment and Collaboration in Utah and Michigan
In addition to the Connecticut and Delaware cohorts, we trained cohorts of Utah librarians and teaching artists for the Utah Division of Arts & Museums.
A Utah librarian said that the instructors and break-out session leaders were, “…excellent and really made me reflect on my personal strengths and weaknesses and those of my organization. I feel more prepared to try to take on this task.”
The training inspired a Utah teaching artist to think about how art organizations and libraries can work together to “…address the discrepancies between younger and older groups and “…foster a way to bridge the gap between ‘younger and older’ humans.”
Finally, Lifetime Arts facilitated a creative aging introductory webinar and partnership-building seminar for Michigan Cultural Council on the Arts’ (MACC) staff, local arts administrators, city managers, and other local-level organizations responsible for sub-granted MACC funds for creative aging programs in their community.
Year
Field
Arts Agency (formerly Arts Council)