In 2005, Ed and I bumped into each other as we volunteered on a “creative aging” committee and recognized each other from our NYC arts work, dating back to the ‘80s. We started to talk – and kept on talking about what could/should happen to improve “senior programming”. We didn’t set out to create an organization; we were both working and in the later stages of our careers – but we felt that we could help build this new field by sharing what we had learned over our collective 60 years of arts education and community cultural development work.

Incrementally, on weeknights and weekends, without a roadmap – we began to figure out what we needed to do to. Little did we know that 10 years later, we’d still be sitting side by side, not at my dining room table, but in a beautiful office with a fabulous staff and team of consultants and supporters working to make a positive difference in the lives of older adults.

I am really glad that Ed and I bumped into each other; that our spouses have endless patience, and that so many colleagues have said “yes” to us so many times.