This week long training program draws people from around the country and focuses on the role of the arts in healthcare and creative aging, providing theoretical and didactic approaches to implementing and sustaining high-quality arts programming in a variety of settings serving older adults across the aging spectrum.

Lifetime Arts is a regular presenter at this training and this year, I was asked to discuss the nuts and bolts of the planning and sustainability of Creative Aging programming. My presentation included the steps needed, and some of the templates we advocate using, as organizations plan to integrate Creative Aging into their menu of services. I also offered strategies for sustainability-administrative, programmatic and financial-drawing on real examples from the work Lifetime Arts has done across the country with a variety of organizations including senior centers, arts organizations, libraries and retirement communities.

One of the aspects of programmatic sustainability is board and staff buy-in. Besides the examples I prepared, I had an additional case right in front of me. As luck would have it, one of the attendees was a long time Lifetime Arts Roster Artist, Carolyn Clark. Carolyn, a member of American Federation of Musicians, the Association of Teaching Artists (Now merged with the Teaching Artists Guild), and Chamber Music America, started the chorus at the Dyker Heights Library in Brooklyn through a grant from Lifetime Arts through the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Due to the success and growth of the chorus, and the enthusiasm of the library’s staff, the chorus is still running six years later. This is a great illustration of how an excellent teaching artist, enthusiastic participants, and a committed venue partner, add up to success.

 

— Ed Friedman, Executive Director