Tag: Annie Montgomery

Creative Aging Powered by Connection, Collaboration, and Celebration

A photo of two older adult Asian/Pacific Islander women standing in front of a wall of artwork. They are smiling and not looking directly at the camera. One woman has long, silver/grey hair and is wearing a grey sweater and jeans. She is carrying a brown purse on her shoulder. The other woman has grey/silver hair pulled back. She is wearing a black shirt with a silver/white coat and jeans. She is carrying a black over the shoulder bag.

This year’s theme for Older Americans Month is “Powered by Connection,” which recognizes the impact that meaningful relationships and social connections have on our health and wellbeing. Connectedness is what fuels the power of creative aging programs for older adults, and it begins with us and those we partner with. Fostering communities where everyone is seen as valued, creative, and contributing members to society is only possible when there’s a strong pillar of creative aging leaders, practitioners, and advocates supporting each other. Let’s explore how our work in creative aging is powered by connection, collaboration, and celebration!

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Cross-Sector Training Highlights: Building Leadership & Investment

This summer, Lifetime Arts had the opportunity to train hundreds of teaching artists, library workers, museum educators, and arts organization staff in Missouri, Wyoming, Hawaii, Tennessee, and Arizona as part of our major projects Advancing Creative Aging Through State Library Leadership and Vitality Arts Project for Art Museums and in partnership with the Phoenix Center for the Arts, Indiana Arts Commission, and Creative Aging in Memphis. These creative aging leaders will go on to impact the lives of more than 3,500 older adults in this year alone. Below are training highlights and reflections.

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Remembering Ann deVere: A Passionate Artist, Teacher, and Community Builder

We are deeply saddened by the recent passing of Ann deVere, a veteran teaching artist, architect, and Lifetime Arts Trainer. As a native New Yorker with a visual arts concentration in printmaking, Ann taught classes and workshops in public schools, cultural centers, and arts organizations throughout NYC, in addition to implementing arts programming for all ages. Throughout her teaching artist career, she engaged her students in critical discourse, concept development, and creative problem solving — all the while drawing upon their imaginations. Her students developed a sense of their own capabilities, discovered their ideas have value, and learned how they can enrich the environments around them.

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2022: The Year in Review

If there's one thing that we can take away from our collaborative work in 2022, it's that responsive, purposeful, and accessible arts education programming is a foundational pillar for lifelong learning. This work can only be achieved when every older adult is seen, valued, creative, proud, and part of a community. We couldn’t have accomplished this work without the abundant support of our staff, trainers, partners, and funders.

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NASAA Initiative Serves as a Creative Aging “Bedrock” for State Arts Agencies

Chiquita Mullins Lee, Arts Learning Coordinator at the Ohio Arts Council with a trainee during the Ohio Arts Creative Aging Summit.

From 2021-2022, Lifetime Arts trained and coached nearly 1,000 teaching artists, librarians, and community-based organization staff across 22 states on building creative aging programs, partnerships and practices via the National Assembly of State Arts Agency’s (NASAA) Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging Initiative.

Our final training sessions with state art agencies in Oklahoma and Nebraska concluded in October. In November, Lifetime Arts staff and members from the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and Ohio Arts Council presented the impact of this initiative at NASAA’s 2022 virtual Creative Aging Institute. Read on to learn more about these engagements and how state art agencies are building on the success of this initiative

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Lifetime Arts Extends Capacity-Building Efforts with State Arts Agencies in CT, DE, UT + MI

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 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).

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Creative Aging Lessons Learned From the U.S. to Singapore (Audio + Transcript)

In October, Maura O’Malley, Lifetime Arts’ CEO/Co-Founder, and Annie Montgomery, Senior Education Designer & Trainer, presented creative aging best practices, participated on a panel discussion with local organizational leaders and artists, and facilitated a 4-hour Creative Aging Foundations Workshop at the Arts and Ageing Forum 2022: The Future of Arts and Ageing in Singapore, hosted by the National Arts Council (NAC) of Singapore.

In a featured interview, Maura and Annie share their experiences participating in this international event. They share their insights about the arts, culture and aging scene in Singapore, and share moments of learning and collaboration with local community artists and educators on how they engage older adults in lifelong learning educational programs. Maura also envisions how we can collectively share creative aging practices and resources internationally to succeed the common goal for universal lifelong learning opportunities.

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Lifetime Arts to Present Creative Aging Best Practices at Arts & Aging Forum in Singapore

On October 7, 2022, Maura O'Malley, Lifetime Arts' CEO/Co-Founder, and Annie Montgomery, Senior Education Designer and Trainer, are invited to participate as leading creative aging experts in the in-person event, Arts and Ageing Forum 2022: The Future of Arts and Ageing in Singapore, hosted by the National Arts Council (NAC) Singapore. Maura will present Lifetime Arts as the featured keynote, participate in a live panel discussion with local industry leaders, and co-lead an interactive workshop with Annie.

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Combating Ageism in a Socially Distanced World

Screenshot of participants during a remote training workshop.

On February 10, Lifetime Arts Director of Education, Annie Montgomery, and Pushcart Prize Nominated Poet, Mary Moore Easter, delivered the virtual workshop, “Combating Ageism in a Socially-Distanced World,” during Roowork, an online learning series hosted by the National Guild for Community Arts Education.

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Lifetime Arts to Deliver “Combating Ageism in a Socially Distanced World” in Rootwork Series

Headshots of Annie Montgomery and Mary Moore Easter.

On February 10, 2021, Lifetime Arts' Director of Education, Annie Montgomery and Pushcart Prize Nominated Poet, Mary Moore Easter, will present the virtual workshop, "Combating Ageism in a Socially Distanced World," during the National Guild for Community Education's online learning series, Rootwork. During the workshop, participants will learn how creative aging arts education programs combat ageism and are a pathway to reconnect older adults to one another, and to their communities in the midst of the pandemic.

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Lifetime Arts to Offer “Creative Aging During COVID-19” at Louisiana Arts Summit

A promo image featuring a training with headshots of Annie Montgomery and Julie Kline.

On September 30, Lifetime Arts’ Director of Education, Annie Montgomery and Education Associate, Julie Kline, will deliver an interactive virtual session on the topic of creative aging programming during COVID-19, part of the 2020 Louisiana Arts Summit and hosted by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge in partnership with the Louisiana Division of the Arts.

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Lifetime Arts Featured in Inaugural Creative Aging Track at National Guild Conference

Participants engaging in a Lifetime Arts workshop at the Conference for Community Arts Education.

 To meet the growing demand for Creative Aging programming across the U.S., for the first time ever, the National Guild for Community Arts Education introduced a Creative Aging Track at their 82nd national conference held recently in Austin, TX.  The Conference brought together more than 700 leaders and educators from all backgrounds to share knowledge, …

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Creative Aging Experts Address Ageism at Grantmakers in the Arts Conference

National Guild for Community Arts Education logo

On October 15, the National Guild for Community Arts Education presented the professional development workshop, “Age Equity: The Impact of Ageism on Arts Funding and Programs,” at the 2019 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference: Cultural Intersections in Denver, CO. Adam Johnson, Chief Operating Officer at National Guild for Community Arts Education, moderated the workshop, which also featured …

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50 More Minnesota Artists Trained in Creative Aging Program Model

Thern Anderson leads the Movement and Writing session.

On July 29 and 30, Aroha Philanthropies and the Minnesota State Arts Board offered the third in a series of Creative Aging trainings for teaching artists working in all arts disciplines. The event, held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, was designed to equip teaching artists with the skills to design and teach successful, skill-based, …

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U.S. Museums Receptive to Creative Aging Programming

photo of Aroha Senior Fellow and Creative Aging panelists at AAM annual conference

On Monday, May 20, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) held a panel titled, “Artful Aging: What Museums and Arts are Learning from Each Other about Creative Aging” during their annual conference in New Orleans. Ed Friedman, Executive Director at Lifetime Arts moderated the panel which also featured Annie Montgomery, Director of Education at Lifetime …

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Lifetime Arts Delivers Teaching Artist Training in Chicago

“Training Chicago teaching artists was so inspiring. They are hungry for this work and the day was filled with the space to share ideas and work together to imagine what Creative Aging programs in Chicago could be like.” -Annie Montgomery Director of Education Lifetime Arts Lifetime Arts delivered two days of extensive teaching artist training …

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Creative Aging Continues in Northern Wisconsin Libraries

Wisconsin librarian participants in workshop

“I appreciated the enthusiasm of the presenters and the possibility of inspiring my community.” On April 4 and 5, in continuation of a statewide training being conducted by Lifetime Arts, Education Director, Annie Montgomery, and teaching artist, Julie Kline, traveled to northern Wisconsin to deliver two full-day professional development workshops on Creative Aging programming for public librarians …

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Lifetime Arts Expands Team of Creative Aging Trainers

A cohort of trainers sitting on a couch during a training at Lifetime Arts' Headquarters Office.

In an effort to meet the growing, nationwide demand for our professional development services, we held a train-the-trainer event at our headquarters in New Rochelle, NY on March 25, 26 and 28.  For this series, we invited our already established master teaching artists on our roster of trainers, Antonia Perez and Julie Kline, and identified …

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Bringing Creative Aging to TAP Cohort

Teaching Artist Project logo

As mentioned earlier this fall, Lifetime Arts, Inc. is proudly teaming up with the Teaching Artist Project (TAP) Cohort, a division of Community-Word Project (CWP). TAP is a comprehensive training and internship hosted by CWP and designed to prepare artists to bring their craft into K-12 classrooms. The TAP Cohort is a network of arts organizations …

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Creative Aging in Southern Wisconsin Libraries

“I want to get started immediately!” This week Lifetime Arts traveled to southern Wisconsin to deliver two full-day professional development workshops on Creative Aging programming for public librarians working in suburban and rural libraries there. We began the week on Tuesday in Brookfield where we worked with 26 librarians from the greater Milwaukee area. The …

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The Importance of Teaching Artists

At the center of a truly great Creative Aging program is the teaching artist. They are the boots on the ground, who are teaching new skills to curious minds and turning a group of strangers into lifelong friends. Teaching artists make the learning fun and engaging, and they accomplish all of this with a sense …

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