Monday, June 29, 2026 | 4pm – 5pm EDT
Advocating for Creative Aging: Pitching New Partnerships
How do you build support for creative aging when funding is limited, partners are stretched thin, or stakeholders don’t yet understand its value? Join creative aging practitioners from across New York State for an interactive conversation on communicating the impact of your work and building the support needed to sustain it.
Through peer learning, discussion, and hands-on exercises, you’ll refine your “pitch” to make the case for your creative aging work and explore strategies for engaging funders and partners.
This session is a dedicated space where you will:
- Learn from Tyler Barton—teaching artist and Artistic Director at Writers & Books in Rochester, NY—as he shares successful partnership strategies that helped grow his Legacy Writing Workshops, plus practical tips for introducing creative aging programs to new partners.
- Explore proven approaches for identifying and cultivating community partnerships, and discover how partners can support your programs through funding, transportation, marketing, outreach, and more.
- Develop your own “partnership pitch” to communicate the value, impact, and benefits of your creative aging programs—and inspire potential partners to provide the support you need.
This isn’t a presentation. It’s a collaborative working session to exchange ideas, test approaches, and learn alongside peers who are advancing creative aging in their own communities. Your voice, experience, and ideas will help shape this New York creative aging community of practice in 2026 and beyond!
Keep the momentum going after the workshop by joining our one-on-one office hour on June 30th, where you’ll receive personalized support to strengthen and sharpen your creative aging pitch!
Meet Our Guest Speaker
Tyler Barton
Teaching Artist + Artistic Director, Writers & Books in Rochester, NY
Tyler Barton is the author of Eternal Night at the Nature Museum and The Quiet Part Loud. Since 2015, he has led writing workshops for older adults across the midwest and northeast in senior centers, long-term care homes, and prisons. He edited five anthologies of writing by older adults and received grants for this work through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and New York State Council for the Arts. He serves as Artistic Director of Writers & Books in Rochester, NY, where he oversees the Joe Flaherty Legacy Writing Workshops.
The New York State Creative Aging Leaders Network is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.