FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shannon McDonough
Lifetime Arts
smcdonough@lifetimearts.org
This innovative collaboration promotes wellness and combats social isolation through anti-ageism training and community-based arts education programming.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY: Today, Lifetime Arts announced that in addition to the professional development training for teaching artists and library programmers previously announced as part of the Creative Aging in Wyoming Public Libraries project, this initiative will now also include a $150,000 seed grant program to support arts education programming for older adults in public libraries throughout the state.
This unique partnership between the Wyoming Arts Council, the Wyoming State Library and Lifetime Arts has received funding from both the Wyoming Community Foundation and the May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust. Importantly, this project reinforces a new model for cross-sector creative aging alliances, an innovation initiated by Lifetime Arts in New York State.
Through a competitive re-grant program, libraries whose staff complete the multi-part training will be eligible to apply for a $4,000 seed grant to support two creative aging workshop series each. The funding will cover teaching artists’ fees, workshop materials, and supplies. Up to 20 libraries will be funded, for a total of 40 programs serving up to 600 older adults. Said Lifetime Arts co-founder and CEO, Maura O’Malley:
“Participating libraries will become community anchors for wellness programming for older adults with the arts at the core. Wyoming’s professional teaching artists will extend their practices to new populations. And the state’s older adults will re-ignite and access their creativity in a socially-supportive environment. Whether in-person or online, creative aging programs have been proven to enrich the lives of those who participate in them — critical for anyone as they age, and especially needed now.”
Creative aging programming embraces older adults as learners, expands the impact of teaching artists and provides community organizations with a positive and creative approach to programming. Lifetime Arts will train teaching artists and librarians to be anti-ageist in their approach to developing and delivering socially-engaging, skill-building, participatory arts programming for older adults. The training will feature best practices in remote program delivery, a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
###
About Lifetime Arts
Lifetime Arts is a nationally recognized nonprofit transforming the way our society understands and experiences aging through the arts. Since 2008, we have been at the forefront of the creative aging movement—an evidence-based practice that combines arts participation with social engagement to foster healthy aging. Our team has trained over 11,000 professionals and supported the launch of more than 1,000 programs across 44 states. Together with a network of more than 6,000 partners, we are working to combat isolation, challenge ageism, and celebrate lifelong creativity. By bridging vision and action, we embed creative aging practices into public health, cultural policy, and aging services—ensuring that creativity is recognized as essential to well-being at every stage of life.
