Tag: Rhynna M. Santos

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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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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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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Remote Creative Aging Programs Addressed Social Isolation in 7 New York Counties During Pandemic

A participant's photograph of a first-person perspective on a blue kayak. The view beyond the kayak is cloudy skies and calm, open water with tree lines in the distance.

The New York State Creative Aging Initiative, an innovative partnership between The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York State Office for the Aging, and Lifetime Arts launched during the middle of the pandemic concluded in February 2022. Lifetime Arts trained and coached staff members from 7 area agencies on aging and nearly 70 New York state based teaching artists to plan, design, and implement 14 remote creative aging programs throughout the state.

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