Older adults have vital contributions to make to society as creators and community members. Abundant evidence shows that arts participation improves the emotional well-being of older adults, supports good health, strengthens social bonds, and brings a heightened experience of purpose and joy to our lives as we mature. However, older adults all too often experience the effects of ageism, isolation and limited access to meaningful arts learning experiences. State arts agencies can help to address these gaps by facilitating creative aging programming as an antidote to isolation, an affirmation of life and a pathway to flourishing for older adults.
Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry: Creative Aging in America’s Libraries
National Guild for Community Arts Education: MetLife Foundation Creative Aging Program: Findings from the Inaugural Year
Entelechy Arts and The Albany [arts centre]: Age against the Machine – A Festival of Creative Ageing Evaluation Report
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance: The Impact of Arts and Culture Agenda: Aging
Nina Trivedy Rogers, Ph.D., and Daisy Fancourt, Ph.D. : Cultural Engagement Is a Risk-Reducing Factor for Frailty Incidence and Progression
Gene D. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., et al. (The Gerontological Society of America): The Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on the Physical Health, Mental Health, and Social Functioning of Older Adults
: Cultural Engagement and Incident Depression in Older Adults
Flavia Galassi, et al.: Creativity and Art Therapies to Promote Healthy Aging: A Scoping Review
National Endowment for the Arts and The George Washington University: The Creativity and Aging Study
University of Florida Arts in Medicine Research Database (use keywords “older adults”)
In collaboration with E.A. Michelson Philanthropy, NASAA is making available up to $855,000 in grant funding for nine state arts agencies to strengthen meaningful arts learning experiences for older Americans. States Leading Creative Aging grant funded activities will take place between July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2025. Please visit States Leading Creative Aging to learn more about the states participating in this initiative.
Grantee Information (password required)
As part of our Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging initiative with E.A. Michelson Philanthropy, NASAA awarded $1,440,400 in grant funding to state and jurisdictional arts agencies across the country to grow their creative aging programs, practices and partnerships. State and jurisdictional arts agencies share a public mandate to make the social, educational, economic and health benefits of the arts available to all residents, especially underserved populations. Older Americans are an essential part of this commitment.
Our cohort of 36 grantees comprised 64% of all state and jurisdictional arts agencies, and included every region of the country, five out of six jurisdictions, and state arts agencies of every budget size. Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging grant funded activities took place between March 1, 2021 – August 31, 2022.
Please visit Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging to learn more about this initiative.
NASAA’s Creative Aging Institute provides online professional development focused on trends and topics in creative aging for all 56 state and jurisdictional arts agencies.
For more self-directed learning opportunities, please explore:
2023 Creative Aging Institute Playlist
2022 Creative Aging Institute Playlist
2021 Creative Aging Institute Playlist
Lifetime Arts: Creative Aging 101
Lifetime Arts: Creative Aging Foundations on Demand
Shifting Policy and Practice: New Opportunities for Creative Aging
E.A. Michelson Philanthropy: Vitality Arts
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts: The Academy for Creative Aging
NASAA expresses sincere appreciation to E.A. Michelson Philanthropy for its partnership as well as financial support of the States Leading Creative Aging and Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging initiatives. We salute E.A. Michelson Philanthropy’s visionary advocacy on behalf of the creative capacity of adults 55 and better. NASAA also thanks Lifetime Arts for its leadership and expertise in propagating exemplary creative aging practices nationwide.
From top:
Young@Heart Chorus; photo courtesy of Young@Heart. Explore their concert footage on YouTube
Photo courtesy of Virgin Islands Council on the Arts
Teaching artist Sangue Mboup with participants and family members after a New Jersey workshop in African drumming; photo by Erik James Montgomery
Playwriting with the Delaware Theatre Company; photo by Moonloop Photography
Utah artists at Sunshine Terrace; photo by Maria Ellen Huebner
A creative aging design class at ARCHbeta; photo by Ryan Leighton, courtesy of Maine Arts Commission
Delaware Art Museum’s adult education program; photo courtesy of Delaware Division of the Arts