photo credit Massachusetts Cultural Council
The Elder Arts Initiative joined artists, government, and service providers to engage older adults in the artistic process. Participants in the Elder Arts Initiative learned interviewing skills and techniques employed in the creative process, and had the opportunity to take part in a mentorship or pilot project of their own. Though considerable funding was curtailed in 2002, the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) continues to support local arts programs in the state through grants.
The Initiative began in 1996, when the Cultural Council, the Massachusetts Extended Care Federation (an association of nursing homes), the Executive Office for Elder Affairs, and the State's Council on Aging held a series of meetings about older adults and the arts. The Cultural Council then launched the Initiative in 1997.
The National Endowment for the Arts provided funding for the Initiative through its Challenge America Program Initiative and "Artists and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium Program." For older adults, the benefits of the Initiative included social interaction, an enhanced sense of purpose, a window for introspection, and improvement in physical health. In addition, the Initiative enabled older adults to communicate their wisdom and experience to younger generations.
Through the program, artists and service providers were trained in theoretical and hands-on techniques, to help seniors transform their memories and experiences into a variety of art forms. Introductory Training Seminars were held at different locations in Massachusetts. Moving from facility to facility, trainees gained experience with a variety of populations and environments. Topics covered during the Introductory Seminars included the following:
- Finding artistry in everyday encounters with elders;
- Demystifying the artistic process for non-artists;
- Working with youth and elders together, to create intergenerational art; and
- Encouraging staffs of senior centers to be involved and supportive.
Sixteen Introductory Training Seminars provided 230 artists and service providers with strategies for using creative techniques with older adults. Site visits provided hands-on training for seminar participants and resulted in arts programs engaging over 1,200 older adults, in more than 86 facilities, across Massachusetts.
Participants in the Seminars had the opportunity to design a mentored project, in which an artist and service provider agreed to join as partners. With the guidance of a master artist, they designed a long-range art project using the techniques introduced in the Seminar.
Additionally, through a 15-week program called The Pilot Project, artists and service providers defined the scope, themes, production, and execution of an artistic activity appropriate for older adults. The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation funded a pilot production that engaged residents of the Providence Place Independent Living Community (Holyoke, Massachusetts), and nine-year-olds from Girls Inc., in a team effort in which they created dances, songs, and poems about identity, dreams, and home.
Arts experiences offered in facilities for older adults are often passive in nature, with arts viewed as a form of entertainment rather than an opportunity for engagement. The Massachusetts Elder Arts Initiative Mentoring Project facilitated 20 mentored projects across the state, which incorporated creative writing, visual arts, music, and theater. Through training seminars, mentoring, and pilot projects, the program responded to the understanding that interactive arts help promote both individuality and community among older adults.
Visit the Massachusetts Cultural Council website for more information