photo credit Wartburg Council for Creative Aging
The Wartburg Adult Care Community (The Wartburg) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing the mind, body, and spirit of older adults. Since its founding in 1899, The Wartburg has offered a continuum of care at its Mt. Vernon campus, and provides outreach to local parishes, senior centers, and civic organizations. In 2010, The Wartburg received a grant to enlist the aid of Lifetime Arts, which consults with many organizations on the design and implementation of creative aging programs and is led by a teaching artist. Lifetime Arts completed a survey of the Wartburg’s senior residents and staff, designed to gauge their interest in the arts. The findings were clear—residents and staff desired more arts and cultural programming.
In 2011, The Wartburg Council for Creative Aging was established to allow its nearly 500 senior residents in the assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing residence, and adult day programs to express themselves through art, song, theater, poetry, and oral histories. In difficult financial times, launching the Council required some creativity. Fortunately, the Council discovered a unique method for both cutting costs and serving the community; The Wartburg’s common rooms were vacant at night, while artists in the community were paying high rents for studio space. Ann Frey, the director of the Council, began recruiting teaching artists to use The Wartburg’s space in the evening as art studios, free of rent. In exchange, the artists were asked to teach classes to the older adult residents.