Listen to Maura O’Malley, Lifetime Arts CEO/Co-Founder, explain why it’s time to think of older adults differently. This masterclass video is one of nearly 80 instructional videos featured in this course.

Creative aging is joyful, “lights people up,” forges new social connections, and leaves participants, audiences, and funders wanting more.

Creative Aging Foundations On Demand from Lifetime Arts is a free, self-paced online course that is designed for institutions and individuals seeking to run successful, participatory artmaking programming for older adults. This course will serve as a guide as you plan programs and develop the necessary partnerships to support this important, cross-sector work.

What is Creative Aging?

Creative aging programming thrives in community settings where older adults gather around learning, social life, and enrichment. The Creative Aging Arts Education Model is proven to improve older adults’ health and wellness, bringing a revived sense of self and purpose to their lives. While these instructional programs are responsive, they share key elements. These programs:

  • Are led by practicing teaching artists (non-volunteers)
  • Build artistic skills over time (across all disciplines)
  • Integrate social engagement
  • Include a culminating event to publicly celebrate older adults’ creativity

Who Will Benefit?

What’s Inside?

Lifetime Arts produced nearly 80 videos that detail the program model, demonstrate creative aging classes, and feature interviews, case discussions, and programming examples with experts in the field. Go directly to the content you need, and review and reinforce helpful concepts.

Walk away with a roadmap for your team, organization, or association.

  • Anti-Ageism
  • Partnerships + Planning
  • Program Design
  • Implementation
  • Sustainability
  • Remote Delivery

Transforming your perceptions about older adults will ensure responsive programming, help to “future proof” your offerings, and open up new funding streams.

Community assessment is the only way to plan and deliver creative aging programming successfully, but you don’t have to do it alone. Partnerships can help expand your reach, understanding, and resources to better serve your older adult constituents.

Applying these practical design principles will ensure that older adult participants reap the benefits of creative programming by both developing mastery of an artform and connecting more deeply to their community.

Making programs happen doesn’t have to be difficult. We lay out the steps and best practices to ensure a smooth process.

Our framework is adoptable or adaptable to fit your needs.

Maura O'Malley, a national expert with 15+ years experience in creative aging initiative development, explains how to integrate creative aging into your organizational mission and long-term fundraising strategies.

Remote programming is here to stay. Discover how to engage older adults creatively online and via other remote delivery methods.

Lifetime Arts Experts

Our Staff and Trainers

Maura O'Malley

Maura O'Malley

CEO/Co-Founder

Julie Kline

Julie Kline

Director of Education & Training

Annie Montgomery

Annie Montgomery

Senior Education Designer & Trainer

Daniela Del Giorno

Daniela Del Giorno

Trainer

Asma Feyijinmi

Asma Feyijinmi

Trainer

Clark Jackson

Clark Jackson

Trainer

Jade Lam

Jade Lam

Trainer

Penelope McCourty

Penelope McCourty

Trainer

Lynda Monick-Isenberg

Lynda Monick-Isenberg

Trainer

Vinny Mraz

Vinny Mraz

Trainer

Antonia Perez

Antonia Perez

Trainer

Rhynna M. Santos

Rhynna M. Santos

Trainer

Dane Stauffer

Dane Stauffer

Trainer

Voices From the Field

Elizabeth Anker

Elizabeth Anker

Teaching Artist

Robin Bady

Robin Bady

Teaching Artist

Ed Friedman

Ed Friedman

Executive Director/Co-Founder, Lifetime Arts (Retired)

Kate Houston

Kate Houston

Arts and Aging Program Manager, CommonBond Communities

Abigail Jefferson

Abigail Jefferson

Arts Educator

Lauren Jost

Lauren Jost

Teaching Artist

Laura Marceca

Laura Marceca

Associate Director of Older Adult Services, Greenwich House

John McEneny

John McEneny

Artistic Director, Piper Theatre Productions

Lily Nguyen

Lily Nguyen

Former Director of the Performing Arts Institute, Stagebridge

Julius Rea

Julius Rea

Interim Director of Programming, Stagebridge

Carol Sterling

Carol Sterling

Teaching Artist

Thelma Thomas

Thelma Thomas

Former Artistic Director, Pearls of Wisdom

Spica Wobbe

Spica Wobbe

Teaching Artist

The Creative Aging Resource Site is Your Course Companion

Resources featured in the course — including Lifetime Arts’ original publications and training materials — are pulled directly from The Creative Aging Resource site, providing you with multi-access points to whatever you need from wherever you are.

Professional Development Beyond the Course

While the course can be used independently, it also serves as an accessory to Lifetime Arts’ live and interactive training on creative aging program implementation and our customized consulting services. Through these services, you’ll learn how to further tailor creative aging programming to the needs of your workforce and community.

Teaching Artist

Listening to my fellow writing instructors plan their classes and seeing how Lifetime Arts instructors incorporate socializing and movement into their presentations provided excellent models of how this type of instruction can work.

Teaching Artist

Nevada

Adminstrator

I was surprised at how concrete/tangible this training felt. I left with clear ideas about how to move forward in developing programming for older and aging adults.

Adminstrator

Utah Division of Arts & Museums

Teaching Artist

My experience with this training supports Dr. Martin Luther King's principle of nonviolence: The beloved community is the framework of the future. Your training beautifully embodies this in practical ways.

Teaching Artist

Connecticut

Founded in 2008, Lifetime Arts is a nonprofit arts service organization that offers a positive, modern, artistic and social lens through which to serve, inspire and engage America’s growing population of older adults.

Acknowledgements

Creative Aging Foundations On Demand has been made possible through the generous support from E.A. Michelson Philanthropy and the New York State Council on the Arts. We are grateful to Lifetime Arts’ Shannon McDonough, Jacqueline DuMont, Annie Montgomery, Julie Kline, and Saul Baizman for guiding the production and design of the course in partnership with Lifetime Arts staff and consultants.

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