Schedule

Thanks to our generous sponsors, the conference registration fee includes a copy of Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit. 

A first-of-its-kind resource for arts, healthcare and aging services organizations, the toolkit is published jointly by the National Center for Creative Aging, the National Guild of Community Schools for the Arts and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

The toolkit describes:

• The benefits of participatory arts education programs for older adults and society;

• Aging services and arts infrastructures and their relationship to one another;

• Best practice models on how to design, find partners for, fund, implement, sustain and evaluate arts education/participation programs for older adults; and

• Case studies for exemplary program

"Creativity & Aging: Exploring Community Initiatives"

Thursday, October 1, 2009

8:00 – 8:30 a.m.  

Check-in and Continental Breakfast

8:30 – 9:45 a.m. 

Welcome & Keynote Address

"Why Creativity Matters"
Gene Cohen M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center on Aging Health and Humanities, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

9:45 – 10:00 a.m. 

Morning Break

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Promising Practices Panel
Moderator: Susan Perlstein, Director of Education and Training, National Center for Creative Aging

“Still Creating: The Artistry of Long-term Care Residents”
Arts, Health and Wellness. Chenango County Area Agency on Aging.

“Enhancing the Lives of Older Adults Through the Arts”
Lifelong Learning Through the Arts. Lifelong, Ithaca, NY.

“Developing and Supporting Opportunities for Creativity & Aging Programs”
Culture Builds Community: The Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.  

"Key Issues for the Field of Arts and Aging"
Rick Moody, Director of Academic Affairs, AARP
Martha Strodel, Rural Arts Director, New York State ARTS Program

Moderator: Gay Hanna, Executive Director, National Center for Creative Aging

As the field of Creativity and Aging develops, a greater understanding of how arts and aging professionals and organizations can partner and work together needs to emerge. The arts education field has primarily focused on children and youth, and only recently has begun to embrace lifelong learning. The field of aging has engaged arts as a means of entertainment or therapeutic healing rather than a way to engage older people in the pursuit of creativity and learning. This discussion will highlight how the two fields can partner together to build healthy communities for all ages.

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Lunch

Enduring Masters Video
The Senior Citizens' Theater Troupe of Lifelong

1:00 – 3:00 p.m.  

Creativity Workshops
Participants will learn specific exercises to stimulate the senses, evoke emotions and develop the imagination. Responses can be transformed into creative arts presentations.

Drama
Learn to utilize voice and movement exercises, simple improvisation techniques that require no prior theatre experience. Led by Sue Perlgut, Artistic Facilitator, The Senior Citizens' Theater Troupe of Lifelong.

Visual Arts
Learn about the elements of the visual arts and how to transform images and associations into life collages. Also learn how to share and celebrate the arts. Led by Susan Perlstein, Artist and Director of Education and Training, National Center for Creative Aging.

Writing
Understand the importance of memoir writing and writing from life experience. Learn writing exercises to begin the process of gathering and recording life’s stories. Led by Marsha Gildin, Program Director, Elder Share The Arts.

Music
Experience the elements of music and how to share music with others. Led by Jennifer Haywood, Director, Ithaca College-Longview Intergenerational Choir.

3:00 – 3:15 p.m.  

Afternoon Break

3:15 – 4:15 p.m.  

Vital Arts Programming
Dr. Roy Ernst, professor emeritus, Eastman School of Music, developer of the New Horizons Band program.

Participants will demonstrate and discuss the workshop exercises and discover how to share the arts with a larger community. The critical steps in sustaining on going programs will be examined as well as the pitfalls and successes. Attention will be given to adaptations for working with well elderly, homebound, institutionalized groups as well as intergenerational settings. Facilitators: Gay Hanna and Susan Perlstein, National Center for Creative Aging.

4:15 – 4:45 p.m. 

Where Do We Go From Here?