We were delighted to see our Creative Aging Program highlighted in a recent National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) newsletter. Here’s what they had to say:
“The Utah Division of Art and Museums (UA&M) used its grant funding and an additional $48,699 in state funding to host the A Lifetime of Arts Elevated initiative. UA&M hired Lifetime Arts, a national leader in creative aging programs, to provide four training sessions on creative aging for artists, cultural institutions, and older-adult service organizations. As UA&M’s Creative Aging Impact Report details, 99 participants from 45 different organizations took ‘Creative Aging 101’; independent teaching artists who attended the training were compensated for their participation. UA&M gave 27 grants to cultural institutions to host sequential arts learning classes following the Lifetime Arts model. More than 300 older adults participated in these classes. Ninety-seven percent of older adult survey participants said their participation helped to enhance their feelings of social connections with their community, and 99% indicated that they deepened their learning about the arts.
In collaboration with the Utah Commission on Aging, UA&M created a new Arts & Aging webpage that serves as a hub for creative aging programming, features resources for professionals working with older adults, and hosts a roster of teaching artists who have completed creative aging coursework. UA&M also sponsored the 2022 Creative Aging Conference, which brought creative aging practitioners to St. George. Recently, UA&M offered two additional training sessions with Lifetime Arts for libraries and teaching artists. Currently, it is offering an additional grant to support creative aging projects for those participants who have attended the Lifetime Arts training. To learn more, contact Jason Bowcutt or Tracy Hansford on the Community Programs team.“