ARTS IMPROVING THE AGING PROCESS


artist community. First, they are profession- als, with training and experience that may go beyond what the activity director alone can provide. In addition, the leadership of an outside


artist can help to jump-start a higher level of engagement among residents who might otherwise be reluctant to participate. “For the residents, it can make a difference just to see somebody new. They are used to our staff, used to seeing certain people. They know what the program is and what we are going to do. When a new person comes in, then people get interested. They will give it a try just because they want to see what this new thing is all about,” Molson said. Having seen how some senior living


communities are moving to embrace the arts, it’s helpful here to pull back a bit and take a look at what’s going on in the wider community. Across the nation a range of or- ganizations are working to promote a more vibrant sense of artistic expression among seniors. Let’s take a look at how they do this, and consider what senior living executives might be able to learn from their examples.


– children move away, spouses die – and one of the things about sequential arts engagement is that people come together and build relationships, and it happens very naturally,” said Executive Director and Co-Founder Ed Friedman. The word “sequential” is key to this or-


ganization’s approach. Rather than produce one-off events, Lifetime Arts put a heavy emphasis on arts programs that have staying power, where participants encounter one another repeatedly over weeks or months. They may for instance support a program that takes place in a public library in eight weekly, 90-minute sessions. “People enter into a program and each


session builds on the one before, building toward a culminating event that includes community sharing. It gives people a sense of completion and it also lets the communi- ty see the creative capacity of older adults,” Friedman said. “It also allows family mem- bers to get a real sense of who this person is: This is not just someone’s grandmother, this is a person with a creative inner life.” Any art is better than no art, and Fried-


“People enter into a program and each session builds on the one before, building toward a culminating event that includes community sharing. It gives people a sense of completion. ...It also allows family members to get a real sense of who this person is: This is not just someone’s grandmother, this is a person with a creative inner life.”


Sequential Experience Based in New Rochelle, N.Y., the nonprofit Lifetime Arts seeks to increase the number and quality of professional arts programs for older adults. The group helps to develop pol- icy, shares best practices and expert technical assistance in the design of arts program. The group puts a premium on engage-


ment, the notion that the arts can form a kind of living connective tissue between individuals who might otherwise become disconnect from the social web. “One thing we know instinctively is the idea of isolation. Older people are isolated


man doesn’t like to be too dismissive of the standard fare one often finds in senior living – the afternoon concert, the weekend theater outing. “There is value to passive entertainment,” he said. “You can reach a lot of people and they enjoy it. But they clap and they leave and they go to lunch.” A long-term sequential project may not


reach as many individuals. “The number of people who can take part will be maybe 15 to 50 depending on the program. A collage program will be 15 people, a choral pro- gram may be 50 people,” he said. “But the impact goes beyond the numbers.”


40 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019


Networking with the Neighborhood Ariadne (Ari) Albright is CEO and principle educator at Creative Care in Vermillion, S.D., as well as a committee chair of with the National Organization for Arts in Health. Creative Care’s mission is “to provide


meaningful art programming for healthcare clients; arts engagement training for staff; and a livable wage for student art facilitators.” The group puts a heavy emphasis on “participato- ry arts programs,” hands-on activities led by professionally trained artist facilitators. Albright has been bringing arts expe-


riences to seniors at the nearby Sanford Vermillion Medical Center for the past five years, especially in the long-term care setting. Under her direction, volunteers and student interns act as art facilitators, creat- ing projects that explore visual arts, music, literary, contemplative, and movement exer- cises. In that time, anti-psychotic medication use has dropped from 20 percent of the population to 5 percent of the population “When I first went into the memory unit,


I took a week and a half to sit and observe, to notice and rhythms of care and the wide range of behaviors,” she said. “I saw people pacing, I saw a lot of idleness.” She opted to begin with acrylic and


watercolor projects. “In the memory unit you have to be sensitive to the textures, the tactile qualities of art materials,” she said. “With watercolor, we would do gradations, the fading of color from dark to light. Then you add different effects by adding more paint or more water.” These careless-seeming streaks of color


were more than an afternoon’s pastime. The painting offered a way to awaken those who were withdrawn, to bring them back into the world. “Because of the color, because of the tex-


ture, all of this can engage people’s senses. They may have some internal resistance at first: Oh, I can’t make art! Some people may stay for a few minutes and then wander off, but then they come back,” she said. “Some- times it’s a matter of timing. With seniors we can paint landscapes, we can fold origami or play bells, but you have to take the time and offer constant reassurance. They worry that they are not doing the right things, so you need to be complimentary, to give them that feedback.”


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