Above Ground: Information on Artists III: Special Focus New York City Aging Artists
First needs assessment of aging artists in New York City, researching how artists are supported and integrated within their communities and how their network structures change over time. Finds that they rank high in life satisfaction and self-esteem; 91% would choose to be artists again; 77% communicate daily or weekly with other artists; they're resilient and have an ongoing engagement with both their life and art. Written, published by Research Center for Arts and Culture at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Achein Center for Lifelong Education, Research and Cultural Exchange
Lifelong-education center at Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., for indigenous peoples of all ages. Priority on "utilizing indigenous ways of learning and knowing in all areas of organization and service delivery." Program areas: art and humanities; culturally based economic development; culture, language and land; education and youth; family, community and world development; health and wellness; law and justice; leadership and tribal governance; technology. Has long-term strategic commitment to tribal economic self-sufficiency, capacity to address community-development needs and self-governance.

Age & Opportunity
Irish national agency working to: "challenge negative attitudes to ageing and older people and promote greater participation by older people in society." Numerous service and information programs. Arts and Culture programs include: Bealtaine, month-long national festival in May celebrating creativity in older age; Arts in Care; reading groups and other programs in public libraries.

Age Exchange
U.K. organization conducting creative-aging programs in "reminiscence work." Visual and performance arts projects, intergenerational projects, exhibitions, publications and documentary film. Based at Reminiscence Center in Blackheath, southeast London, home to national reminiscence training and resource center, reminiscence theatre company, museum of everyday life, cultural and social activities, gallery with changing exhibitions and headquarters of U.K. and European Reminiscence Networks. Founded 1983.

Arthur+martha Community Interest Company
Arts-and-health organization that runs art/poetry workshops with older people in hospitals and the community in North West England using experimental techniques. Exhibitions, publications. Kindess project with older Jewish people in Manchester. Working with Manchester Metropolitan University on research to help formulate future national arts-and-health policy.

Artists for Alzheimer's
Initiative of the Healthstone Alzheimer's Foundation. Maintains roster of volunteer artists who want to enhance the cultural life of people with Alzheimer's disease. Artist residencies, performances, gallery exhibitions.

Arts for Life
"Restoration and Renewal for People in Crisis Through Creativity, Culture, Community." Consortium of artists approaching healing through art and spirituality. Global antiviolence Communitas Project; The Field Narrative Project supporting humanitarian aid workers; creative aging, mentoring and rites of passage. Based in New York City, founded by Juliet Burger (formerly Institution for Transformation through the Arts).

Arts for the Aging
Membership organization providing artistic outreach services to psychologically and physically impaired seniors in senior day-care centers and nonprofit nursing homes in Washington, D.C., area. Provides 85 programs monthly in more than 50 senior centers. Emphasis is on those suffering from age-related dementia, including Alzheimer's. Anecdotal observation of physical and psychological benefits of arts activity on aging.

Attic Theatre Company
London-based company with contemporary/classic repertoire and outreach programs: Project R, workshops for refugees and asylum seekers (with Company of Angels); plays for senior citizens on Crime Reduction and Home Safety (with Metropolitan Police and Fire Brigade); Young People's Company, 11-14 year-olds in devised-drama workshops.

Center for Creative Aging-North Carolina
Nonprofit organization dedicated to creative aging: "imaginative self-expression of all forms in the second half of life." Goals: Providing quality training and education, developing and disseminating resource materials and programming; serving as a clearinghouse for exchange of information; encouraging efforts to document the role of creative expression in lives of older people. TimeSlips creative storytelling project; Multicultural Project. Based in Greensboro, N.C.

Center for Elders and Youth in the Arts
Program of San Francisco Bay Area's Institute on Aging. Works with high schools, select middle schools, local arts agencies, and group sites for the elderly. Teams youth and elders in collaborative, educational arts programs under the instruction of professional visual and performing artists. Most projects last one year.

Center in the Park
Offers high-quality community arts programming.for elders grounded in the theory of lifelong learning. Primarily serves African-American elders who live independently in Northwest Philadelphia.

Center on Age & Community
Multidisciplinary, university-wide academic center at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Combines university’s expertise with experience of those who work in the field of aging. Research, degree and nondegree programs in gerontology, community partnerships, outreach. Residency in Applied Arts.

Community Center for Vital Aging
Located at Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. Offer programs in weaving, creative movement, yoga, ballet and the visual arts. Includes Third Age Theater Troupe. Member of National Center for Creative Aging Network.

Creative Longevity and Wisdom Initiative
Supports research and professional practice in creative aging. Launched in 2004 at Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Creativity Discovery Corps
Program of Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University Medical Center. Identifies and provides visibility for elders doing creative work; identifies and disseminates best practices in creative aging; organizes exhibitions, sponsors events. Founded 1997 by Gene Cohen and Barbara Soniat.

Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit
Detailed advice on design, implementation and evaluation of professionally led, participatory arts programs for older adults. Written by Johanna Misey Boyer; published by National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, National Center for Creative Aging and New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 2007. (Available free online.)

Elderhostel
Offers art history tours and hands-on instruction for seniors in a variety of mediums.

Elders Share the Arts
Intergenerational N.Y.-based organization with community-based programs. Living History Arts Festival, Legacy Art Works. Founded by Susan Perlstein. Offers training in community atrs techniques.

GRACE (Grass Roots Art and Community Effort)
Visual art making for elders and other special populations, also participation by the general public. Works in nursing homes, senior meal sites, mental-health centers, artists’ homes, community centers. Founded 1975 at the St. Johnsbury Convalescent Center located in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom by artist Don Sunseri.

Intergenerational Orchestras
Conductor Lorraine Marks has founded two intergenerational orchestras, the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra (njio.org) and the Florida Intergenerational Orchestra of America (flioa.org). They include musicians ages 5 to 93 and they perform throughout their respective states in schools, senior-citizen centers, nursing homes and on concert stages.

Kairos Dance Theatre
Intergenerational modern-dance company based in Minneapolis, Minn. Programs include The Dancing Hearts: Vital Elders Moving in Community; Dancing Heart Caregiver Training Program; residencies, classes, playshops. Founded by Artistic Director Maria DuBois Genné.

Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia in the Elderly
Study of 469 subjects older than 75 years of age who resided in the community and did not have dementia at base line. Found that of physical leisure activities evaluated [swimming, bicycling, dancing, participating in group exercises, team games such as bowling, walking, climbing stairs, doing housework, and babysitting], “dance was the only physical activity associated with a lower risk of dementia.” Written by Joe Verghese, M.D., et al.; published in New England Journal of Medicine, 2003.

Magic Me
Organization with 16 years experience running intergenerational arts projects that link older people 55+ with young people aged 9 to 25 years in the East End of London.

Memories in the Making
Arts program of Alzheimer's Association in 65 assisted-living homes, nursing homes and community centers throughout Colorado.

National Center for Creative Aging
National network of organizations providing quality arts programs for elders. Based at Elders Share the Arts in Brooklyn, N.Y.

North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement
Promotes lifelong learning, leadership and community-service opportunities for retirement-aged people. Includes College for Seniors nad Creative Retirement Exploraiton Weekends. At UNC Asheville.

Prime Time Family Reading Time
Reading, discussion and storytelling program at public libraries across Louisiana (and going national). Weekly sessions for whole low-literacy, low-income families based on award-winning children's books. Sponsored by Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

Prometheus Dance
Modern dance ensemble with community programs in prisons, battered women’s shelters, Alzheimer's Center, public schools. Free, after-school Technical Theatre and Design Program for hearing-impaired and at-risk teens. Elders Ensemble performing in senior centers, healthcare facilities, community events and with the main company in special choreographic projects. Founded 1987 by Diane Arvanites-Noya; directed by Noya and Tommy Neblett. Based in Cambridge, Mass.

Research in Art, Nature & Environment (RANE)
Research cluster University College Falmouth, Cornwall, England, examining the relationship between the visual arts and ecological thinking. Creative research projects, public lecture series, conferences.

Research on Creativity and Aging: The Positive Impact of the Arts on Health and Illness
Study following weekly senior arts programs—a senior choir, a visual arts group,and a multidisciplinary arts group—conducted by professional artists in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and New York City. Average age of participants: 80. Concludes that the positive impact indicated by the preliminary results demonstrate that “community-based cultural programs for older adults appear to be reducing risk factors that drive the need for long-term care.” Written 2001 by Eugene Cohen; commissioned by National Endowment for the Arts, National Institute of Mental Health and AARP; published by American Society on Aging, 2006.

Senior Artist Project
Grant program supporting educational, mentoring and therapeutic community projects conducted by literary, visual or performing artists 55 and older in northern San Diego or southern Orange counties in California. Provides stipends and expenses. Project of the Kenneth A. Picerne Foundation,

Senior Theatre Connections
Information about field of senior theater, with news, bookstore and links to performing groups and other professionals. Run by Bonnie L. Vorenberg, author of the comprehensive directory Senior Theatre Connections.

Seniors Making Art
Contracts with professional artists to teach 8-week programs in museums, retirement communities, senior centers, libraries, hospitals, schools, nursing homes. Based in Puget Sound area, Washington. Founded by artist Dale Chihuly.

Society for Creative Aging
Colorado nonprofit dedicated to fostering an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and healthy aging. Programs in theater, music, dance, media and visual arts. Annual festival. Originated as a program of the division of aging services of Boulder County.

TimeSlips
Creative storytelling project for people with Alzheimer's Disease and dementia. Training, manual, bulletin board, newsletter.

Vancouver Park Board Arts and Culture
Sophisticated community cultural-development project operated by the Board of Parks and Recreation in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Programs: funding for Community Engaged Arts and Neighbourhood Projects; Artist In Residence Program; Neighbourhood Matching Fund; Public Art; Artist/Performers Guide; numerous special events; guide to arts courses in community centers, links to local community arts organizations. Initiatives: Arts, Health and Seniors Project; Stanley Park Environmental Art Project. Arts an Culture Coordinator: Artist Jil P. Weaving.

Wellness Partners in the Arts
Durham, N.C., artspace dedicated to improving quality of life through physical movement for aging adults, whether healthy or facing medical challenges.

Whitney Museum Programs for Seniors
Special lectures, art-making workshops, and private tours of the exhibitions through partnerships with senior centers and organizations in New York City.