In September 2019, Aroha Philanthropies and Lifetime Arts presented, “Collaborations in Creative Aging,” at National Assembly of State Arts Agencies’ 2019 Leadership Institute, hosted by Rhode Island State Council on the Arts in Providence, RI. The speakers included; Teresa Bonner, Executive Director, Aroha Philanthropies; Maura O’Malley, CEO, Lifetime Arts; and Diana Champa, Director of Literacy Engagement, School One. In 2016, Aroha Philanthropies developed a major multi-year initiative, Seeding Vitality Arts (SVA), to seed creative aging programs nationally. Using a learning cohort model, Aroha and its partner Lifetime Arts equipped 50 grantees from Alaska to Puerto Rico with the tools needed to develop and share these programs.
Keyword: Aroha Philanthropies
Creative Aging Experts Address Ageism at Grantmakers in the Arts Conference
In October 2019, the National Guild for Community Arts Education presented the professional development workshop, “Age Equity: The Impact of Ageism on Arts Funding and Programs,” at the 2019 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference: Cultural Intersections in Denver, CO. This workshop featured moderator, Adam Johnson, Chief Operating Officer at National Guild for Community Arts Education, Annie Montgomery, Director of Education at Lifetime Arts, Eliza Kiser, Director at Pullen Arts Center, and Teresa Bonner, Executive Director at Aroha Philanthropies. This highly interactive workshop addressed, “the last socially acceptable prejudice,” ageism and how it is preventing full access to arts learning and engagement for upwards of twenty percent of the U.S. population.
50 More Minnesota Artists Trained in Creative Aging Program Model
In July 2019, Aroha Philanthropies and the Minnesota State Arts Board offered the third in a series of Creative Aging trainings for teaching artists working in all arts disciplines. The event, held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, was designed to equip teaching artists with the skills to design and teach successful, skill-based, socially-engaging arts education workshops for older adults. Aroha and Lifetime Arts recruited a diverse team of teaching artists for this, the largest teacher training that the two organizations have partnered to design and deliver.