The New York Times “Booming” blog retired in February 2014, but its articles can be accessed on the newspaper’s site.
Subject Term: Lifelong Learning
92-Year-Old Instructor Embodies UNLV’s Lifelong Learning Program
From the Las Vegas Sun Article:
Ruth Elliott, 92, teaches a parapsychology course to seniors at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNLV Paradise campus in Las Vegas. She is the oldest instructor at Osher, a learning program for retirees who want to continue their education.
Creative Aging 101: Older Adult Learners
In this video, Lifetime Arts trainer, Abigail Jefferson, introduces applicable to teaching older adults that inform best practices in creative aging program design. Additionally, she presents considerations and adaptations that may need to be implemented to accommodate the learning needs of older adults.
50+ Library Services: Innovation in Action
Some of the most engaged and frequent users of public libraries are over the age of 50. They may also be the most misunderstood. As Baby Boomers continue to swell their ranks, the behavior, interests, and information needs of this demographic have changed dramatically, and Schull’s new book offers the keys to reshaping library services for the new generations of active older adults. A must-read for library educators, library directors, and any information professional working in a community setting, this important book
- Analyzes key societal trends, such as longer lifespans and improved population health, and their implications for libraries’ work with this demographic
- Profiles Leading-Edge States and Beacon Libraries from across the nation at the forefront of institutional change
- Discusses issues such as creativity, health, financial literacy, life planning, and intergenerational activities from the 50+ perspective, while showing how libraries can position themselves as essential centers for learning, encore careers, and community engagement
- Spotlights best practices that can be adapted for any setting, including samples of hundreds of projects and proposals that illustrate new approaches to 50+ policies, staffing, programs, services, partnerships, and communications
The wisdom and insight contained in this book can help make the library a center for positive aging.
Creative Aging in NYC Report
From the report’s overview:
“The blossoming field of creative aging promotes opportunities for older adults to engage in the arts
through community-based programs. Evidence supports many benefits of creative aging—for older
adults who participate, the institutions that provide it, and the neighborhoods in which it occurs.
The New York Community Trust funded the New York City Creative Aging Initiative, a two-year collaboration among Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, Lifetime Arts, and LiveOn NY, to strengthen
and advance the field of creative aging in the city, with a focus on the SU-CASA arts program. SU-CASA
has grown from a seed in 2010 to be the largest public participatory arts program for older adults in
the United States. Funded by the New York City Council and administered by the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and the Department for the Aging (DFTA), SU-CASA provides grants to artists and cultural organizations to bring stimulating interactive arts programs to senior centers and other seniorserving organizations across the five boroughs. Participants work for weeks on songs, dances, stories, paintings, and more, then share their art with the community through a performance or exhibition.
Brookdale’s team conducted a two-year field analysis of SU-CASA and used the findings to help develop recommendations.”
This report was published on the Creative Aging in NYC website produced by Lifetime Arts.
The Wellness Movement That’s Proving It’s Never Too Late to Become an Artist
This article focuses on the benefits of arts programming for older adults and how national leaders in Creative Aging are expanding this movement.
Positive Aging Movement Takes Off
In this article, Toder shares his experience attending two events; a convening of philanthropic, art, and community leaders, co-sponsored by Aroha Philanthropies and the Hewlett Foundation, which focused on the benefits of creative aging programs for older adults; and a lecture presented by Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, a professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, who focused on the development of several new video-type games including one that is meditation focused and another related to music by using rhythm to enhance brain function.
Positive Aging: 10 Positive Solutions to an Age Old Problem
There are many examples of xxx “solutions” or “steps” to positive aging; this one, somewhere between academic and general, seems one of the better frameworks.
Creative Aging: Selfhood, Temporality and the Older Adult Learning
Paper describes a long-term ethnography of an adult creative writing class in a major urban art gallery in the UK. It examines the validity of prevailing theories of learning in later life that advocate reminiscence writing a valuable for older adults. The author argues that the value of creative writing for the individuals studied lies in the fact that it is relational (not individual) and a means of being in the present — thereby contradicting traditional concepts about older people as primarily retrospective and the importance of reminiscence in older adult learning.
News: Creative Aging in American Libraries: the Halftime Report
Friedman, co-founder of Lifetime Arts, provides a progress report on the qualitative research carried out by the Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry regarding the impacts on librarians and participants involved in the national expansion first phase of Lifetime Arts’ Creative Aging in Public Libraries Project. The evaluators examined programming taking place in Boston, Dallas and Miami library systems, especially focusing on the tools, training and technical assistance provided by Lifetime Arts. Where programming had been completed they also did post-program surveys of individual participants. One finding noted by the evaluators was “many librarians found that Creative Aging programming helped both staff and patrons to see a new identity for the library as a community center for lifelong learning.”