Creative Aging Foundations for Connecticut Teaching Artists 2024

Tuesday’s October 8, 15, and 22nd, 2024

10am-12pm EST 

Welcome Teaching Artists! We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with you as part of  the Connecticut Office of the Arts Creative Aging Initiative made possible through the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies’ States Leading Creative Aging Initiative.

We are looking forward to meeting you. We have a lot to cover over the three sessions, so please plan to join each day on time and take notes.

What you need to know:

• Please use the Zoom link below to join all three days of training
• We have specified some light, yet key pre-work for each session
• All presentation decks will be made available for your convenience

JOIN TRAINING VIA ZOOM

Use the DAY 1, 2, 3 buttons below to navigate to each day’s session materials:

Training Description | Trainer Bios
Post-training Resources 

---

Day 1

 

Ageism Workshop, Creative Aging Program Models, and Older Adult Learners

Tuesday, October 8 from 10am-12pm EST

Please review the following resources prior to Day 1:

• Training Guidelines & Community Agreements (PDF)
• Zoom Participation Guide (PDF)

“Creative Aging: Enriching the Lives of Older Adults Through Arts Ed” [3:12]

“Let’s End Ageism,” TED Talk by Ashton Applewhite [11:38]

“Creative Aging: Isolation to Connection,” E.A. Michelson Philanthropy [2:49]

---

Day 2

Demonstration Classes and Program Design Best Practices and Adaptations

Tuesday, October 15 from 10am-12pm EST

In our next session we will all be participating in a demonstration artmaking class. Please make sure to check your email to find out which class you are assigned to, and come prepared with the appropriate materials. 

Please also review the following resources prior to Day 2:

• SAFE Planning Design Elements for Creative Aging Programs Guide (PDF)
• Cornerstone University: Guide to Andragogy & Lifelong Learning
• Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Protocol
• (For anyone interested in intergenerational programs) Best Practices in Intergenerational Arts Education Program Design (PDF) 

Let us know if you have any questions about these resources so that we can make time to address them in our presentation next week, or during the Q&A towards the end of the session.

Email: portal@lifetimearts.org 

---

Day 3

Older Adult Community Partnerships and Teaching Artist Preparation

Tuesday, October 22 from 10am-12pm EST

Please review the following prior to Day 3:

As you begin to think about what kind of creative aging program you will teach, use the following questions as a starting point to envision your program. 

You can respond to these questions in a personal notebook. Or you can use the links below to download these prompts as a worksheet in PDF or Word Document formats.

• Envisioning Your Creative Aging Program Worksheet for Teaching Artists (PDF) | (DOCX)

We have also included for your review, a creative aging curriculum outline. No need to fill this out, just take a look at it if you have some time. You may already have an outline that works for you, this is just to reference and/or to adapt as needed. For anyone completely new to curriculum development, this outline is a wonderful starting point.

• In-Person Creative Aging Program Curriculum Outline Download: (DOCX)

---

Training Description:

This 6-hour training will take teaching artists through the Lifetime Arts Creative Aging Foundations course. We will cover:

• Current research on arts and aging
• Inherent biases about aging
• Best practices in the field
• What’s different about adult learning
• How to apply K-12 arts ed expertise to 55+
• How to develop responsive programming that is inclusive, diverse, and equitable
• The planning, implementation, and sustainability of successful programming
• Developing impactful cross-sector and community partnerships
• How to deliver programming

In addition to covering the topics included in the core Creative Aging Foundations training, this course for teaching artists also will feature the examination and demonstration of approaches for teaching adult learners and to the development of skill-based, sequential lessons for older adults. Additional curricular topics include:

• Exemplary programming from across this growing field across artistic disciplines
• Embedding intentional social engagement activities 
• Impact of ageism on creative aging program design and delivery
• Best practices in delivering programming
• Creative aging curriculum development
• Partnering with older adult communities

This training includes the following demonstration classes:

1. Drawing
2. Storytelling/Theatre