Countering Isolation With Creativity

Older adult participants, teaching artists, and museum staff pose together during a 2019 creative aging visual arts class at The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo courtesy of The Neon Museum)

Richard Hood, a retired literature professor living in Greene County, Tennessee, sums up a fear many people have about growing older: “I turned out to be a fairly typical example of the suddenly solitary old geezer. After a long and happy career, I suddenly found myself out of work (retired), out of family (my daughter moved to Texas, and I lost my wife), out of community contacts (I moved to Tennessee from Ohio to help out my 100-year-old father), and basically out of life.”

Stories like this are not uncommon among older Americans. Many people experience a growing lack of purpose and increased social isolation as they age, and while we all felt the effects of social isolation on our happiness, productivity, and mental and physical health in 2020, its effects on older adults existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic. The health consequences of these experiences are costly, both to individuals and society. Research associates a lack of purpose with earlier mortality, and social isolation with a 29 percent increase in the risk of coronary heart disease and a 32 percent rise in the risk of stroke. And according to a 2017 study by AARP and Stanford University, the financial burden of social isolation for older adults with Medicare is estimated at $6.7 billion annually.  

Yet, contrary to popular opinion, aging is not a one-way street to isolation, dementia, and decline. In fact, the vast majority of older adults remain cognitively fit and eager to live fully, embrace new ideas and skills, and enjoy meaningful connections with one another. As a recent article series on multigenerational solutions highlights, older adults are rich in assets that society doesn’t routinely recognize.

As the number of older Americans continues to grow dramatically, we must explore more asset-based—not just deficit-based—approaches to aging and recognize the vast potential of older adults to engage with and positively contribute to society. One promising solution is creative aging: arts programming specially designed to help older adults access and benefit from quality lifelong learning, in a way that fosters connection and imagination.

What Creative Aging Looks Like

Across the United States (as well as in the United Kingdom), arts organizations, museums, public libraries, and other institutions serving older adults have begun offering creative aging programs that give older adults the opportunity to dive into an art form with others who share their interests. These programs are based on models described by American psychiatrist Dr. Gene Cohen in his 2006 landmark report demonstrating the benefits of creative aging.

Good creative aging programs aren’t “paint-alongs” or “sing-alongs.” They are multi-session workshops that provide enough depth to allow participants to build their competence and confidence. Most importantly, they intentionally integrate social engagement with skill-based arts learning. The design of the programs facilitates connection and friendship as participants learn an art form together. Frequently, participants in these programs report staying connected long after the workshop series has ended.

Most successful creative aging programs have the following elements in common:

1. They are designed to meet the expressed needs and interests of older adults, with a focus on learning new skills and building social connections. Informed by surveys of constituent interests, for example, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, has offered programs on Navajo rug weaving, drawing both Native and non-Native older adults who have rich stories to share with one another.
2. They are led by teaching artists. Teaching artists are professional, working artists skilled in arts education, curriculum design, and the facilitation of creativity, growth, and relationships in a group process. They create space for participants to safely offer feedback and discuss their work. This two-way process is an important part of community-building among participants, as well as among the institutions offering programs.
3. They are experiential (hands-on) and sequential, meaning students create art, not just learn about it, and each class builds on previously learned skills. One example is the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ popular creative aging workshops on graffiti. Participants learned the art’s history, styles, and forms, and mastered the technical challenges of the medium before creating graffiti works of their own.  
4. Social interaction and engagement are built into every session. Introductory sessions encourage participants to both share experiences and memories, and discuss their work and offer feedback. Even through the pandemic lockdowns,  the San Francisco Community Music Center’s Older Adult Choir Program gave participants an opportunity to sing together virtually and share their experiences via Zoom. Participants were able to maintain a sense community, even from their homes.  
5. They culminate in a celebration of the participants’ creations, providing a sense of completion and validation of work after many weeks of classes. Friends, family, and the community are invited. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, participants in a creative writing program at Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis shared works they created via Zoom.

According to Maura O’Malley, founder and CEO of Lifetime Arts, which provides extensive training and consulting in creative aging, participants bring a seriousness of intention, a desire to learn, and an interest in being challenged, and good program design builds on this foundation. And Dan Hagerty of the Heard Museum, which has offered creative aging programs in weaving and painting, notes, “Our community of older adults really, really thrives when we challenge them, when we ask them to step out of their comfort zone a little bit. This is what keeps us alive. This is what keeps our minds sharp, this is what keeps our bodies going ... to learn something new, to engage with one another.”

The Rewards of Creative Aging

In sum, creative aging programs empower older adults to develop a greater sense of purpose, deepen their connections to community, and rediscover passions for learning and creating. Participants have expressed this in a number of ways. Hood, mentioned at the start of this article, said that by joining a creative aging program in bird sculpting at the Johnson City Public Library, he found “community, respect, rigor, and real interaction on sophisticated levels with imaginative, involved people who expect us to be the same.”

In a video about creative aging, Karen Seay, who took part in visual memoir programs at Pillsbury House Theatre, noted, “All of a sudden I was with a group of people who were eager to hear from me. I was eager to hear from them. It has amazingly opened up my world. I have more friends now than I’ve ever had since probably elementary school or high school.”

And in interview with Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry—which evaluated hundreds of creative aging programs that my organization, Aroha Philanthropies, seeded across the United States—another workshop participant said:

We have spent our lives working and raising a family, which gave us purpose. Then as we get older and the family grows up and moves away, and we retire from our jobs, we lose that sense of purpose ... Then to have someone come along, reach out and say, ‘You are still viable—let me teach you something new.’ It puts a whole new slant on the world!

Touchstone Center’s evaluation concluded that the programs were “highly effective at helping older adults grow artistically, mentally, and socially.” Significantly, 75 percent of participants reported increased mental engagement, 68 percent said they formed new or stronger relationships, and 55 percent said the experience encouraged them to participate in other community activities.

These results reinforce the potential of creative aging programs to reduce social isolation in older adults and restore a sense of purpose and joy to their lives. As mentioned earlier, even during the pandemic, many organizations made major contributions to the lives of older adults by developing virtual, online programs that helped alleviate isolation. Defying stereotypes, older adults learned to use Zoom and other platforms, and the creative aging programs drew participants from across and even outside the United States. As a result, many more older adults, including those with mobility limitations and those who could not travel to in-person classes, were able to reap the benefits of the programming.

Finally, the National Institute on Aging highlights the positive health consequences, noting that participating in programs such as choral music, theater training, and visual arts may improve the health, well-being, and independence of older adults. Creative aging programs tap into something that is difficult to quantify but is present in nearly every class: the connective and healing power of creativity in our lives.

Seizing a National Opportunity

With its myriad benefits, creative aging is more than a class offering. It has become a movement by and for older adults who are looking for creativity and connection. Recognizing the power of these programs, two major new national initiatives are expanding creative aging throughout the United States.

Earlier this year, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies awarded nearly $1.5 million in grants to 36 state and jurisdictional arts agencies to develop or grow their creative aging programs, stating:

Abundant evidence shows that arts participation improves the emotional well-being of older adults, supports good health, strengthens social bonds, and brings a heightened experience of purpose and joy to our lives as we mature. However, older adults all too often experience the effects of ageism, isolation, and limited access to meaningful arts learning experiences. State arts agencies can help to address these gaps by facilitating creative aging programming as an antidote to isolation, an affirmation of life, and a pathway to flourishing for older adults.

And in June 2021, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) published a major report calling on museums of all kinds to embrace creative aging “as a strategic and ethical imperative.” AAM will host a national Summit on Museums and Creative Aging to share the report findings, highlight successful initiatives by museums across the country, and engage more museums in developing their own successful creative aging programs. This presents an opportunity for art institutions to expand the audiences they reach and build supporters across communities.

With this national expansion of creative aging, older adults across the United States will have more chances to access transformational experiences that bring joy and purpose to their lives. Keeping the momentum behind creative aging will require that local museums, arts organizations, community centers, planned communities, libraries, and other venues continue to explore and offer new outlets for learning and growing; that teaching artists, program directors, and the artists themselves remain tenacious during this particularly challenging time for arts organizations; and that business leaders, lawmakers, and philanthropists step in to collaborate and provide robust support. Everyone ages, and these efforts will help enable a positive, connected, and joyful future for us all.

Read more stories by Teresa Bonner.