| 05/09-Creative Outlet for Older Adults |
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Gone are the days of retirement at age 65, nestled in an easy chair, rocking slowing into the decline of the remaining few years and quietly waiting for the inevitable end of life. Today, most of us who will reach 65 can expect to live an additional 30 years. The expected ending of life has shifted to become the beginning of the third stage of life. How will we navigate the path of this third age? What will best serve us in maintaining a quality of life that will keep us mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically the healthiest and most vibrant? The compass of creativity. Why is creativity the best tool when entering the third stage of life? Creativity offers several benefits:
Traditionally, creativity has been dismissed as an endeavor not worthy of our effort, the idle play of childhood best left behind for more serious and substantial accomplishments of adulthood. But not here in Eden Prairie! Just this week, Home Instead Senior Care and Prairie Adult Care presented, “The Art of Life”. This free presentation described how Henning Jensen, a Danish American Artist and retired Professor of Fine Arts, weaves his artistic works into a fascinating life story. Participants had the opportunity to see his work and hear how his early impressionable years were spent as a boy trained in the Danish underground movement and how he became inspired to paint his beautiful views of life. Presentations that inspire creativity are an important part of Senior Awareness Month. The Twin Cities is a hub for creative arts for seniors. The Minnesota Creative Arts & Aging Network (MnCAAN www.mncaan.net) is dedicated to expanding opportunities for creative expression by older adults through the arts. In addition to inspiring, educating and helping older adults develop effective art programs, MCAAN organizes and promotes many events throughout the year. Make sure to attend Acting for Life: A Senior Theatre Conference and Workshop which will be held Oct. 9-10. Senior theatre is flourishing across the country, but here in Minnesota, it’s just starting to spread. Be a part of this new growth spurt! They also hold community forums in cities such as Brainerd and Crosby which help to generate ideas and excitement about developing artistic activities for community members who are 55+. The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts is holding its annual conference in Minneapolis on Nov. 12-14, and has invited MnCAAN to present a half-day Creative Aging Institute. MnCAAN’s Nov. 13 presentation will feature state-of-the-art training curriculum developed by the National Center for Creative Aging, and will be open to all community members interested in creativity and aging.
The www.mncaan.net website details many other opportunities for creativity. If you have a playwriting, acting, storytelling or other senior theatre activity going on, respond to their senior theatre survey. They may want to include you in their senior theatre directory and our website Artist Roster. Watch MnCAAN's inspiring, informative film, “Creative Power of Aging” airing on tptMN which shows arts programs and the positive effects on older adults in Minnesota who participate in performing, visual, and literary arts. MnCAAN is closely affiliated with the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), located in Washington, D.C. NCCA’s mission is to foster an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and the quality of life of older people. Its work focuses on education, research, policy, and advocacy on arts-and-aging themes. The National Center for Creative Aging has just released a comprehensive, 232-page toolkit to provide detailed guidance in how to set up and administer high-quality, professionally led arts programs for older adults. Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit is a first-of-its-kind resource for arts, healthcare and aging services organizations. Go to http://www.creativeaging.org for more information. Indeed, we need to reclaim creativity as the potential tool and pursuit available to all of us, and recognize its high value in making the third age of life the best age lived. In the luxury of the third age of life, we are afforded the very opportunities most amenable to living a creative life. In the third age of life, there is time to take time in reflection -- a needed for inspiration; the freedom of time in lack of structured time and obligatory routine; the time to daydream; and the time to discover in which ways we feel most comfortable and authentic in creative expression. Sources: The Washington DC Area Geriatric Education Center Consortium Learners' Explorer Creativity and Aging What we know about creativity and older adults – from the Center on Aging Studies Without Walls, University of Missouri-Kansas City; Creativity in the Later Years, Higher Grumbles by T George Harris. Eden Prairie Professionals in Aging is a non-profit organization based in Eden Prairie, a town of 50,000 in the southwestern Twin Cities. Our diverse member organizations are all committed to the welfare of seniors in our community. Our purpose is to provide networking opportunities for individuals who provide services to elderly persons in Eden Prairie by meeting bimonthly for information exchange and problem solving in our field. For more information on EPPIA and a list of resources regarding activities in Eden Prairie, please visit our website at www.edenprairieaging.org. Submitted by EPPIA Members:
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