Lifetime Arts, Inc.

“The arts are good for you!” More specifically, they’re good for brain health. But what does that really mean and what does the research say?

As we live longer and aging policy continues to evolve, brain health—the ability to maintain cognitive function and overall well-being—is becoming a major priority in healthy aging conversations. And increasingly, research points to creative aging as part of the solution.

Arts learning and creative expression engage multiple sensory pathways in the brain while supporting healthy behaviors like physical activity, intellectual engagement, and social connection—all key components of healthy aging.

Want to learn more about how creative aging is shaping the healthy aging agenda?

- Explore our national policy brief: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05YFW80
- Stay tuned for our upcoming guidebook, "Expanding the Circle: Practical Strategies to Build Support for Creative Aging" releasing this month—a companion resource filled with practical tools for communicating the value of creative aging in healthy aging policy and practice.

Before we can advocate for creative aging in policy and funding spaces, we first have to understand what we mean by “the arts.”

Our national policy brief explores how visual, performing, literary, digital, and cultural arts all support healthy aging through creativity, connection, and purpose. And creative aging (the practice of intentional artistic and creative engagement) is showing up everywhere: libraries, museums, senior centers, universities, and even healthcare systems through “arts on prescription” partnerships.

For funders and decision-makers, this work is valuable. The more clearly we can link the arts to health and wellness outcomes, the stronger the case becomes for investing in older adults and their communities.

Stay tuned for more highlights from our brief, “Creative Aging in the Healthy Aging Ecosystem,” and explore it on your own at https://na2.hubs.ly/H05HntD0.

Are you a New Yorker passionate about serving older adults through the arts? Your work is already helping reshape how aging is experienced across the state. Join Lifetime Arts' New York State Creative Aging Leaders Network, a free and growing leadership network of artists and aging-service professionals committed to creative aging. Strengthen your work, build meaningful connections, and grow your skills alongside peers who share your vision!

Don't miss our next virtual convening on May 20th from 4-5pm EST, where we, Arts NYS Coalition, and the New York State Council on the Arts discuss how we can strengthen creative aging support and better align our messaging with emerging statewide priorities.

Join the free network at https://na2.hubs.ly/H05vhHp0 and register for our next convening at https://na2.hubs.ly/H05vnwD0.

NY State Creative Aging Leaders Network: Policy Convening Join the New York Creative Aging Leaders Network for an interactive conversation to shape our future together.

Championing our health starts with creativity! This Older Americans Month, we’re putting creative aging where it belongs: at the heart of how we think about growing older.

Over the past year, alongside our partners and supporters, we’ve advanced policy and advocacy, launched arts and health pilots, and built strong statewide coalitions. Our latest newsletter highlights how we’re building this momentum and expanding creative aging's role in health and wellbeing.

Join our free mailing list for creative aging news, events, and resources: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05m-130. And if you’re able, please consider donating to help us build an even brighter future for aging: https://na2.hubs.ly/H05mZ3t0

Together, we’re making creativity what it should be: essential to health and a human right for all. Happy Older Americans Month! ❤️

Our partnership with and is bringing arts “prescriptions” into senior living in North Carolina — and it’s already in motion, literally! 🎉

We kicked things off this week with an on-site orientation alongside residents, and it was a blast!

Learn more about this “first of its kind” initiative and the ripple effect we hope it has on health and housing communities nationwide via the article screenshotted above at McKnightSeniorLiving.com.

Much more to come, and dance about!