Creativity and Ageing In Ireland and the USA

Replicating Best Practice

Alice Thwaite

The Matter of Origins Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Maryland University 12/9/10

Itinerary: Republic of Ireland Bealtaine Festival 24th May Arrive in Dublin. 25th May Meeting with Dominic Campbell Artistic Director,

Bealtaine Festival and Ann Leahy Assistant Director, Age & Opportunity. Met up with Tom Makin-Bell, another Churchill Fellow.

26th May Blow the Dust off Your Trumpet, National Concert Hall 27th May Orwell House Residential Care home – Artist Johanna

Waters, meeting and session 28th May INK – Exhibition of photographs of older people and their

tattoos, Original Print Gallery. ‘The North Strand Bombing’, Dublin City Public Lib.

29th May Arts in Health Exchange day - Kildare

Project Brand New “Generation”, Project Arts Centre, Dublin

30th May Dawn Chorus, singing on the beach

Re-Live at the Mill Theatre 31st May The Hugh Lane Gallery, Ellsworth Kelly drawings

Bealtaine Festival, 2010

Bealtaine has been running for 15 years and is Ireland's unique Festival celebrating creativity in older age. It is coordinated by Age & Opportunity, a national not-for-profit organisation, working to promote greater participation by older people in society through collaborative programmes. The Festival includes events organised by hundreds of partner organisations, from national institutions to local parish halls. I had heard about the Festival over the past few years and was keen to visit and learn more. The theme for 2010 was “Have dreams and speak them without fear” taken from a poem by the US poet Antony S. Abbott. I started the week by meeting with the Artistic Director Dominic Campbell and the Assistant Director of Age & Opportunity Anne Leahy. I had also been interested in their training with care staff programme Creative Exchanges which ran from 2001 – 2008. Age & Opportunity were looking for funding to continue this programme. The strength of Bealtaine is that it has a network of partner organisations who take the lead in organising very local events and activities all over Ireland, which is partly possible because of the involvement of local Active Retirement Associations – which are unique to Ireland. But it has also had the involvement of some of Ireland’s largest cultural organisations – from the Irish Film Institute, the National Library and National Concert Hall. One of the first events I attended was Blow the dust off your trumpet which was a concert at the National Concert Hall involving over 40 older adults who had played instruments when they were younger, but hadn’t picked them up for a long time. The audience was over 1000 strong, and the orchestra played an eclectic mix of popular classics. As one of the participants said later “it’s obvious we are not the Berlin Philamonic, but we have fun”… The group had played at the opening of the Festival at the train station, welcoming travellers to Dublin. I think this would have been a wonderful event, bringing music to unexpected places, and the “quality” of the performance would have been less important. It did make me reflect on the old question of which is the most important aspect of participatory arts – process or product? I think the two are equally important and the onus is on the artists involved to develop projects to reflect this. What is interesting is that the orchestra now meet regularly and are supported by the National Concert Hall.

Orwell House Residential Care Home, Dublin I had planned a visit to this care home as they have an ongoing arts programme, which is still fairly unusual, as well as bringing in extra artists to work on a special event for the Festival (which had happened the week before). I met with Johanna Waters, an artist with a background in drama therapy, and told her about my Fellowship and the work of Equal Arts. I then got involved in the afternoon session, which was attended by about fifteen residents. Johanna had brought in a cordless microphone, cd player and lyrics and the session had the theme of travel/trips. It was incredibly moving to witness the transformation of those involved from isolated, frail older people into wonderful storytellers and singer, joining in, commenting on each others stories. I was impressed by Johanna's skill of keeping the group focussed, and responding to each person individually. Midway through the session the group listened to some classical music and were then asked to comment on how it made them feel. One man had a great knowledge about the piece and shared it with the others. After the session I talked to Johanna about the fact that no care staff had attended the session. This is often an issue with Equal Arts projects. Johanna explained that she would like their support, but doesn't agree with the idea of training care staff to do the sessions, as it is skilled work and artists would not be employed by the home if care staff were expected to deliver sessions. This was to be a theme that was raised through out the Fellowship.

Arts in Health Exchange Day: Meet, Share, Experience Kildare This exchange day was not part of Bealtaine, but attending the day gave me a change to see examples of good practice, and see how useful a “sharing” day was for participants. The aim of the day was also to "stimulate awareness of the role of the arts in health settings." The day was attended by about 100 people, from both the arts and care sectors. It wasn't focussed on older people but it included some interesting examples of work with older people, including a music/percussion group who visit day centres in the county and ran a workshop where we were all involved. Their approach was very similar to experienced musicians that we work with and showed how some quality approaches to the work can be universal. Project Brand New - Generation Project Arts Centre, Dublin

This project brought artists from different generations and different artforms together for a week, to create dramatic ten-minute pieces. The theme was

Historical Futures, Future Histories and the Present Day. It was beautifully staged and refreshing to have new work, created so intensely, as part of the Festival.

Dawn Chorus Dollymount Beach

I had been looking forward to this event as the idea of singing, at dawn, on an Irish beach with lots of older people seemed like a fantastic idea, one I wish I'd thought of. Luckily dawn was moved to 6am and Johannah offered to drive me out to the beach. We listened to two older people’s groups and sang with them, accompanied by the birds, and it was a beautiful morning. I am keen to replicate this on Northumberland beaches, and hope to have this project up and running by next year.

Re-Live Mill Theatre This was the final event of the Festival and was an amazing evening. Re-Live are a Welsh theatre company, based in Cardiff, set up in 2006 to create theatre with older people. Karin Diamond, one of the two founding Directors, is also a 2010 Churchill Fellow. The show was a mixture of stories, video, photography and music the piece tells the stories of significant times in the lives of seven “ordinary” people, told by the people themselves. It played to a packed audience and was a fantastic piece of storytelling.

United States of America 23/8/10 Fly to San Francisco 24/8/10 Dr Bruce Miller Memory & Aging Center, UCSF 25/810 & 26/8/10 Visit 1426 Filmore Street day centre & 1444 McAllister Street day centre Institute of Aging 1/9/10 Stagebridge Theatre, Oakland 2/9/10 IOA training on Dementia, Delirium and Depression 3/9/10 fly to New York 7/9/10 Folk Art Museum, meeting 8/9/10 Meet me at MoMa project meeting Laurel Humble Museum of Modern Art 9/9/10 Elders Share the Arts, Brooklyn 10/9/10 Hearthstone Home, 74/West End Ave, Upper West Side Meeting and session 12/9/10 train to Washington 12/9/10 The Matter of Origins – performance Liz Lerman Dance Exchange 14/9/10 Gay Hannah, National Center for Creative Aging 15/9/10 Arts for the Aging, meeting & session 16/9/10 Encore Chorale, Smithsonian 17/9/10 Liz Lerman Dance Exchange 20/9/10 Quicksilver dance rehearsal 21/9/10 fly home

San Francisco highlights Visit to Memory & Aging Center, UCSF And meeting with Dr. Bruce Miller, Director Dr Miller is particularly interested in frontotemporal dementia, and has seen patients who have never created art before becoming ill and are now making fascinating art and music. From the study of individuals with autism and dementia degeneration of certain areas of the brain is thought to release previously dormant cognitive abilities in other areas of the brain with amazing results. Dr Miller has instigated the Hellman Visiting Artist program, and the first artist in residence is Deborah Aschheim, who is known for her works using light and video to create impressions of the neurological structures that make us who we are.

The project has been created to foster dialogue between scientists, caregivers, patients, clinicians and the public about neurodegenerative disorders, aging and the brain. The artist will speak to patients and care givers about their experiences, which will inform the work.

Stagebridge, the USA’s longest running Senior Theatre Company Founded 25 years ago by Stuart Kandell, Stagebridge runs theatre workshops to about 80 Bay area seniors, weekly. Stuart has recently stepped down and they are in the process of change, bringing in new artists from the Bay area theatre world, beginning work on intergenerational theatre. They also run a summer camp with a theme and have a performance at the end. The new Director is keen to bring in quality artists to ensure that the delivery is of the highest quality. They also run Storybridge, a schools programme involving Elders in the classroom in a storytelling project, supported by the US Dept of Education. Elders work with 9/10 year olds and the aim is for the children to develop their English language skills, interviewing, presenting and performing. The programme also involves professional storytellers. Each project is linked to a local Senior centre, so that they can continue to work together post project. Institute of Aging, San Francisco

Visits to two day centers. The IOA run day services all over San Francisco and creative work is seen as part of the service. The centers I visited had a varied arts programme and “art carts”. They also link with the Center for Youth and Elders arts and have visiting artists. I also went to a training session they ran for nurses, social workers and care givers on dementia, delirium and depression. There was no mention of the arts as possible intervention in the session and it seemed like a missed opportunity.

New York highlights Museum of Modern Art, Meet me @ MoMa The Meet me @ MoMa project involves people with dementia and their carergivers in a monthly session in the gallery. The group focuses on four works over the session. The project is publicised through education/access information and through the Alzheimer’s Association. The participants are in the early/middle stages of the disease. They work with 15 freelance educators, who are all art historians and who are trained by Mouth Sinai school of education about dementia. They decide their own programme. MoMa is a privately run gallery and gets no funding from the NEA. Funding to publicise the project came from MetLife and has had an impact on galleries across the world, with groups now running at the Louvre, the Royal Academy. It also influenced the programme at the Folk Art Museum which I also visited. The evaluation and resources have had an impact on my work already, and I am talking to Tyne & Wear museums about how we might run a similar programme in the North East. Heathstone Homes, Upper East Side Manhatten This home is part of the Hearthstone group of six private homes set up by John Zeisel. Non-pharmalogical interventions are integral to the care of the residents. There is a 1 to 4 staff ratio and all new staff are in-house trained, the Montessori approach. The home involves lots of volunteer artists. John Zeisel has helped set up Artists for Alzheimers (ARTZ) which relies on artists volunteering. Entertainment and activities take up 50% of the care givers time, the rest is personal care. I took part in a still life art class, with apples. 6 women sat round the table, with good quality paints and paper. There was some discussion about the painting and then slowly everyone got down to it. A couple needed support, mainly because they weren’t confident about what they were painting. One woman had difficulty in seeing the apple. There were some really lovely paintings created and there was a real sense of achievement at the end of the session (after about an hour). The women signed their work and got to get the apples with honey, as it was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. Washington DC highlights I arrived in DC and went straight to Maryland University to a performance of The Matter of Origins, the new offering from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. I have been aware of Liz Lerman’s work for many years. She has been working with older dancers for 35 years, and the Dance Exchange is a cross generational company. The piece was an amazing mix of dance, video, cake and conversation. The stories explored everything from Marie Curie’s discoveries to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and it was refreshing to watch a piece that

was so challenging and thought provoking and where older performers were integral to the work. I met with John Borstel, the Humanities Director and some of the company and heard about the way they work. They see themselves as more akin to other community based Companies that many Dance Companies. NEA are not significant funders, and they get state/county funding. The Matter of Origins was funded by a significant grant from the National Science Foundation, which is not known for funding arts projects. They have worked with a large variety of partners from Harvard Law School to environmentalists. They also run arts and healthcare training for artists and health care professionals. It involves planning a workshop, leading part of it, then getting feedback from the critical response method. Then if people want more support, going back into the location. National Center for Creative Aging Meeting with Gay Hanna and colleagues The NCCA are currently part of the consortia setting up a Geriatric Education Center in DC, which will be federally funded and which will have creativity/arts/culture embedded into its curriculum. This is a very exciting prospect and something which we should look at developing in the UK. Essential Geriatrics a UK handbook popular with doctors specialising in the care of older people, has no mention of creativity and the possible use of the arts as a non-pharmalogical intervention in the care of older people. Also of interest is the fact that Susan Pearlstein is writing a Core Artist training guide as there is no formalised country wide accreditation for teaching artists in the US. The NCCA is planning an International conference on Creativity & Aging in 2013. Arts for the Aging This not-for-profit organisation works in the Washington DC area. They pay their artists and give travel expenses. They work with 17 artists, who run monthly sessions for an hour in each venue. They are in the middle of developing a Strategic plan for the future and are thinking about reducing the number of artists they work with and encouraging a more project approach. The programme includes music, visual arts and dance. They run 900 workshops a year, in 50 centres. Some of the centres have had these artists for many years. They also expect and need care staff to be fully involved. They are going to look at establishing new partnerships with assisted living organisations, who may pay for the services to help subsidise the other work. About 70% of those they work with have dementia. This organisation is probably the most similar to Equal Arts, apart from the fact that we do work project to project across a larger area, so do few, larger projects. I met Anthony Hyatt a musician/dancer who has been working with AfA for many years. I visited one of his music sessions and then was invited to visit the dance group Quicksilver, the following week. This group is made up of 9 women

whose ages range from their 70s – 90s. They have been meeting for about 6 years. It was originally set up with two dancers who had been with Liz Lerman’s Dancers of the Third Age. They work with Anthony and dancer Nancy Havlik. They meet weekly to rehearse and then run sessions in residential care homes. After a warm up we were given the theme of Home and create improvised pieces in groups of three. It was beautiful to dance and to watch. They were a very interesting and inspiring group of women and it was a fantastic way to end my Fellowship. I plan to recreate this amazing project with North East dancers. Alice Thwaite