PORT TOWNSEND – Dancing, sharing music, writing and reading to friends, making collages, painting, sculpting and singing together: They’re life-enhancers, whatever your age.
Yet art activities for seniors tend to get short shrift, said Susan Perlstein of the National Center for Creative Aging in Washington, D.C., during an unprecedented meeting of elders-and-arts advocates last week at Fort Worden State Park.
Perlstein, through her own experience and scientific research, has found that art-making – be it storytelling, singing, woodworking, quilting or assembling life history collages — is a powerful tonic for older people.
But with arts programming pushed to the bottom of local and state government budgets, developing activities for seniors is now, more than ever, a puzzle.
So Perlstein, who has led discussions of “creative aging” in many of the nation’s largest cities, came to Port Townsend on Friday to hear from elders’ advocates on the North Olympic Peninsula.
At this “special moment in history,” she said, we can learn from one another how to raise quality of life for our elders and ourselves.
Her audience at Fort Worden — artists, nonprofit program directors and elders’ advocates from across the North Olympic Peninsula — have a front-row seat for the demographic change washing over this country.
Baby boomers are retiring by the millions, and Clallam and Jefferson counties are among the most attractive destinations, said Barbie Rasmussen of the Olympic Area Agency on Aging.
Isolation a concern
And in this rural place, she said, the No. 1 concern among elders is social isolation.
Fortunately, art gatherings, be they singing groups, dance classes, story circles or wood-carving clubs, offer a solution.
Perlstein pulled out the research to support her assertions in studies conducted by Gene Cohen, her mentor and the director of the National Center for Creative Aging.
Elders who get together over creative pursuits enjoy many benefits, Cohen has found: They experience a new zest for living, a sense of belonging — and better health. Senior artists took less medication and had fewer doctor visits, according to his research.
Art activities, because they bring people together and allow them to master new skills, are not just fun. They’re essential, Perlstein believes, because they fight the depression that too often comes with social isolation.
“Not only can you teach an old dog new tricks,” she said, “but there are also benefits to doing so.”
Put in Cohen’s scientific terms, “community-based cultural programs for older adults” help keep people healthy and independent.
National movement
This “creative aging” is a national movement, Perlstein added, as people look at retirement not as a time of disengagement from society but as a chance to explore activities they’ve put off for years.
But governmental agencies and arts organizations tend to pour most of their resources into schools; the Juan de Fuca Festival, based in Port Angeles, is an example, said Jody Moss, director of United Way of Clallam County. This youth orientation can leave little for programs that serve the elderly.
“Why invest in people at the end of life when we have so many issues that are more pressing?” is an attitude Moss observes.
At the same time, nonprofits “do a fair amount of competing against each other,” added Carol McGough of the Jefferson County Community Foundation.
But the two women, along with their fellow senior advocates, agreed that senior and youth groups can get together and inspire one another — and Perlstein pointed out a few examples elsewhere in the country.
The StageBridge Theater of Oakland, Calif., sends elder storytellers into school classrooms, and across the bay in San Francisco, a cadre of women made baby shawls, gave them to teenage mothers and then taught the girls how to sew.
“They became grandmas,” Perlstein said, “to the young women with children.”
Elders and arts
On the North Olympic Peninsula, grass-roots groups have been bringing art activities to elders for some time.
The Northwind Arts Center and Songwriting Works, both of Port Townsend, coordinate programs in senior care centers, while a variety of teachers offer classes in hula dancing, poetry and memoir-writing at the Clallam County Family YMCA and the Sequim Senior Activity Center.
The Sequim senior center has also taken part in activities with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, and Songwriting Works, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, has led song-writing classes for older adults.
These organizations’ shared goal is to find funding and volunteers to make more “creative aging” programming happen.
During Friday’s presentation, Judith-Kate Friedman, director of Songwriting Works, suggested forming an Olympic Peninsula coalition of artists, teachers and elders.
Friedman invited the attendees of the Fort Worden meeting, and others interested in arts-with-elders programs, to another meeting in September. Details about the meeting will be provided later.
In the meantime, advocates can join a mailing list by writing to Friedman at director@songwritingworks.org.
More information and a free tool kit for artists and elders is available at www.CreativeAging.org.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
