Meet Our New Team

 

Arts for the Aging is thrilled to welcome our new team: Program Director Sarah House, Administrative Manager Peggi McGovern, Communications Intern Mira Dwyer, and Research Intern Shreya Bhatia.

With a background working in museums and the creative aging space, Sarah is helping Arts for the Aging reimagine and implement new and existing programs. Especially during this time of pandemic, we are lucky to have Sarah navigating new terrain with us—and at a distance.

Peggi brings meeting planning from the scientific nonprofit sector to her role keeping our operations working well. As a volunteer for Arts for the Agingpreviously, Peggi hit the ground running with her internal knowledge of the organization and personal passion for our mission.

Mira is a sophomore at Tufts University studying psychology and entrepreneurship. With an interest in marketing and communications, this summer Mira will enhance Arts for the Aging’s website, social media, and newsletters, announcing updates and sharing stories during these unpredictable times.

Shreya is a recent graduate from Duke University with a degree in Neuroscience, the skills of a performing artist, and great interest in the intersection of arts and medicine.Shreya will help evaluate the effectiveness and health benefits of our celebrated creative aging programs over the coming year before plans for medical school.

Click here to learn more about our experienced and passionate team.

We also acknowledge our spring partnership in programming with Jeanine Cogan of Capacity Partners. Parlaying remote working and program redesign during a time when a new team is onboarding is no small feat.

We celebrate our richly talented faculty of teaching artists, board members, volunteers, staff, and community partners who make possible these heartwarming discoveries and transitions to new frontiers.


Black Lives Matter

Raise Your Voice Against Ageism, mixed media, 2019, by seniors at JCA Kensington Club at Parklawn

 

The brutal killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Amadou Diallo, Emmett Till, George Stinney, countless black lives in our communities, are rocking the country to its core. Laid bare by not one but two pandemics -- racism and covid-19 -- systemic disparities continue to deny the freedom, safety, and lives of black communities and communities of color.

In this country and the world over there is a reckoning. One that demands action.

Arts for the Aging is standing with black lives and those who seek justice against racial violence and police brutality.

Saying it isn't enough. We will take action.

Our multi-cultural programs and therapeutic community impact are core to our mission. We are committed to transforming the makeup of our board and leadership so that we better represent our communities and nation. With that horizon, we eagerly dive into change.

In our next steps:

  • We are starting a race-equity learning series for our entire organization;
  • We will intentionally partner with more black-owned businesses and like-minded organizations to carry out our mission;
  • We will share our stories of where we have failed, and how we are righting it using our e-news and social media platforms to hold ourselves accountable.

Self-expression is central to Arts for the Aging's mission. So is our multi-disciplinary arts curricula and multi-cultural programming. We stand as a beacon for healing through the arts, focusing our reach on vulnerable and underserved citizens and communities.

We believe that black lives matter and that our very own humanity depends on it.


New Socially-Distanced Programs to Encourage Creative Aging in Quarantine

During 2020, our Year in Music, Arts for the Aging has been undergoing a transformation along with the region and the world. Our response to the need for programmatic and organizational change continues to evolve, as we uplift health and wellness in aging through regular participation in the multidisciplinary arts — despite physical and social distancing. We have been implementing various distanced programs to keep creative aging alive. Below we outline the programs we have tested out.

 

coOPERAtion

ROMEZ3arts debuted Arts for the Aging’s first pandemic-resilient program in an interactive opera workshop using Zoom. Singing actor Peter Joshua Burroughs and maestro Carlos Cesar Rodriguez on piano engaged caregivers and older adults with memory loss. They chose famous arias from opera librettos to which most can hum or sing along and masterfully sparked singing, call and response, role-playing, and tactile cognitive stimulation.

“[ROMEZ3arts was] always a favorite of my late husband, and though he passed 2 ½ weeks ago, it really was like being with him enjoying the performance (one of the activities he continued to enjoy the longest in his dementia journey).” –Elaine E.

 

Rhythms of Life

Teaching artists, percussionist Manny Arciniega and bassist Chris Brown, perform ‘Stay Cool,’ by trumpeter Victor Olaiya in a video to be premiered in Rockville-based JCA-Kensington Club’s online variety show. In the video the artists demo loops of bass, percussion, and body rhythms to encourage breathing, movement, and imagination.

 

heART Kits

Teaching artist Marci Wolf-Hubbardis assembling heART Kits for delivery with meals to isolated seniors affiliated with Vita Shady Grove Nursing and Rehabilitation in Maryland. The kits include art supplies to encourage creativity in seniors despite distancing.


Washington Post Feature

Arts for the Aging’s work to bridge the gap with isolated seniors is featured in this Washington Post article. Despite the limits of social distancing, we’re working to find innovative ways to deliver arts engagement to older adults and their caregivers. Arts for the Aging will be incorporating virtual technologies and volunteers in these efforts. Stay tuned to learn how you can support us.