The Arts Council is developing a pioneering new programme, in partnership with The Atlantic Philanthropies, to greatly extend opportunities for older people to engage with the arts.
The three-year programme of large and smaller-scale arts projects, which will be launched in June 2010, will provide older people with new opportunities to explore creatively the issues that they have identified as most important to them, particularly in the areas of health and social justice. Key themes of the artist-led programme will include, isolation and loneliness, social inclusion, poverty, dementia, and working to strengthen the voice of older people in society.
A steering group of age sector organisations such as Age NI, Engage with Age, Age Sector Platform, the Changing Ageing Partnership as well as the WEA and the Rural Community Network, will ensure that the arts projects accurately reflect the concerns of the participating groups of older people.
The Arts for Older People Programme aims to engage with older people through the full range of arts, craft, theatre, dance, carnival, poetry, reminiscence, short stories, and so on, to develop new skills, challenge the stereotypes of older people and discover new forms of expression.