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It fills me with gratitude to tell you about an award and some transformative new partnerships.
First, the Shauna Sorrells Award.
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At their 25th anniversary gala, the Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) of Montgomery County, MD honored Arts for the Aging with the Shauna Sorrells Award for Outstanding Contributions to HOC Communities. The tribute comes alongside years of meaningful work together with HOC as we engage affordable housing communities in therapeutic arts participation.
And on two new partnerships:
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On the decade anniversary since the passing of our founder Lolo Sarnoff, whose fiber optic plexiglass sculpture, The Flame, resides in the Kennedy Center Opera House, Arts for the Aging too has been commissioned to create site-specific works there. We’re honored to accept the Kennedy Center invitation to join its Social Impact Culture Caucus. It's an incubation and residency program for artists and organizations to pursue innovations that will bring arts and culture to local communities. In 2025-2026 we’ll produce four activations taking place at the center's state-of-the-art REACH performing arts campus. Thanks to the keen eye and generosity of the Kennedy Center for selecting us and making this project possible. | |
Arts for the Aging, HOC, and Jewish Council for the Aging's Heyman Interages Center will Empower Intergenerational Arts Engagement to Improve Health Equity, thanks to a generous multi-year innovation grant award from Thome Aging Well with Enterprise Community Partners. Together we’ll train artists and youth recruited from HOC communities to become teaching artists. Over the two-year project, we’ll embed arts in health workshops and create workforce opportunities for artists, meeting people where they are in growing older. | |
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It means so much to us to do this work alongside you.
Sending every good wish,
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Janine Tursini
Director & CEO
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P.S. – You know it’s campaign season so I can’t resist reminding, if you haven’t already, to make a gift to Arts for the Aging before year end. Together we'll keep on with these partnerships and more! | |
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Photo captions, top to bottom: Buoyant spirits who propel us ever forward, at the HOC gala (l-r) HOC President, Chelsea Andrews, Yours Truly, program director Sarah House, our board chair Michelle Baker, and HOC Vice-Chair Theresa Finney-Dumais; (l-r) Josephine, a resident at HOC’s Waverly House, explores watercolor painting with teaching artist Marcie Wolf-Hubbard in The Shape of Things; together with Kennedy Center staff as we get planning rolling (clockwise from top-left) Tres McMichael, Janine Tursini, Kayla Conklin, Sarah House, and Malka Lasky.
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Our Mission
Since 1988 Arts for the Aging has practiced what studies now show --- the value of regular arts participation for improved physical, cognitive, and emotional health. We connect older adults and caregivers who need it most with arts experiences to increase social engagement and prevent loneliness, and we equip professional artists with curriculums, trainings, and skills to ignite self-expression and social connection vital to healthy aging and caregiving. We design and deliver in-person and virtual workshops in consort with grassroots to premiere community partners, and we offer multidisciplinary art forms: painting, dancing, singing, storytelling, poetry-making and more. We see first-hand how our programs inspire empathy and respect, foster communication and belonging, and promote social connection.
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Invest With Confidence
Member Class of 2024
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