Thanks to a generous grant from Aroha Philanthropies, Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts (MCA) will offer 3 unique 8-week workshops for older adults ages 55+ in collaboration with the Winona Friendship Center. The workshops will be focused on painting, dance and a special intergenerational program in multi-media art will welcome older adults and area youth to participate together. These free workshops will take place April 2018- November 2018.
The first workshop “Stories that Move” will run Wednesdays, April 11-May 30, 12:00-1:30pm at MCA. This a movement based workshop that will guide each participant through the choreographic process. Each session will consist of a warm-up, community building exercises, dance composition basics and a cool down. Community members with and without dance backgrounds are encouraged to join us as we explore a favorite memory and bring it to life through movement.
Vitality Arts programs inspire and enable older adults to learn, make and share the arts in ways that are novel, complex and socially engaging. Our work is driven by teaching artists whose creative process and understanding of older adults bring joy, connection, improved health and well-being, and a renewed sense of purpose to older adults in community and residential settings. MCA was selected as one of only 15 nonprofit organizations throughout Minnesota to receive a grant from Aroha Philanthropies through its new statewide initiative, “Seeding Vitality Arts MN.”
Learn about all of the upcoming Seeding Vitality Workshops.
About Vitality Arts
The broad field of creative aging encompasses many things: arts education, arts in health care, creativity for those with dementia, and more.
Arts education programs – those that inspire and enable older adults to learn, make and share the arts in ways that are novel, complex and socially engaging – make up a subset of the creative aging field. Often referred to as artful aging programs, they are led by teaching artists whose creative process and understanding of older adults bring connection, improved health and well-being, and a renewed sense of purpose to older adults in community and residential settings.
At Aroha Philanthropies, we’ve come to view these programs as even more than artful aging. With the term Vitality Arts, we aim to champion arts programs that keep us vital, joyful and engaged by unleashing the transformative power of creativity in those 55+. More information is available at vitalityarts.org.
About Aroha Philanthropies
Aroha Philanthropies is devoted to the transformative power of the arts and creativity, inspiring vitality in those over 55, joy in children and youth, and humanity in adults with mental illness. We believe that learning, making, and sharing art enriches everyone throughout their lifetime. Aroha Philanthropies works to improve the quality of life of people 55+ by encouraging the funding, development, and proliferation of arts programs designed to enhance longer lives, and by advancing the development of professional teaching artists working with those in their encore years. More information is available at arohaphilanthropies.org.