Memory, Art, and Aging: A Resources and Activity Guide
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Date
2020
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Traditional Arts Indiana
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Abstract
Based on fieldwork in southern Indiana, this resource guide was developed to explore how everyday arts help older adults in later life. The guide contains a collection of artist profiles of older adults in Indiana engaged in creative practices. Profiles are paired with activities and resources for older adults.
Description
Traditional Arts Indiana produced this guide to show how older adults’ creative practices improve their overall well-being. It is full of everyday people who have become exemplary artists and tradition bearers by doing what they enjoy and find meaningful. Each unit includes approachable activities to help readers begin their own creative journey.
The profiles throughout this guide are based on hundreds of conversations with older adults as well as observations at community gatherings and local events. Each spotlight introduces you to an artist who helped shape our understanding of the importance of creative pursuits, especially in later life. We hope that reading about these individuals will encourage you to think deeply about the artistry embedded in everyday practices.
To complement the elder artist spotlights, each unit includes activities that prompt you to reflect on and engage with creative aging concepts and practices. These activities can be easily adapted to suit a variety of contexts. Some activities aim to stir elders to reflect on the role of everyday practices in their personal lives. Others may be more appropriate for group or community settings.
If you are approaching this guide as an individual, we recommend reading and working through the book with friends. The activities encourage you to connect with others: contact old friends to create a memory map (p. 13), ask a grandchild to help you record your stories (p. 18), or make a generativity list to identify the things you want to share with the next generation (p. 50).
It is not necessary to read this guide from front to back, as each unit, spotlight, and activity stands on its own. However, the spotlights in each unit complement the activities, providing diverse examples of creative aging. The people represented here have expanded our understanding of how arts, crafts, and traditional practices can improve daily life. While we hope that anyone can use this guide, we specifically designed it as a resource for older adults and their caregivers in Indiana.
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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
Type
Book