Gay Hanna

One of the key issues of our time is health care. We know that it is complicated because of its vast scale of services and intimate reach into every life, family, and community in this country. The search for access to high-quality health care for millions of Americans is often difficult. Medical advances of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries have extended the life span, cured pandemic diseases like polio, and have made it possible to manage chronic illnesses once debilitating.

The following is an abridged report prepared for Grantmakers in the Arts from The Summit on Creativity and Aging in America, held in collaboration with the 2015 White House Conference on Aging on May 18, 2015, at the National Endowment for the Arts. The summit was co-presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging.

America is graying. In just two years, the United States will have as many people over the age of 65 as there are under the age of 20. Challenges and opportunities abound in this demographic sea change. In response to this coming shift, a new paradigm articulates the idea of seeing older people for their potential rather than their problems. Arts and creativity programs provided by and for older adults are fast becoming accepted for their health, morale, and social benefits.