How does it work?
Age & Opportunity is engaged in numerous research initiatives, read on for further details and learn about our ongoing work in this area.
How can I get involved?
To keep updated on this work, sign up to our newsletter at the link in the footer.
What is the Creative Enquiry?
The Creative Enquiry is an investigative collaborative venture that creatively explores fresh approaches to arts engagement with older people and advances best practice models.
How does it work?
Creative Enquiry is a strategic partnership between Cork City and County Council Arts Offices, the HSE, Age & Opportunity, Cork Midsummer Festival, MusicAlive and SIRIUS with the support of the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon Invitation to Collaboration scheme.
The focus of the Creative Enquiry in 2020 was three artist-residency and older-people-engagement projects, hosted by Cork Midsummer Festival, MusicAlive and SIRIUS. What Next? presents insights from that experience via a podcast series, online workshops and a publication to further inform both practice and policy related to the Arts and Older People.
How can I get involved?
You can read the report on the Creative Enquiry Artist Residency and Older People Engagement project here. You can access a page of related resources and outputs resulting from the Creative Enquiry here.
To keep up to date on the Creative Enquiry news, events and opportunities, sign up to our newsletter.
Read the previous evaluations:
What is the Creative Ageing Writing Bursary?
The Age & Opportunity Creative Ageing Writing Bursary aims to generate discussion, debate and knowledge about creative ageing in Ireland.
How does it work?
The bursary is intended to afford time and space for an artist/ writer to reflect on their practice – the learnings, insights but also challenges they have faced. The writer/artist might also want to consider how they have approached working with older people and the learnings generated through that.
One award of €1000 will be made to the successful applicant.
How can I get involved?
The applications for the 2022 bursary are now closed. The inaugural bursary has been awarded to actor and playwright, Noelle Brown.
We are delighted to share Noelle’s resulting essay commissioned by Age & Opportunity, which reflects on her learnings as an artist while working on her play Creaking with a group of older people. Noelle’s essay is available to read in full here.
You can read Michelle Read’s 2021 essay on the topic of creative ageing and her learnings as an artist here.
Please check back for details of the 2023 bursary applications.
What is the research on Artist in Residence in a Care Setting Initiative?
In 2021, we published research on our Artist in Residence in a Care Setting initiative which was authored by independent research and training consultant Dr Bernard McDonald. The initiative demonstrates and celebrates the positive impact of ageing creatively.
How does it work?
The research examines the capacity of care settings in Ireland to interact with the arts and it also considers how to embed the arts in the culture of care settings more generally.
How can I get involved?
ORGANISATION & ART PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT : To support and inform arts organisations who work with or wish to work with older people and to raise the standard of arts practice more generally in the area of the arts and older people.
We believe that, whether you are 8 or 80 years old, we all should have access and opportunities to attend and participate in the arts and to realise our creative potential. Fresh thinking, bold experimentation and creativity are all fundamental to delivering a high quality of life for older people.
Research shows that arts programmes involving music, visual arts and drama, among other activities, have a profound influence on the quality of life of older people, with positive impacts on health, psychological well-being, confidence and autonomy as well as other benefits such as:
- happiness
- mental wellbeing
- reduced stress
- improved cognition
- sense of identity and personhood
- increased self-esteem and confidence
- reduced boredom.
