arts Archives - LinkAGES Colorado

Creative Aging + Well Being Convening

How can art support healthy aging? Join the Denver Art Museum (DAM) and fellow creative aging practitioners who work with older adults, programs, and services to…

Learn about creative aging
Make connections with colleagues
Experience the DAM’s creative aging programs

The Creative Aging + Wellbeing Convening is a day-long event designed for professionals interested in exploring the field of creative aging through hands-on learning and small group discussions. The program includes:

The Future of Creative Aging panel discussion: Keynote panel discussion on creating reciprocal community partnerships, integrating arts into existing services, and building staff capacity.
Program Sampling: Experience firsthand the DAM’s programs and spaces designed for adults 55+.
How to Design for Wellbeing workshop: Interactive workshop covering design and evaluation tools using a wellbeing lens. Participants will receive a printed toolkit that they can use when designing their own programs.

LinkAGES is a proud supporter of this event.

Centura Health Awards $75,000 Grant for LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Storytelling Program

LinkAGES is thrilled to share with you that we recently received a $75,000 grant from Centura Health! The Centura Health Equity and Advancement Fund aimed to extend the impact of community-based organizations focused on advancing social justice and health equity across Colorado and Western Kansas. The fund supports Centura Health’s vision of every community, every neighborhood, every life – whole and healthy.

We partnered with Denver Public Library and StoryCenter to collaborate on the grant application. Together, we decided that the Unboxed program was the perfect fit for Centura Health’s vision. The Unboxed pilot storytelling program ran last year, bringing together LGBTQ+ teens and older adults. The program experiments with participatory art making, various mediums, and collective editing while building empathy and connection.

Unboxed is already on our event calendar! The in-person session is scheduled for November 20, 21, and 22. The three-day, fullday sessions are fully-facilitated and will occur at Lighthouse in Denver. To fill out an application, click through to the event page.

You can also check out our article about the Unboxed pilot program.

The Realities of LGBTQ+ Teens and Older Adults

School dropout rates for LGBTQ+ youth are nearly 3X the national average. While we’ve written about the youth mental health crisis before, LGBTQ+ teens disproportionately experience loneliness and its mental health reprecussions. These teens, our friends and neighbors, experience stigma, prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination and are at greater risk for suicidality. They’re also more than twice as likely to report
persistent sadness, (CDC).

Transgender youth are twice as likely- to experience depressive symptoms, seriously consider suicide, and attempt suicide compared to cisgender and LGBTQ+ youth,
(Journal of Adolescent Health). Risk factors include bullying, trauma, substance use, homelessness, rejection, and more.

LGBTQ+ older adults also experience social isolation at greater levels than their peers, according to research. They face barriers to receiving formal health care and social support that heterosexual, cisgender adults do not due to fears of discrimination, financial instability, and social isolation. These adults are more likely to be single or living alone, and less likely to
have children to care for them. They have higher risks of mental health issues, disabilities, and higher rates of disease and physical limitation. Transgender older adults face additional
experiences of victimization and stigma, (The Williams Intititute).

Frozen Moments: Where Photography & Memory Meet

“Film and photography pervade through every piece of our daily experience. Now more than ever, the world we interact with and consume is based in our experience of photos and videos, a fact that means we can connect to more people, places, and things than ever before. Our memories, our perceptions, and our identities are grounded in the photos we know but what does that mean for the real world we interact with everyday?”

Frozen Moments: Where Photography and Memory Meet (seen below) was directed and edited by University of Denver (DU) students: Norah Schroder, Kabe Aberle, and Anna Marlow.

The students participated in Photography & Memory, an intergenerational program with older adults and DU seniors. The program is facilitated in collaboration with the University of Denver and Denver Public Library with LinkAGES as a proud supporter.

The spectacular film is in and of itself a work of art, evocative in its interviews and the way it communicates a medium that is so intimate. If you’ve been curious about participating in one of DU & the Denver Public Library’s renditions of their Photography & Storytelling class, this will give you great insight into what you can expect to experience.

Photography & Storytelling Program Designers and Facilitators:

Amy DelPo, Denver Public Library, Older Adult Services
Anne Walker, M.Ed., University of Denver, School of Communications
Roddy MacInnes, Professor of Photography, University of Denver, School of Art and Art History

Photography and Self (Intergenerational Program)

Registration is Open for Older Adults!

Join University of Denver faculty and students as we engage in an exploration of self through the mediums of photography, storytelling, and intergenerational conversations. Over the course of four sessions, you will learn about using photography as a form of self expression – experimenting with different photographic forms, including formal self portraits and casual selfies. You will explore these ideas alongside DU students, sharing photos and stories with the group.

Facilitators: Photography Professor Roddy MacInnes, Doctoral Candidate Anne Walker, and DPL Administrator of Older Adult Services Amy DelPo.

Equipment: Cellphone camera

Location: Washington Park United Methodist Church

Parking is available in the church lot and on the street. If you do not have transportation to the class, we can provide that for you.

This class will be held from 12:00pm to 2:00pm on:

April 15
April 22
April 29
May 6
June 3: optional celebration and photo exhibit.

Sign language interpreters and real-time captioning via CART are available upon request with notice of three business days to SignLanguageServices@denvergov.org or 720-913-8487. For other public accommodation requests or concerns related to a disability: DisabilityAccess@denvergov.org.

Art Exhibit: The Photography and Memory Project: Connecting Generations Through Stories and Images

An older woman stands with two teenagers with photographs in an intergenerational program for belonging.

Exhibit open through April/May 2022 at Denver Art Museum.

From

“Over the past four years, a community-based program called the Photography and Memory Project brought University of Denver college students and older adults together to share with each other personal snapshots and the stories behind them.

At each session, DU Professor Roddy MacInnes and his students captured the project’s magic by photographing the participants with their snapshots and with each other. In these photos one can see the bonds that formed between the participants through the simple exchange of the personal photograph. In these images, people are laughing and hugging, sometimes looking at the camera, sometimes at each other, but always with an open, vulnerable countenance. Here is life and love, joy and sorrow. Here is our community, in its beautiful diversity. Here is what it means to be human.”

You can see the Community Spotlight Exhibit at the Denver Art Museum!

The Realities of LGBTQ+ Teens and Older Adults

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