More than 100 people attended MnCAAN's Southeastern Minnesota Creativity and Aging Conference on September 14, the first conference in the nation outside a major metropolitan area to focus on arts and aging. They heard an inspiring message from keynote speaker Susan Perlstein about the growing movement across the country to weave artistic activities into the lives of older adults. Perlstein is the founder of the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA) and is a widely recognized pioneer in building and advocating for programs that bring the stories of older adults into creative forms such as dance, storytelling, painting, poetry, and song. She is currently the director of education and training for NCCA.

Perlstein cited new research by Dr. Gene Cohen that shows that participation in quality arts programs improves the health of people in their later years. She spoke of the importance of documenting the benefits of such programs to help attract private and government support for them. Documented research and the advocacy work of NCCA have already helped to inspire a new stream of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts specifically for older adult activities. The work of NCCA at the White House Conference on Aging, including a display of Art of Aging artwork by older Americans (MnCAAN contributed artwork by older Minnesotans for this display), also resulted in language added to the Older Americans Act that supports arts programming. These are major indicators of an emerging national momentum related to the missions of NCCA and MnCAAN, according to Perlstein.

Perlstein congratulated attendees on being the new pioneers in rural communities by creating and participating in this conference. She encouraged them to network, create partnerships, and involve local professional artists to increase arts opportunities for their older citizens.

The conference also included performances by Red Wing's Silver Tones chorus and Silo Serenaders Kitchen Band as well as 'best practice' learning sessions featuring regional artist/teachers: Esther Gullixson, Jane McDonnell, Riki Kolbë Nelson, Gwen Hendee, and Maria Genné. A presentation by MnCAAN Design Team members Marian Belle and Lynne Zimmerman on MnCAAN's new website gave promise to attendees that the work of the conference can be continued through a virtual community.

Among the evaluation comments for the day were: 'Wonderful energy and good will'; 'Generated enthusiasm'; and 'The day was excellent!' Many participants expressed delight in the creative participation activities, including making individualized artistic nametags and performing in small-group skits at the end of the day to summarize their learning.

The day seeded many creative ideas. One of the small groups -- from the Albert Lea area -- generated a contribution of $300 from one of its members and their group's commitment to create an intergenerational arts event in Albert Lea.