NEW YORK, NY, May 21 2021 – The Creative Center at University Settlement has been approved for a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support The Creative Center Training Institute for Artists and Administrators in Arts in Healthcare and Creative Aging. This virtual training, to be held throughout November 2021, will enable attendees from across the US to develop, implement and sustain high quality arts programs in a variety of settings- from community and senior centers to hospitals and healthcare facilities for people living with illness and their caregivers as well as older adults across the aging spectrum. The Creative Center’s project is among the more than 1,100 projects across America totaling nearly $27 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2021 funding.
“As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations, such as The Creative Center at University Settlement, re-engage fully with partners and audiences,” said NEA Acting Chairman Ann Eilers. “Although the arts have sustained many during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure.”
Robin Glazer, the director of The Creative Center, adds, “It is our belief that this year’s training institute, our second “virtual version”, will continue to provide insight into best practices in the practical application of arts-in-healthcare and creative aging for artists, administrators and healthcare staff. Now, more than ever, we are dedicated to inspiring others to use the arts to improve the quality of life for people living with illness as well as older adults. The pandemic has taken so much from these populations, but has also given our team an opportunity to see the many ways, virtual and in-person, that creativity provides a vital thread, weaving together and supporting vulnerable communities. By steadfastly advancing the fields of arts-in-healthcare and creative aging since 1994 through “collaboration, not competition”, we have seen the successes and challenges of program design even in the best of times. Using our vast experience, and newly informed by the evaluations from last year’s first virtual training cohort, we will give attendees everything they need – from seminars led by national leaders in the field to hands-on workshops led by art educators – to create programs that meet the desires and needs of their own communities.”
The 2021 Creative Center Training Institute announcement and application information will be available at www.thecreativecenter.org in July. For more information, please email info@thecreativecenter.org.
For more information on the projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.