Almost by definition, aging entails limitations, especially diminished physical capabilities, and that all too often results in reduced mobility, greater isolation, dependence and disengagement. That reality has given birth to a host of stereotypes.
By contrast, the arts, amateur and professional alike, are only as constricted as the human imagination. Creativity is an assertion of independence and purpose. Whether expressed through words, music, light, form, movement or texture, making art entails active engagement and sustained focus. Artists shape circumstances instead of becoming victims of them. They establish mastery over what seem like intractable obstacles through metaphor, analogy and other forms of imaginative redirection.
So it is little surprise that many older people, seeking new purpose after decades of careers and family obligations, take up or return to various art forms to restore their agency and start growing in new ways. We are playing musical instruments, we are singing in choirs, we are painting, weaving, quilting, potting and sculpting, writing memoirs, poetry and novels, and we are bringing to those art forms new perspectives based on long experience.
Like other kinds of engagement, the arts are self-reinforcing and empowering, especially for people whose talents, viewpoints and experience are often overlooked in our youth-oriented culture.
Indeed, artistic expression is almost a necessity of healthy aging. As William Butler Yeats put it:
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress ...
In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Ashby Village is launching a Creative Aging initiative to help empower its members through the arts ... and to share the artworks of its members with the larger community.