Evolving and Past Work in Creativity

Arts At Home and The Islands of Milwaukee

A multi-year, collaboration between Interfaith Older Adult Programs, the Milwaukee County Department on Aging's Home Delivered Meal Service, Sojourn Theatre, and the UWM Department of Theatre, Arts At Home endeavors to bring meaningful creative engagement to isolated older adults.  Creative discussion on the theme The Islands of Milwaukee will take place through December 2013 and provide the inspiration for 3 public arts events in the spring/summer of 2014.  These events are designed to ignite a community-wide dialogue about the challenges of and solutions for social isolation across Milwaukee County. 

Residency in Applied Arts

NOTE:  This program is no longer seeking applicants.  Our current Artist in Residence (Laura Jacqmin) will be the last in this program, as we have completed our funding cycle. 

The CAC Residency in Applied Arts offered a three month residency to nationally renowned artists who wanted to explore a project dealing with dementia/aging. Because more and more artists were becoming intrigued with dementia as a topic for their work, this residency was designed to give them an intensive, community-based learning experience to better inform, design, and develop their work. A national review panel selected our three artists in residence.  Documentary photographer Wing Young Huie, the first recipient of the award, was in residence from February 15th to June 1st, 2007. Artist David Greenberger, was in residence during February, April, and October 2008. Playwright Laura Jacqmin was in residence from August to November 2009, creating a play for regional theaters and educational use.  A staged reading of the play was held November 19th and 22nd, directed by Edward Sobel of Philadelphia's Arden Theatre Co. 

Funding from the Helen Bader Foundation and the Brookdale Foundation supported this program for three residencies between 2006 and 2009.  Read more about the Residency and the artists.  

Creativity Research at Luther Manor

Rhonda Montgomery offers the "Capstone" course in the graduate certificate in applied gerontology at UWM. Each year, this capstone cohort takes on a research project. In 2006, Montgomery's students went to Luther Manor Adult Day Services and evaluated a sculpture program for their participants. Results found that group activities were the most effective for residents, and that creative, non-hierarchical activities had the most impact on staff. Students are now preparing that research for publication. 

TimeSlips and Memories in the Making Training Workshops

CAC hosted two creativity trainings in spring of 2007. On May 31st, Sam Heinly, national trainer for Memories in the Making, offered a half-day training at Luther Manor. On June 1st, we offered a TimeSlips training workshop, including an on-site demonstration, at Luther Manor. From May 30th to June 1st, CAC hosted a Train the Trainer Retreat for TimeSlips, a gathering of nearly 30 new and returning trainers from across the United States. These trainers offered the TS workshop on the 1st, infusing it with new energy and excitement.  

UWM's ElderTales: 4 Storytelling sites in Milwaukee

CAC Director Anne Basting teaches, among other things, Storytelling and Playwriting. In 2007, Basting's Storytelling class went out to 4 different care facilities in Milwaukee and did storytelling with their residents/participants; St. Johns on the Lake, the Milwaukee Catholic Home, St. Ann's Intergenerational Care Center, and EastCastle Senior Living. The students began the semester by taking a survey on their attitudes about dementia, and will take the survey again at semester's end. This same scale (developed by Susan McFadden and Melissa Lunsman) will be used in other TimeSlips service learning courses offered across the country. Stay tuned for the results...

Danceworks Collaboration

In 2007, CAC's Tom Fritsch worked with Milwaukee's DanceWorks on evaluating the impact of their programs for people with dementia.

Kairos Dance Theatre's Dancing Heart

In 2008, CAC worked with Minneapolis-based Kairos Dance Theatre to develop and evaluate their new training program. This project is supported by the Helen Bader Foundation.

"Think Tank" on Creativity and Dementia Research

In June of 2006, CAC held Creativity and Dementia: Moving Forward in Research. A dozen top researchers, artists, and care providers from across the country gathered with CAC scholars and partners to figure out how we might better evaluate the impact of creative engagement on people with dementia and their care partners. The white paper from that symposium is available for free download. 

Talk Back Move Forward: 100 years of Alzheimer's disease

CAC Director Anne Basting worked with Kathy Louis (UH-Extended Care Campus) in Chardon, Ohio, Dr. Peter Whitehouse (Case University), and Shirley Huston Findley (College of Wooster) to research and create Talk Back Move Forward: 100 Years of Alzheiemer's Disease. Basting co-produced (with Brad Lichtenstein) and directed the 8 minute dvd, which blends interviews with medical researchers, care providers, and people with dementia and stunning still photographs by Jim Herrington. Terry Caddell of docUWM edited. The short film offers a collage of voices looking at where we've come in dementia care and where we need to go. It is available for free download and is designed to be a teaching tool for audiences from high school students to family and professional caregivers.

Journal of Arts, Humanities, and Aging

Anne Basting helped launch the new Journal of Arts, Humanities and Aging with the team of editorial advisors through the Gerontological Society of America. The journal is accepting articles and will be published by Taylor & Francis.

StoryCorps Milwaukee

CAC Director Anne Basting collaborated with the Milwaukee Public Library, UWM's WUWM 89.7 FM and doc UWM to bring StoryCorps to Milwaukee for 6 months in the country's first StoryCorps "outpost" booth. The booth opened January 25th in the Oriental Room at the Central Library and will be open through July 25th. Outreach partners include: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, The LINKS Milwaukee Chapter, the Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, Interfaith Older Adult Programs, The Milwaukee Jewish Federation, UWM's Center for Cultures and Communities and Service Learning, the United Community Center, Luther Manor, the Indian Council for the Elderly, and SAGE (Seniors in a Gay Environment).
For reservations and information, visit www.storycorps.net.  $10 suggested donation.  More about StoryCorps. . .

StoryCorps Memory Loss Initiative

CAC Director Anne Basting worked with StoryCorps to design, implement, and evaluate the Memory Loss Initiative. The initiative ensures that the StoryCorps interview experience is accessible to people with memory loss and their family and friends. Basting created an advisory board for the project, and worked with Marie Savundranayagam to design the evaluation of the initiative. CAC's Lorna Dilley will conduct the evaluation. Basting is helping promote the initiative nationally, and StoryCorps is producing special segments featuring people with memory loss.  You can listen to them by clicking here.