The Indiana Arts Commission (IAC), in partnership with the Center for Aging & Community at the University of Indianapolis (UIndy CAC), has released new research on the IAC’s Lifelong Arts Indiana programming. Lifelong Arts Indiana, a multi-year initiative, was designed to bring evidence-based participatory arts programming to older adults across Indiana to improve health outcomes.
According to the research, the Lifelong Arts Indiana programming improved the mental health of older adults, created meaningful employment opportunities for artists, and created sustainable community partnerships.
“Lifelong Arts Indiana has been a multi-year effort from our agency and partners to improve health outcomes and reduce social isolation among older Hoosiers through art and creativity,” said Miah Michaelsen, Executive Director of the Indiana Arts Commission. “We are grateful for the research of the UIndy CAC to validate the impact and importance of this work and to help us to encourage its utilization across Indiana and beyond.”
The first phase of the Lifelong Arts Indiana program was to train artists and service providers for older adults on a specific participatory arts platform. Training for Indiana providers was led by Lifetime Arts, a national provider of creative aging training and programming; Jon Kay of Traditional Arts Indiana, a partner organization of the IAC at Indiana University that supports the state’s traditional arts and heritage practitioners; Anna Ross of Audiences Unlimited, a Fort Wayne-based organization that focuses on providing arts experiences to underserved audiences; as well as IAC staff.
Following the training, artists, arts organizations, libraries, and older adult serving organizations were eligible to apply for funding to produce programming for older adults utilizing the Lifelong Arts Indiana programming model. Since 2021, 107 grants have been awarded totaling over $500,000 invested in individual artists, older adult serving organizations, and libraries across 44 Indiana counties. Programming has served over 2,400 older adults in Indiana. Funding for phases of the Lifelong Arts Indiana programming was provided by the IAC, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Aging and Division of Mental Health and Addiction, E.A. Michelson Philanthropy, and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
UIndy CAC conducted the Lifelong Arts Indiana evaluation using a variety of research methods, including interviews with participants, artists and site partners; surveys of training participants and older adult project participants; site observations; and document review. The evaluation scope was robust:18 project facilitators were interviewed one-on-one, 18 project sites were observed in person by trained evaluators, and 322 surveys were collected.
Notable within this valuable data is a nationally validated survey of health, the short-form-12 health survey (SF-12). The data from the SF-12 forms indicates that participants in the Lifelong Arts Indiana program report higher levels of well-being in both physical and mental health compared to the national average. In particular, statistically significant improvement in mental health among Lifelong Arts Indiana programming participants indicate that improvements in well-being are a direct result of participating in Lifelong Arts Indiana.
Nationally, an evaluation of this size and scope has not been done on a creative aging program for nearly two decades. This research contributes critical new knowledge to the field of creative aging, providing evidence to support the case that high-quality, sequential arts activities led by trained artists significantly improves the mental health of older adult participants and serves as a cost effective, critical resource to combat social isolation.
To further the Lifelong Arts Indiana work, the Indiana Arts Commission is developing a guidebook on how to launch creative programming for older adults in communities, informed by the learnings of the Lifelong Arts Indiana program. Interested parties can sign up to receive a copy of the guidebook here. The IAC is also currently seeking external funding to continue the program across the state.
Read an Executive Summary of the Lifelong Arts Indiana research or read the full Lifelong Arts Indiana Research Report.