WISH LIST $50: art supplies and props for 1 workshop for 10 seniors; $250: 1 workshop for 25 seniors, including supplies and teaching artist salary; $1000: two months of programming for seniors at a partnering senior day care center or nursing home

A booming older adult population; science and research showing long term health benefits from involvement in the creative arts; and a flurry of increased media attention to seniors aging creatively: all of these have propelled an unprecedented demand for services at Arts for the Aging. The idea is that stimulating and challenging the brain capitalizes on its reserve capacity and maintains it for as long as possible. So AFTA brings professional artists, specialists in dance and drumming, painting and poetry, to dozens of underserved senior centers—where learning a dance may improve a senior’s balance; working with clay can help joint mobility; drawing a self-portrait will exercise the brain. Clients are often seniors with dementia (including Alzheimer’s) and one of AFTA’s goals is to slow the progress of their disease. Lectures and family cultural outings increase social interaction, and planning a play with children—one of AFTA’s many intergenerational activities—lends purpose and dignity to life. For some, art also triggers memory and occasions the sharing of fragile histories with others. AFTA currently offers nearly 80 workshops each month reaching more than 1,200 senior participants and children annually. Honored with a National Endowment for the Arts' citation as a Model Program in Lifelong Learning, the Excellence in Maryland Education, Pathways of Achievement, and Golda Meir awards, a gift to this remarkable charity supports the transformative power of art—a moving thing at any age.

Janine Tursini, Executive Director 6917 Arlington Road, Suite 352 Bethesda, MD 20814 301 718 4990 www.aftaarts.org