In collaboration with E.A. Michelson Philanthropy, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) is proud to announce the award of $2,230,000 in creative aging grant funding to 28 state arts agencies. Part of NASAA's new Creative Aging, Creative Futures initiative, these grants will help state and jurisdictional arts agencies promote creativity, learning, well-being and social engagement for older adults.
For more information, contact NASAA Arts Learning Projects Director Meghan McFerrin.
Alaska State Council on the Arts
Alaska Creative Aging Project
The Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) recognizes the role of the arts in reducing risks and improving health by collaborating with the health sector to enhance well-being. With the expansion of grant making, ASCA will convene individuals and organizations to leverage networks, provide training that leads to sequential, skill based arts learning activities that engage older adults in the process of artistic creation, and include meaningful community or social engagement. In addition, opportunities will be available to address isolation and to support those experiencing burnout when caring for others.
Arizona Commission on the Arts
AZ Creative Aging - Northern Arizona Initiative
This is a multiyear, place based initiative to build sustainable creative aging partnerships in Northern Arizona. The project supports collaborative teams of teaching artists, local arts organizations, and health service providers in codesigning programming that reflects the priorities, cultures and lived experiences of older adults. The first year, the Arizona Commission on the Arts will do fieldwork, relationship building and outreach across northern Arizona, including remote areas and sovereign tribal nations. This phase will include engaging local and national experts and offering introductory creative aging trainings to build shared knowledge and regional connections. Selected communities composed of three-person teams—a teaching artist, a local arts organization representative and a representative from a senior or aging service—will participate in a cohort program in year two. That cohort will be supported in codesigning programming for their community, grounded in local needs and assets.
Colorado Creative Industries
Colorado Creative Aging Collaborative: Lifelong Arts for All
The Colorado Creative Aging Collaborative: Lifelong Arts for All is a multiyear initiative led by Colorado Creative Industries (CCI) in partnership with Lifetime Arts and Think 360 Arts for Learning. It is designed to expand access to high-quality arts programming for older adults across Colorado. Guided by a newly formed Colorado Creative Aging Collaborative comprised of leaders from arts organizations, aging services, libraries and state agencies, the project will launch two strategies: piloting creative aging residencies and administering a creative aging grant program. In year one, four to five free, multiweek residencies will take place in community centers, libraries and senior living facilities in underserved communities identified by the Colorado Collaborative. These residencies emphasize skill building and social connection while equipping host sites with training to sustain future programs.
In years two and three, CCI will administer grants of roughly $5,000–$10,000 to organizations to implement their own sequential creative aging programs, supported by technical assistance and guidance from the Colorado Collaborative. Together, these efforts will strengthen community connections and ensure older adults across Colorado can engage in lifelong arts learning. The grants will also equip local organizations and artists with the training to continue providing creative aging opportunities in their communities.
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
The Chocolate City Has Stories to Tell
Using storytelling as a springboard, this program will till the rich earth of Washington, D.C.'s native and immigrant stories and to resurface them through multiple disciplines and media. The program has three distinct phases:
Phase I (April/May 2026 to August 2026)
(a) Bring together DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities staff and partner organizations to plan content and scope of project in Phase II; (b) approach the work as a collective impact initiative and develop a community of practice with training and guidance from Lifetime Arts; and (c) work with senior center partners to determine scope of short-term and longer-term residencies.
Phase II (September 2026 to December 2026)
Pilot three-session sampler residencies at senior centers with guidance from Lifetime Arts. Engage in reflective process around engagement and impact to help guide decision making around focus of Phase III residencies.
Phase III (January 2027 to June 2027)
Implement two six-week residencies at each site and convene culminating celebration(s) of the work at the end of June. Celebrations will include sharing of tangible skills and techniques acquired and a reflective response to participation.
Delaware Division of the Arts
Access Creative Aging
Launched in 2021, the Access Creative Aging initiative was implemented with the goal of enhancing the health and well-being of Delaware's 55+ adult population through participation in creative aging workshops led by trained teaching artists in the visual, performing and literary arts. With the assistance of the Division's sustaining partners, the Delaware Division of Libraries and the Delaware Division of Services for the Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities, free creative aging workshops are held in public libraries and senior services centers across Delaware. Priorities for Access Creative Aging have expanded and evolved each year to include reaching underserved populations; establishing programs in rural communities; training a diverse roster of teaching artists; documenting outcomes through data, images and video; and comprehensive program evaluation and assessment.
Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency
Manåmko', Para Todu (All for Aging)
Manåmko', Para Todu (All for Aging) is a creative aging initiative of the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency that honors Guam's elders through meaningful, culturally grounded arts engagement. The project will support two paid arts organizations or artists to deliver monthly, sequential arts learning activities at village senior citizen centers across the island, serving approximately 150–200 manåmko' (elders). Activities may include traditional practices such as weaving, chant, storytelling, carving and healing arts, alongside contemporary forms including painting, poetry, music and sculpture, with adaptations to ensure accessibility for all participants.
Rooted in cultural respect, the project encourages artists to incorporate elders' personal stories, lived experiences and cultural memory, recognizing manåmko' as vital carriers of ancestral knowledge. Partnerships with municipal mayors and senior center staff ensure activities take place in familiar, welcoming environments and reach elders in underserved communities.
For artists, the initiative provides sustained, compensated opportunities to teach, strengthen their practice and engage in intergenerational exchange. For elders, it promotes social connection, reduces isolation, builds confidence and reinforces cultural identity. Through documentation, evaluation and community sharing, the project establishes a replicable model that positions creative aging as an essential and lasting part of Guam's cultural landscape.
Illinois Arts Council
Expanding Creative Aging Opportunities in Illinois
The Illinois Arts Council (IAC) will regrant its awarded Creative Aging, Creative Futures (CACF) grant to support creative aging programming in Illinois. The agency will do this by awarding at least one grant in each of the state's six regions—Chicago Metro, Northern, Western, Central, Eastern and Southern—to arts and culture organizations to support and expand arts learning activities for older adults (those 55 and better). IAC will utilize partnerships with eligible nonprofit organizations and teaching artists to deliver quality programming that will specifically serve Illinois older adults, including those communities considered underserved in Illinois (rural, BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and/or people of color], low-income, and disability communities) as well as older adults residing in nursing and assisted living homes. The CACF-funded arts learning opportunities will encompass a variety of disciplines including literature, visual and performing arts. Locations of activities will vary and will include theaters, art centers, senior and community centers, nursing and assisted living facilities, and virtual rooms, ensuring access for participants. The CACF funds will ensure quality arts learning opportunities will continue to be made available to older adults throughout Illinois.
Indiana Arts Commission
Lifelong Arts Indiana
Lifelong Arts Indiana is a statewide creative aging initiative led by the Indiana Arts Commission to improve the health, well-being and social connection of older adults through high-quality, sequential arts instruction. Launched in 2021, the program has supported more than 100 artist residencies across half of Indiana's counties, serving over 2,400 older adults. A multiyear evaluation conducted with the University of Indianapolis's Center for Aging & Community demonstrated statistically significant improvements in participants' mental and physical health, particularly in rural communities.
Building on this evidence and four years of statewide capacity building, this project represents the next phase of Lifelong Arts Indiana. Creative Aging, Creative Futures funding will support three integrated components in 2026: a free statewide Creative Aging Summit, the launch and distribution of a comprehensive Lifelong Arts Toolkit and a targeted subgrant program for new providers. Together, these components expand access to creative aging; strengthen cross-sector partnerships among arts, aging and healthcare providers; and support implementation in underserved and previously unserved counties. The project establishes sustainable infrastructure to embed creative aging as a vital, evidence based intervention within Indiana's broader aging and public health systems.
Kentucky Arts Council
Creative Chapters
With support from the Creative Aging, Creative Futures initiative, the Kentucky Arts Council (KAC) will provide strengthen the skill sets of members of its Teaching Artists Directory to better design curriculum and programs that meet the needs of older participants in artist-in-library residencies. Teaching artists will then collaborate with Kentucky public libraries in designing lifelong-learning artist residencies funded through KAC's new Creative Chapters Library Program, and the Arts Council will engage Kentucky Community Scholars to document project activities. This project will contribute to the future of creative aging in Kentucky by empowering teaching artists to shift their methodology to accommodate Kentucky's fastest-growing population and connecting them to paid opportunities to use these new skills. These activities will also incentivize one of Kentucky's most valued and far-reaching community resources, public libraries, to provide in-depth, sequential arts programming to older adults through artist residencies. The whole process will be recorded by peer documentarians trained in oral history and photographic and ethnographic methodologies. The Arts Council is enthusiastic to expand its network of resources to include more older-adult-serving partners while adjusting its arts education approach to better fulfill its commitment to lifelong learning in a way that can be analyzed and replicated.
Maine Arts Commission
Creative Aging Maine
Creative Aging Maine is designed to implement sequential arts based classes in all 16 of Maine's counties. This Creative Aging Creative Futures–funded program is designed to reduce ageism and social isolation through a coordinated series of regranting, trainings and sequential, skills based arts experiences for older adults. In partnership with Maine Council on Aging, the program will combine nationally recognized creative aging training from Lifetime Arts with a Maine-specific age-positivity and anti-ageist curriculum.
Mississippi Arts Commission
Creative Aging Grant
The Mississippi Arts Commission's (MAC) Creative Aging Grant will be introduced through its current Project Grant category. Arts and culture nonprofits will be invited to apply for funding to expand their existing programming as well as assist in launching new arts programming. All programming will be aimed at adults 55 years and older and will present curriculum based and sequential arts classes led by professional teaching artists.
MAC has a robust roster of teaching artists committed to understanding arts education and offering sequential instruction in various artistic disciplines. Utilizing the knowledge and expertise of these artists will ensure high-quality instruction in a structured manner. This grant will allow individuals and communities to support their older adult populations through growth in arts skills by providing classes in various arts disciplines.
Missouri Arts Council
The Creative Aging Storytellers Network
This pilot strengthens Missouri's Creative Aging infrastructure by training 45 individuals statewide (30 narrative artists and 15 librarians) through certified creative storytelling workshops. The project expands access to sequential, skill-building narrative-arts learning for older adults, especially in rural and low-resource communities where programming is typically limited to watercolor or basic crafts. Participants will be prepared to deliver multiweek storytelling, poetry and visual narrative residencies in libraries and senior centers statewide. The project removes financial, geographic, and instructional barriers, establishes a statewide toolkit, and prepares a future train-the-trainer cohort to ensure long-term sustainability.
Montana Arts Council
Artful Life
Artful Life is a project to expand creative aging activities across Montana—often called "the grayest state in the West"—and to set the stage for continued growth. This program expands several years of pilot creative aging projects to reach more people across Montana's vast landscape, in communities where creative aging activities are not currently offered. The Artful Life project will focus particularly on three areas where the Montana Arts Council (MAC) knows older adults lack access to arts learning: in rural small towns, in tribal communities and among veterans. MAC will deploy our existing relationships through rural networks, tribal education and cultural networks, and veteran service organizations (including two Montana arts centers that are NEA Creative Forces grant recipients) in order to expand creative aging work into Montana's most underserved communities. MAC will also look for ways to intersect with its Folk & Traditional Arts program as much as possible, to embed arts learning experiences in cultural learnings as well.
Nebraska Arts Council
CAAP Forward
CAAP Forward will expand the Nebraska Arts Council's Creative Aging Arts Program (CAAP) by scaling sequential, skill based arts learning and building greater awareness of creative aging program benefits. CAAP Forward will promote socialization among older adults, create opportunities for participants to actively engage with the wider community and showcase their artistic creations. It will fund and support artist residencies, deliver training for teaching artists and sponsoring organizations, document program impact, and strengthen statewide partnerships. This initiative will support the Nebraska Arts Council's efforts to ensure that more older adults, especially those residing in rural and under resourced communities, can participate in high-quality creative learning and social engagement.
Nevada Arts Council
Nevada Creative Aging, Creative Futures
The mission of the Nevada Arts Council's Creative Aging, Creative Futures project is to expand access to high-quality creative learning opportunities for older adults statewide, with a special focus on rural counties. The Nevada Arts Council will contract with Lifetime Arts to deliver online, interactive training for Nevada library staff and teaching artists—prioritizing underserved and remote regions. The agency will reconnect with past partners, reach out to new counties, and welcome new collaborators from senior centers and cross-sector community organizations. By working closely with the libraries, the Arts Council will identify teachers and teaching artists who already have strong connections in their communities and invite them to participate in creative aging professional development. This not only equips local artists with the skills needed to lead programs for older adults but also strengthens the long-term sustainability of creative aging offerings across the state.
New Jersey State Council on the Arts
New Jersey Veterans Creative Aging Initiative
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts will partner with the Division of Veterans Affairs to provide creative aging residencies at three Veterans Memorial Homes over the course of two years. The arts council will provide $38,750 for each of the grant years to ensure that each of the three Veterans Memorial Homes in New Jersey will receive hands-on, sequential, arts based learning opportunities with an experienced teaching artist. All work will engage with older adult veterans, spouses of veterans and Gold Star Parents aged 55 and older.
New Mexico Arts
Creative Aging Partnerships Project
The New Mexico Arts Creative Aging Partnerships Project (CAPP) is a statewide initiative designed to expand high-quality arts learning opportunities for New Mexico's rapidly growing 60+ population. Drawing on national best practices, CAPP will build a sustainable creative aging infrastructure by training teaching artists, strengthening organizational capacity and fostering cross-sector collaboration.
Over 24 months, CAPP will convene eight demonstration-site organizations across urban and rural communities, provide professional development and customized technical assistance, fund sequential arts programs for older adults, and support ongoing peer learning through monthly communities of practice. A multimedia documentation effort will capture program outcomes, elevate participant and partner voices, and create resources to guide future creative aging work. CAPP aims to enhance well-being for older adults, grow a skilled network of teaching artists and establish a scalable model that strengthens New Mexico's arts ecosystem for years to come.
New York State Council on the Arts
Creative Aging, Creative Futures, New York
The New York State Council on the Arts will support seven arts organizations and two area agencies on aging in offering 18 workshops for older adults in a variety of art forms, serving about 200 participants. The project, supported by longtime agency partner Lifetime Arts, will build on several years' work in creative aging and connect to a parallel effort to convene interested organizations across the state for professional development on this topic.
Oklahoma Arts Council
Creative Aging Across Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Arts Council (OAC) proposes to sustain and expand its Creative Aging Initiative through the Creative Aging Partnership Grant program, building on a foundation established through prior state and philanthropic investments. This phase represents a strategic transition from infrastructure development to a sustainable, statewide implementation model for creative aging. Over several years, OAC has cultivated a robust network of partners, trained teaching artists, and established evaluation and quality standards that ensure program fidelity and long-term viability.
Through its Creative Aging, Creative Futures funding, OAC will provide direct subgrants to arts, cultural, tribal and community based organizations that offer sequential, skill-based arts learning experiences for older adults. Programs will be led by trained teaching artists and hosted in trusted community settings, fostering meaningful engagement, creative growth and social connection. These grants will both sustain access for organizations with established creative aging programs and expand opportunities for new partners, particularly in rural and underserved communities ready to launch or grow their efforts.
By maintaining continuity across its statewide network while supporting both existing and emerging programs, OAC ensures that older adults throughout Oklahoma continue to benefit from high-quality creative aging experiences. This approach strengthens local capacity, deepens community impact, and positions the Creative Aging Initiative for long-term sustainability through diversified funding and partnerships.
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Developing and Piloting RISCA's Creative Aging Grant Program
Developing and Piloting RISCA's Creative Aging Grant Program, managed by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA), catalyzes the development and implementation of a Creative Aging Grant Program focused on supporting sequential arts instruction for older adults throughout the state. Funded programs will be taught by teaching artists trained to understand the impacts of aging and who are able to design and deliver high-quality, population-specific programming that builds on established and emerging highly effective practices.
RISCA will support grantees through professional development for teaching artists and organizations focused on creative aging, and will create a tagging system to identify well-qualified teaching artists within the Rhode Island Teaching Artist Roster. This provides a lasting resource for organizations looking to partner with artists experienced in carrying out creative aging work now and in the future.
The success of RISCA's pilot program will be driven by cross-sector and interagency relationships, particularly RISCA's partnership with the Rhode Island Office of Healthy Aging, and their track-record of developing lasting relationships among artists, culture bearers, arts organizations and others in communities across the state, including those defined as underserved by the National Endowment for the Arts.
RISCA's project also includes impact evaluation and a communications campaign highlighting stories and images from creative aging grantees and participants.
South Dakota Arts Council
Creative Aging SD
Creative Aging SD provides arts learning opportunities for older adults while developing a skilled, regionally distributed creative aging workforce. The program builds on the strong outcomes of the South Dakota Arts Council's (SDAC) 2022 Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging (LSICA) initiative and the 2018-2024 Art for Life residencies, which demonstrated that high-quality arts learning programs can increase social connection, emotional resilience and well-being among older adults. LSICA funds allowed SDAC to create annual Creative Aging Artist Grants to develop curriculum geared to older adults and to expand Art for Life activities in eldercare settings to additional communities.
This next phase strengthens the foundation laid by earlier work and brings creative aging programming to seven new communities across West River, Central South Dakota and East River. The initiative centers on expanding access to sequential arts learning experiences, building a regionally based artist workforce, and ensuring that rural, tribal and frontier communities can participate in creative aging programming close to home. Creative Aging, Creative Futures funding will support program activities including teaching artist training, resource development, statewide coordination and the Creative Aging Summit. The summit will serve as a statewide training event that provides advanced instruction, peer exchange and regional workforce strengthening, supporting both year 1 and year 2 residencies.
Tennessee Arts Commission
Creative Aging Tennessee IV: Creative Aging Arts Class Program
centers and local governmental entities can apply for funding to use trained artists on the Creative Aging Artist Roster to offer free or reduced-cost arts programming in their communities. This program will reach older adults in rural communities and urban counties with "art deserts" to offer arts programming for older adults living with social isolation and reduced access to trained artists and those in geographically challenged areas. The purpose is to encourage local community connection points to remove barriers for older adults to increase participation in arts activities.
Utah Division of Arts & Museums
UA&M's Creative Aging Advancement Collaboration
The Utah Division of Arts & Museums (UA&M) will spearhead a three-pillar initiative designed to improve the landscape of creative aging through strategic support, direct service and professional capacity building. Central to this effort is a partnership with the Utah Creative Aging Coalition to bolster the Kaleidoscope Festival, a premier statewide event that champions the well-being of older adults through immersive creative engagement.
Expanding the reach of those who served, UA&M will also implement specialized, sequential arts learning programs within state-run Veterans Homes. These residencies go beyond simple activities, offering residents the opportunity for deep artistic engagement and meaningful social connection.
To ensure a lasting impact, the initiative invests in the future of Utah’s arts workforce by partnering with Lifetime Arts. Through high level professional development, UA&M will equip local artists and administrators with national best practices in creative aging. By integrating these three pillars, UA&M is not only providing immediate programming but is also building a sustainable, statewide infrastructure that honors and empowers Utah’s aging population through the transformative power of the arts.
Vermont Arts Council
Amplifying Creative Senior Centers
The Amplifying Creative Senior Centers Project will deepen and formalize a partnership between the Vermont Arts Council (VAC) and the Vermont Association of Senior Centers and Meal Providers (VASCAMP), which exists to support senior centers and meal sites on a statewide level. The project will promote the growth and quality of these centers and strengthen the professional skills of the staff and volunteers at senior centers and meal sites. VAC and VASCAMP will connect with senior centers across the state and identify five senior centers to receive two-year grants totaling $14,000 for each organization. The project seeks to: (1) increase the number of accessible creative aging programs in the state, (2) expand access to creative aging opportunities in rural areas for older adults, (3) build relationships with rural senior center staff to understand the needs, challenges and capacities of senior centers to deliver successful creative aging programs, and (4) document these projects to better communicate about the impact of creative aging programs on rural senior centers and community members in terms of social connection, wellness and self-efficacy.
Virginia Commission for the Arts
Cultivating Virginia's Creative AAArts
The Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA) will launch an educational pilot program that expands access to sequential arts learning for older Virginians through a targeted regranting model. In partnership with the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS), VCA will regrant funds to underserved Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) to reduce social isolation, remove access barriers, and introduce high-quality arts education into aging services. Recognizing the administrative capacity challenges faced by AAAs, VCA and its partners will provide shared support and a streamlined application process, with grants reviewed in-house and awarded to approximately six to eight AAAs for up to $6,000 each.
ArtsConnect Virginia, formerly Tidewater Arts Outreach, a Virginia based arts service provider, will serve as the primary facilitator of programming. ArtsConnect Virginia will coordinate directly with AAAs, curate sequential learning experiences, and manage a roster of over 90 teaching artists delivering recurring workshops. To strengthen long-term capacity, the project includes professional development for a cohort of 10–12 VCA teaching artists through webinars, an in-person workshop and participation in VCA’s statewide ArtWorks conference.
The project also prioritizes relationship building through convening opportunities and explores future expansion of creative aging programming for Virginia tribal communities, working collaboratively with tribal leaders and arts partners to develop culturally responsive approaches.
Washington State Arts Commission
Creative Courage: Building Sustainable Creative Aging Programs for Washington's Veterans Homes
ArtsWA (Washington State Arts Commission), in collaboration with SilverKite Community Arts and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs, will be providing art classes and activities for the Washington Veterans Homes. These are four nursing homes in Washington that are run by the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs. This is a continuation of a successful grant that ended due to lack of funding. The added presence of SilverKite will add to the infrastructure that is already in place.
West Virginia Department of Tourism
Creative Aging across the Mountain State
The Creative Aging across the Mountain State project will offer two cohorts of 25 teaching artists the Creative Aging Foundations Training for Teaching Artists provided by Lifetime Arts in summer 2026 and winter 2027. The remaining grant funding will be put toward the existing Creative Aging for Lifelong Learning grant program managed by the West Virginia Department of Tourism's State Arts Office. The grant program provides up to $7,500 in support for creative aging projects that:
- employ a West Virginia teaching artist
- provide sequential programming to teach a new skill in the arts
- work with the same group of adults in each session
- focus on the 55+ demographic
- have a culminating public event at the conclusion of the project
Wyoming Arts Council
Strengthening Creative Aging Programing in Wyoming
With this grant funding, Wyoming Arts Council proposes to engage in a handful of activities that will continue the strong foundation the agency has built for creative aging programming. These Creative Aging, Creative Futures–funded activities will provide stability and support for the programming as it becomes a permanent initiative of the Wyoming Arts Council, and will help to fill in gaps in programming. Primarily, this includes developing direct programming at senior centers in rural communities across Wyoming, particularly in communities that have had little or no Creative Aging programming thus far. Additionally, this includes undergoing both a branding process and strategic planning process specifically for the agency's Creative Aging program. These will help keep creative aging in Wyoming growing in a strategic and sustainable way.