Ten years ago, the Baring Foundation announced its intention to change the focus of its funding from ‘Arts and Refugees’ to ‘Arts and Older People’, and published a mapping study of the state of the field called ‘Ageing Artfully’. Next month, we will publish an independent analysis, by Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt of King’s College London, of what has happened over those ten years in creative ageing in the UK.
Prior to that, we wanted to get a sense of what people working in the arts felt had been happening and commissioned a short opinion survey through ArtsProfessional. The message was one of significant progress made but with more to do.
- 62% of respondents felt that more arts and culture organisations are seeking to engage old people and 66% felt that they or their organisation now give greater priority to older people.
- 62% also felt that they and their organisations had adequate expertise to work with older people.
But:
- 86% felt that older people should be a higher priority for funders.
You can read a response by David Cutler to the survey results in a feature article in Arts Professional.
