Case Study: Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience

      The Wing Luke museum has a long history of engaging their community to co-create their exhibition. They focus on empowering their community members to create exhibitions and tell their own stories on their own terms. The community- based exhibition model they implement aims to integrate community members throughout the process. This is called Co-creating. Co-creative projects are when partnerships are made with participants rather than based solely on institutional goals.

      Their exhibition Sikh Community: over 100 years in the Pacific Northwest came about when museum staff and organizers from the Sikh Coalition conducted an informal outreach to form a committee to direct the exhibition. Sikh coalition is a volunteer organization that began in 2001 to address the misdirected hate and discrimination that the Sikh community faced in the aftermath of 9/11 started. It was made up of 19 people through outreach and conducted oral history with 29 individuals and gathered artifacts, photographs, and documents from 14 individuals and families. By the end there were 75 community members in total helping in creating this exhibition.

Organizational structure of Wing Luke Museum

·         Non- profit organization with 501c3 status

·         Volunteer-run board of trustees currently with 20 members

·         Each member is a member of one of the following committees:

o   Capital campaign

o   Development

o   Finance and capital project advisory

·         16 full-time staff and 11 part-time staff

      Community members participate from exhibition development to design to fabrication and installation, and including exhibition fundraising, publicity and marketing, education and public programming.  The museum aims to put community members in decision-making positions where they are empowered to determine project direction, set priorities, make selections, and guide project execution.

Here is a diagram of their Exhibit team

On a basic level the exhibit team consists of:

·         Museum staff- who are in charge of developing the community vision for an exhibitions and bring it to being. They are the “technical advisors, project administrators and community organizers.”

·         Core community members- consist of 10-15 members who form the Community Advisor Committee (CAC). The members have a direct connection with the exhibition topic and are mostly leaders within other communities. They make the decisions and are in charge of making the main message and encourage participation within the community.   

·         Participating community members- the contribute to the exhibition by:

o   Participating in and helping conduct interviews, translating and  transcribing

o   Artifact, photograph and document loans and gathering

o   General research

o   Outreach

o   Serving as docents, speakers and volunteers.

According to Nina Simons There three main reasons that cultural institutions engage in co-creative projects:

1.       To give voice and be responsive to the needs and interest of local community members.

2.       To provide a place for community engagement and dialogue

3.       To help participants develop skills that will support their own individual and community goals.

For the community the wing Luke museum is an essential community institution because they are part of the process and their voices are heard there is a strong sense of ownership and pride.

Here are some tips from Nina Simon to facilitate co-creation in museums:

1.     Staff members and participants respect each other’s goals and interests in pursuing the project. They should create a set of shared guidelines for what is and isn’t acceptable and expected over the duration of the project.

2.     Staff members should not harbor pre-conceived ideas about the outcome of the project. They should be willing to let the project go in the direction that is of greatest value to participants, within the scope of the project guidelines.

It’s important to think about how to empower the visitors. How can the staff give amateurs the skills and the tools needed to accomplish shared goals?

To give visitors the skills and tools needed to lead their own tours, here are some suggestions to empower them

§  Provide visitors with maps and encourage them to mark their favorite places as they explore the exhibits

§  Ask visitors to assign a theme or title to a collection of their favorite places

§  Post the maps and titles in a central location along with the times when visitors will be available to give the tours they have devised

§  Make available interpretative literature or staff consultations to give tour guides reference materials for their tours

Co-creative projects and the community process that Wing Luke Museum has allows museums to form partnerships and bonds that feed the interests and needs of the community it serves. Engaging the community to become a part of the process in designing programs and exhibition it empowers and give ownership to the participants.

Community Engagement- The National Palace Museum(Taiwan) as an example

In light of the strategies we talked about in class and seen in museums and sites, I think it would be interesting to look at how museums in other countries are carrying out community engagements. The examples we have seen and strategies we talked about were mainly in developing new visitors from various communities. By means such as developing convenient access for different communities or invite community members to involve in exhibition development. What about strategies to make an existing community improve their museum visit experience? The National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan will be an example for this situation. The discussion is based on the 2011 National Palace Museum Annual Report.

As the major museum in Taiwan, The National Palace Museum had a brilliant collection of chinese artifacts. In the 1960s, in contrast of the communist Mainland China, the NPM in Taiwan under the rule of a right wing government opened with its representative collection of Chinese Artifact. As basically the only accessible Chinese arts collection, the NPM acted as the major resource of Chinese art history research at the time. The significance of its selective but comprehensive collection in Chinese arts remains recognized today. Recently, the components of potential audiences is experiencing a fundamental change. With the government policy canceling the restrictions posed upon tourists from Mainland China, the visitor number in NPM multiplies all of a sudden. Instead of considering the needs for communities and making efforts to engage them into museum visits, the NPM is facing a huge amount of new visitors from a new community that had it had never encountered before.

Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan often take the NPM as a must-seen tourist sight. Many of the tourists are not museum goers, to them, visiting NPM is merely one of the many stops in their fixed touring schedule designed by the travel agency. However, this new community is becoming the largest portion of visitors in the NPM. Thus, the NPM is currently dealing with problems such as large amount of visitors in specific galleries, noise, viewing order...etc. The most urgent issue will be maintaining the quality of visiting experience to all visitors, on the base of that can the NPM talk more about giving a rewarding museum visit experience.     

     

Below are the strategies the NPM is taking to cope with the situation:

• Extend opening hours

In 2010, 3,440,000 people visited the Museum. In 2011, 3,840,000 people visited. (According to the visitor number statistic chart, they main increase of visitors are from Mainland China.

) To alleviate the crowds and to improve the visiting experience, starting July 1, 2010, the NPM prolonged its opening hours. The museum now opens at 8:30 am (instead of 9:00 am) and closes at 6:30 pm (instead of 5:00 pm). 

• Cooperation between organizations

The NPM also maintains close contact with the Tourism Bureau. Any information regarding the Museum’s exhibitions or visitation can be relayed to tour group staff through e-mail. Short films promoting the Museum are also sent to tour groups and tour guides to show on buses. The Museum will continue working with the Tourism Bureau to strengthen the tour guide training process to ensure the quality of each visitor’s visit. (NPM annual report, 2011, p. 69 )

• Order Management in Exhibition Halls

•Circulation route for each gallery are planned and implemented to guide visitors.

•To improve the quality of each viewer's visit, a counting system was installed to monitor the visitor flow in and out of the Main Exhibition Hall.

•Hand-held signs by gallery assistants subtly instruct visitors to lower their voice and avoid verbal or physical conflicts.

•To improve the quality of visit, measures were taken to resolve the noise issue of group visitors.

•To maintain orderliness of the exhibition “Landscape Reunited: Huang Gongwang and ‘Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains,’” the number of viewers in the exhibition at one time was limited to 20. This allowed the Museum to appropriately manage the visitors and to enhance the viewing quality.

It is clear that order management is a major issue in dealing with this community. The NPM is also making efforts to reach other organizations to deal with the situation. In all, I think the positive attitude to embrace this the new community is encouraging. 

Other than the passive community engagement above, the NPM has its outreach programes aiming different communities in Taiwan. Here are some examples:

• When Young People Meet the NPM: The Saturday Night at the NPM

The event was sponsored by the Dinxin International Group

and the Wei-chuan Foods Corp. A total of 52 shows were presented this year, with 53,955 attendants. Another 2 shows were put on during the Lunar New Year and Lantern Festival, with 1,000 attendants.

• New Melody from the NPM

New Melody from the National Palace Museum is held in the Wenhuitang Auditorium every Wednesday between 2:30 pm and 4:00 pm. Starting From July 2009, Lanting Kun Opera Troupe, Taipei Li-yuan Chinese Opera Theater, the Comedians Workshop, and the Chinese Opera Troupe of National Taiwan College of Performing Arts have performed at the NPM. From April to June 2011, the NPM extended its “Fragrance Fills the Courtyard: Chinese Flower Paintings through the Ages” and invited the Taipei KunQu Society to present the late Ming dynasty playwright “The Peony Pavilion.” From July to September 2011, GuoGuang Opera Company presented the “Legend of the White Snake.” From October to December 2011, to coincide with the exhibition, “Emperor Kangxi and the Sun King Louis XIV: Sino-Franco Encounters in Arts and Culture,” the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts featured three plays performed during Emperor Kangxi’s 60th birthday: “Drunken Rage in the Temple of Wutai Mountain,” “The West Chamber – Temple Encounter,” and “Guan Yu’s Daring Escape.” From July 2008 to December 2011, a total of 93 shows were shown, attracting 16,624 attendees.

• National Treasures Ballot

From September 23 to November 22, 2011, the“National Treasures Grand Selection: Splendid Treasures Online Ballot” was held simultaneously with the special exhibition“Splendid Treasures: A Hundred Masterpieces of the National Palace Museum on Parade.”Everyone was welcomed to vote online for their favorite national treasure in the NPM. The online ballot was combined with the physical exhibition to showcase the most representative Museum artifacts. Web links were provided to show related information regarding the artifacts. While voters were selecting their favorite objects, they could learn more about the NPM’s artifacts. The result of the ballot will be used planning the route of student group tours, developing lesson plans for teachers, in hopes of promoting the Museum’s artifacts, enhancing the cooperation with schools on all levels, and increasing the cultural value of the Museum’s collections.

• The Good Neighbor Program

To promote the Museum’s educational outreach, in 2011, the Museum invited local communities to appreciate “The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece,” “Celebration by Marc Chagall” and “Emperor Kangxi and the Sun King Louis XIV: Sino-Franco Encounters in Arts and Culture.” Guided tours were available to help them understand the artifacts better. This year, Linxi, Xishan, Cuishan, and Fulin village were invited. The program received enthusiastic remarks and responses from the residents.

With these community outreach programes, the citizen visiting number did increase from 1,443,204 to 1,643,200 in three years. However, the number of Mainland Chinese visitors were in almost the same number, wich lead the focus back to the necessity to successfully engage them without disturbing other visitors‘ visiting experiences. 

There are many more informations in the annual report, I think it is a very well organized material for us to have a glance of what this museum is doing. The pictures inside are definitely worth a look :)

Community Engagement-Attracting Audiences with Language Barriers

The United States population is growing every day and becoming more diverse by the minute is a conundrum that museums face constantly.  The communities surrounding museums are transforming through various ways such as by race, socio-economic status, culture, age, and gender.   The Center for the Future of Museums is an initiative from the American Alliance of Museums that studies the changing population by using the 2010 US Census. Their study provides future projections of how the population is becoming more diverse and examples of how different museums are engaging a variety of audiences in their community. It encourages museums to engage visitors from their surrounding communities to enhance individuals and the community as a whole. Many museums face the problem: How do we engage visitors from the community if they are immigrants who speak limited English with different perceptions of museums?  The study uses The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California and The Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, California as an example of how they implement ideas and programs to help answer this question.

Monterey Bay Aquarium in California- There is a growing Latino population in the Monterey Bay area in 1998; however, only eight percent of the growing population is attending the museum.  To alter this situation in 2002, the Aquarium executes a strategic marketing plan that specifically identifies the audience into subcategories. The Aquarium creates a plan for each of the two subcategories.  One of the subcategories is unacculterated Latinos who are: newly immigrants, pre-dominantly Spanish-speaking, larger families, and low incomes.  This subset has a very negative perception of The Aquarium. The plan to change their perception of the museum includes: advertising on Spanish television, radio and local newspapers. Offering discounts and hiring specific staff members to welcome them into the museum. The Aquarium organizes special events such as “Dia del Nino” and “Fiesta del Mar” to promote community involvement.  The Latino population increases from 8 to 24% by 2008 from their initiatives to engage the audience.

Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, California-The San Jose area has large Vietnamese-American population who migrates to the United States because of the Vietnam War. The museum quickly realizes that programs to attract Latino visitors do not work on the Vietnamese population.  Once the museum learns the complexities of the population they create a plan to engage the Vietnamese audience in 2002. They call the plan the “Vietnamese Audience Development Initiative.” One of the main parts of the plan was working with advisors from the Vietnamese community. Other parts of the plan include: adding Vietnamese cultural icons such as rice and bamboo into exhibits, inserting the Vietnamese language on signs and changing their perceptions of museums.  The most important information the museum learns and uses to engage the audience was their goals, expectations, and interests.

Community Engagement in Museums: Partnering and Collaborating with Community Organizations

One way that museums can effectively practice community engagement is by partnering and collaborating with community organizations. In a way, museums can view other organizations as a kind of “audience” to work with when creating exhibitions, developing programming, or holding special events. In the process of building these relationships, museums can further engage various groups and individuals in the community, as well. In fact, if you look at the ways in which museums are currently engaging many of the audiences that we have discussed in class (when I presented on museums who have successfully engaged individuals who are homeless, for example), partnerships with outside organizations or other museums oftentimes play a significant role in this process.

While researching the topic of community partnerships and collaborations, I came across an excellent resource that I wanted to share – a document tilted museum/community partnerships: Lessons Learned from the Bridges Conference, put out by the Philadelphia-Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative and The Franklin Institute. The Bridges Conference (held in June 2008) invited museum/community partnership programs that serve families to participate in a discussion on what it takes to create and sustain successful community partnerships and collaborations. According to the report, “The Bridges Conference was designed to bring together professionals with long-term museum/community relationships, and to offer opportunities to share and develop new strategies to: 1. address the practical issues inherent in funding, developing, and managing museum/community collaborations aimed at bringing science and math to underserved families, and 2. focus on the unique challenges and benefits of collaborating to work with families. Information shared during the conference was intended to contribute to advancing the field of intergenerational learning and informal science as a whole."

Though this conference specifically focused on science museums and community-based organizations that serve families, many of the themes brought up can apply more generally to all kinds of museum/community partnerships, as well. I found the first section of the report, in which they discuss the main points of the conference itself, especially useful. At the end of this section, they list the takeways that came out of the conference with regards to creating successful, mutually rewarding relationships between museums and community-based organizations. They are as follows:

• Take time to observe prospective partners in action, get to know them fully, and consider possibilities for collaboration before leaping into a formal partnership.

• Ensure that partners share common goals. While two or more organizations may have similar or complementary programs and resources, this is not enough to establish a solid collaboration. Unless all parties share common goals, they may wind up working at cross-purposes.

• Carefully construct a mutually satisfactory memorandum of understanding (MOU) that lays out not only the fact of the collaboration, but also detailed information regarding each partner’s rights and responsibilities; any financial agreements; and processes to be followed in the event that one or more parties wishes to end the association.

• Develop clear and regular procedures for communication, which includes opportunities for formal interaction, and social gatherings.

I highly recommend reading the article in its entirety, as it goes into further detail about each of these points and delves into other topics that relate to museum/community partnerships and their outcomes. The article also addresses certain challenges that go along with developing these kinds of complex relationships, and how to handle them. As to-be museum educators, learning about these various aspects of community partnerships and collaborations will help us to create successful and productive community relationships (both on the organizational and individual level) in the future.

I know it is always helpful to see some real-world museum examples and applications -- two museums that I came across that have quite an impressive list and explanation of their community partnerships (and the events, exhibitions, etc. that they have put on as a result) are the The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA and the Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul, MN. You can see that each of these museums has collaborated with a variety of organizations that might not immediately come to mind when you think of community engagement in museums, including the American Red Cross and local public libraries. One additional resource that I found particularly relevant and useful in terms of thinking about community partnerships and collaborations is Strategies for Long-Term Community Partnerships by Jim Zien.

Before closing this post, I would like to share a quote from another resource I came across in my research. In Community Partnerships, an article that focuses on community partnerships and libraries, Nann Blaine Hilyard explains that, “Partnering with municipal government, with businesses, and school communities, and working with other community organizations has bolstered our claim of being the hub of the community and proven our relevance to those who fund our efforts. I cannot imagine how we would make our case without their support." Though Hilyard is referring to libraries in her article, we can certainly apply this quote to informal education institutions in general. We all know how important it is for museums to remain relevant and valuable to their surrounding communities. Community partnerships and collaborations can help with this by making museums an important, integral part in a network of community organizations.

As rewarding and productive as these relationships can be, collaboration is hard work. I noticed that Lori brought up a good question on a previous post with regards to advocating for community engagement in museums. It is certainly possible that we may meet some resistance with regards to community engagement in museums. I think that much of this goes back to what we discussed in Carol’s class this past summer with regards to best practices in museums. If you look back to Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums (American Association of Museums, 1992), #6 on their list of recommendations is to: “Engage in active, ongoing collaborative efforts with a wide spectrum of organizations and individuals who can contribute to the expansion of the museum’s public dimension." I would say that the best thing you could do to help prepare yourself to advocate for community engagement in museums is to be aware of the best practices and standards for museums, learn the current trends in museums as they relate to community engagement, and explore how other museums are practicing community engagement in with outside organizations, groups of people, or individuals in their communities. In general, knowing how to find the information that will prove the value of community engagement for your museum will be beneficial in this process. The evidence is certainly out there!

Feel free to comment and share some other examples of community partnerships and collaborations that you have seen or learned about! We’d love to hear about them. I would also be interested to hear if you have any other ideas of how to advocate for community engagement in museums in response to Lori's question.

Community Engagement and Home School Groups

The National Park Service published Stronger Together: A Manual on the Principles and Practices of Civic Engagement. This manual is a great resource for community engagement because it explores the topic in depth. The NPS manual lists four principles of community engagement:

1. Build genuine relationships.
2. Create effective engagement processes.
3. Deliver relevant interpretive and educational programs and materials.
4. Sustain civic engagement over time.

I thought it would be interesting to compare these principles to the principles established by Graham Black, author of Embedding Civil Engagement in Museums. The UK scholar proposes five principles of civil engagement for urban history museums:


(1) Urban history museums as memory institutions can collect, conserve, document and represent the cultures and life experiences of all those who live within their localities, helping to create an inclusive civil environment.
(2) Urban history museums as learning institutions can help to develop informed individuals and communities who can contribute positively to decision making about their future lives.
(3) Urban history museums as social institutions can reach out to welcome, support and represent the many voices within the communities they serve in partnerships of equals.
(4) Urban history museums as democratic institutions can actively promote civil dialogue and reflective participation in civil society.
(5) Urban history museums as responsive institutions can work to change their organisation and culture to meet the needs of contemporary society.

While each publication has its distinctive qualities, there are some key similarities between the two. They both believe that the voices within each community should be valued and respected. Both agree that museums are a unique space in which community engagement can function. And both hope to inspire people to invest in a common purpose.

While researching for my post, I found a particularly good example of a metro area that reached out to a specific audience--Atlanta institutions extended opportunities to home school groups. An article printed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New Culture of Learning; Metro Museums, Zoo Atlanta and other institutions draws droves to events tailored to home schoolers (01/31/2010), seemed to a be a case study in how to effectively engage one particular audience. As the number of students who are home schoolers rose, the area museums began to hear more voices calling for programs specific to home schoolers' needs. Lani Schoelder, a Zoo Atlanta professional, is quoted, "There were a lot of home schoolers and not a lot of programs for them, especially science-related ones." Many home school teachers/parents asked the museums in the area, "Is there anything you can do for us?" The group advocating for home school programs made their voices and needs apparent; and because of this, it seems like museums developed programs to meet those needs. This article concludes with a list of 8 institutions that now have programs specific to home-school groups. The article also discusses some of the challenges that still remain-- like how to deal with differing, personalized curricula and students' history of learning through one-on-one interaction with the instructor. Although there are still challenges, this story seems to be one of promise--a group that previously felt dismissed by cultural institutions is now seeming to be embraced by them.

To me, the Atlanta home-school story is inspiring because we can identify the application of community engagement principles; specifically, the first and third principles mentioned in the NPS manual as well as the third and fifth principles mentioned by Graham Black. In the comments section of the blog, I welcome you to discuss more examples of effective community engagement. Can you think of other museums that apply these principles successfully?

Redefining Senior Programming with the Baby Boomers

"I do believe it’s a mindset shift of viewing and treating older adults as people with potential and possibility, rather than people with limitations and problems.” 

~Peter Thompson, Exec. Director, Senior Center, Inc.

As the Baby Boomer generation moves towards retirement, they are redefining for many in society, but specifically for those in the senior care industry, what it means to be a “senior citizen” and what the needs of this community are. This cultural shift can be seen perhaps most dramatically in the senior center itself.  “We are social being and as we age we lose a lot of our social connections,” says Peter Thompson, of the growing trend towards senior centers that are defined by spaces that present opportunities for social interaction and “intellectual wellness,” places like cafes, fitness centers, community gardens, and technology-enabled classrooms. [1]

Museums and other cultural entities interested in taking advantage of this growing demographic should also take note of the change in self-perception among the senior community. The 55+ community traditionally known as ”senior” frequently are no longer the oldest generation still living in their families. With their own mothers and fathers still living and being cared for by “senior care,” the modern senior increasingly does not identify with the term “senior.” Additionally, this new generation of seniors is not the same as the generation before them that lived through the Great Depression and at least one world war. This generation is willing to spend money on cultural pursuits, but they look for high quality content from recognizable brands.[2] Such a change in perspective is valuable to note for museums interested in pursuing the modern senior audience. The inclination for participation, even monetary participation is there, but the quality of programming should be high and targeted towards the “modern senior,” not traditional stereotypes.

One very successful example of a program that engages modern seniors is Elderhostel, a company with over 2000 locations across the country and abroad, which offers week-long educational and social vacations to the modern senior community. Over 300,000 seniors participated in Elderhostel programming in 1996 and many of the Elderhostel programs feature museums and other cultural institutions as the basis for the educational fieldtrips they offer.[3] Of the thirteen Elderhostel programs advertised in the Washington D.C. region, all 13 attend at least one museum, national park, or cultural institution for an educational purpose.

While studies have found that around the age of 70, people begin to participate less in recreational activities, it is important to realize that seniors have a lifetime of established interests that they have been unable to freely pursue owing to work and family commitment. While working adults have approximately 45 hours of free-time a week, retired adults have on average 86.25 hours of leisure time per week.[4] It is in the age of retirement that they are able to follow those intrinsic interests that make education so powerful. Indeed, multiple studies have shown that modern seniors are increasingly turning to educational opportunities during their leisure time, as it provides intellectual stimulation, engages them in a life outside the home, helps them meet new people, and allows them to contribute to the community[5].

Museums stand to benefit from this growing audience as the senior age group considers educational enrichment as a critical element of their recreational choices. But there are certain factors that make programs particularly enticing for this audience, specifically:  

• Explanatory text: seniors are interested in learning the reasons and circumstances behind museum exhibits. 
•  Environment: the facility should be accessible, safe, and comfortable.  
• Programming: programs should allow seniors to complete the activities at their own rate and should promote social contact, particularly with multi-generational interaction.  
• Approach: as modern seniors do not necessarily identify with the label of "seniors," they do not want to be stereotyped as “elderly.”[6]

Conversely, there are identified factors that tend to limit the participation of seniors in educational programming, including:

• lack of an accessible educational facility, 
• time limitations, 
• the lack of a “buddy” to with whom to participate, 
• financial limitations, 
• low confidence, 
• lack of awareness of available programming, and 
• irrelevant programming offered. [7]

Several of these barriers can perhaps be eliminated and participation increased by offering programming through the new community-driven senior center. Additionally, some scholars suggest that educational providers consider programming that parallels some of the self-directed learning popular among seniors, including genealogy and collecting[8].

Programs that are providing rich programming for seniors within the senior center environment include: 

• University Without Walls (Dorot; NYC): this program offers classes in music, performing and visual arts, book discussions, play readings, and museum exhibit discussions over the phone to homebound seniors. Participants receive binders of materials to study at home and support discussion.[9]  
• Elders Share the Arts (NYC): In this program, a senior center will recruit a multi-generational group of learners through a senior center to learn a new art form that helps them explore local history and culture, while bridging generational, gender, cultural, financial, and educational gaps. Generally, senior centers are paired with a specific school from which the learners are selected.  
• Arts for the Aging (Maryland): This program brings 85 monthly artistic outreach programs to over 50 senior citizen communities in the D.C. area. Programs include art lectures and cultural field trips, as well as drawing, sculpture, painting, and music classes.  
• Levine School of Music (Washington, D.C.): This community music school supports the Senior Singers’ Chorale, which has drawn 130 seniors from a variety of senior centers across the region since 2004 and performs at major venues in the D.C. area.  
• Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (Maryland): The professional dance company hosts community workshops in community settings, including senior centers and healthcare facilities. Learners engage in performances that combine dance, spoken word, and personal experience to explore topics like aging and community history.[10]

---

[1] Beard, Elizabeth. “Rejuvenating the Senior Center.” Parks and Recreation 47.5 (May 2012): 41-45.

[2] Beard

[3] Finnegan, Lisa. “Never Too Late: Elderhostels offer an opportunity for seniors to get together for learning and fun.” Baltimore Jewish Times 233.3 (Jan 17, 1997): 73.

[4] Calver, Stephen, Wolf Vierich, Julie Phillips. “Leisure in Later Life.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 5.1 (1993):4.

[5] Ostiguy

[6] Calver

[7] Ostiguy

[8] Ostiguy

[9] Sherman, Andrea. “Programs Bring Art of the Aging Brain to Homes and Communities.” Aging Today. 28, 2. (March/April 2007): 6.

[10] “Creativity and Aging: Best Practices.” Jessica Thomas and Katie Lyles eds. National Endowment for the Arts. January 2007.