Essential Services for Aging Artists

"Age gives you the freedom to do some things you've never done before.

Great work can come at any stage of your life."  Will Barnet

"With age, art and life become one." - Georges Braque

Essential Services for Aging Artists is a 233 page document that is the May 2006 final report to NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts). It was produced by The H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University.

"The project’s goals were to gain a more thorough understanding of the problems and needs that visual artists face as they age, to research potential services that exist to address these needs, to pinpoint and explain needs still unmet, and to make recommendations for addressing these unmet needs."

The Overall Conclusions and Recommendations, and the Lessons Learned segments start on page 114. Also, be sure to look at Appendix H - the Artist Cheat Sheet. Additionally, there is an extensive Annotated List of Existing Services which, while a number of them are specific to the state of New York, many others are cited which are available to artists nationwide.

A copy of the survey used to collect the data is included - you may want to print it out and take it for yourself - use it as a tool for self-awareness and to help crystallize your thoughts about who you are as an artist.
http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/systems/report/51_FINAL%20SYSTEMS%20REPORT.pdf

You also may want to review the March 12, 2009 post on

Estate and Legacy Planning for Artists
.

Artists and Aging: Better with Time - This is a 100-minute video of Part 1 of a 3-part professional development series sponsored by the Artist Trust and broadcast by the Seattle Channel: Taped on 4/24/10, it is "A discussion from a multidisciplinary panel of senior artists that have continued to create new work through the tides of personal and social change." Part 2 (Now and Forever: Legacy Planning for Artists) and Part 3 (Where There’s A Will There’s A Way: A Guide to Estate Planning for Artists) are not yet available.
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=5591041