FY 2009 Grant Awards: Creativity & Aging in America

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Arts Northwest
Port Angeles, WA
$25,000
To support Songwriting Works on the Olympic Peninsula. The project will include an interactive song composition program with older adults and professional musicians.

Cleveland TOPS Swingband Foundation
Westlake, OH
$25,000
To support the Big Band Youth Outreach Project, in which the Cleveland TOPS Swingband will teach the big band music style to area school-age students. The project will include performances in high schools, musicians' residencies in schools, and band camps.

Community College of Baltimore County
Baltimore, MD
$25,000
To support the Community College of Baltimore County Senior Star Showcase, Music City Bound. An ensemble of older musicians will develop, produce, and perform an original musical revue featuring Nashville music and new compositions.

Connecticut Players Foundation, Inc. (aka Long Wharf Theatre)
New Haven, CT
$15,000
To support the Elder Play Project at the Long Wharf Theatre. The project will include a playwriting residency in a retirement community that will culminate in the publication and performance of the older adults' work.

Engage Inc.
Burbank, CA
$25,000
To support EngAGE in Writing. The project will include community-based creative writing classes, taught by professional writers of varying genres, in retirement communities.

Gemini Series, Inc.
San Antonio, TX
$15,000
To support the Life Letters project, an intergenerational life-writing program for older adults and high school students. The project will culminate in an anthology publication and performance of the participants' work.

Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Inc.
Jamaica, NY
$25,000
To support the Langston Hughes and New York Jazz Heritage Project. Older adults will participate in creative writing and music sessions, where they will study the poetry of Langston Hughes, explore its connection to jazz music, and create music inspired by Hughes's poetry.

Marshall County Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Inc.
Guntersville, AL
$25,000
To support Melodies and Musings-Our Appalachian Legacy. Older adults will participate in dulcimer classes and sacred harp vocal classes, as well as writing circles about Appalachian memories; the project will conclude with a regional workshop and festival event.

Poets & Writers, Inc.
New York, NY
$25,000
To support Creative Writing Workshops for Seniors. Writing workshops will be led by published writers and will focus on poetry and creative nonfiction.

Poets House, Inc.
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the Poets House Poetry Writing Program for Older Adults. The project will be composed of poetry workshops conducted by professional poets.

Settlement Music School of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA
$25,000
To support Settlement's Program for Seniors. The project will include a comprehensive music instruction and performance program.

Stagebridge
Oakland, CA
$25,000
To support the Stagebridge Playwriting Project. The project will foster the development of new plays and short works, while enriching the field of theatrical literature by, for, and about older artists.

Woodland Pattern, Inc.
Milwaukee, WI
$25,000
To support an older writers-in-residence project. Participants will mentor younger writers, give public readings of their work, and conduct writing workshops for older adults.

Young Men's & Young Women's Hebrew Association
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the Creative Writing and Creative Music program. The project will include memoir writing, poetry classes, writing groups, a senior chorus, senior chamber music ensemble, and group piano classes for older adults led by professional artists.

Number of Grants: 14          Total Amount: $330,000

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506