Adaptive Environments
374 Congress Street, Suite 301
Boston, MA 02210
Voice/TTY: 617.695.1225
Fax: 617.482.8099
E-mail: info@AdaptiveEnvironments.org
Web site: www.adaptenv.org
Contact: Elaine Ostroff

Adaptive Environments is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1978 to address the environmental issues that confront older adults and people with disabilities. Adaptive Environments promotes accessibility and universal design through education programs, technical assistance, training, consulting, publications, and design advocacy. Its mission is to promote, facilitate, and advocate for the international adoption of policies and designs that enable every individual, regardless of disability or age, to participate fully in every aspect of society.

American Music Therapy
Association, Inc. (AMTA)
8455 Colesville Road, Suite 1000
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Voice: 301.589.3300
Fax: 301.589.5175
E-mail: info@musictherapy.org
Website: www.musictherapy.org

AMTA's mission is the progressive development of the therapeutic use of music in rehabilitation, special education, and community settings. It publishes a quarterly research-oriented journal called the Journal of Music Therapy, a semi-annual, practice oriented journal, a quarterly newsletter called Music Therapy Matters, and a variety of other monographs, bibliographies, and brochures. In addition, it holds conferences and serves as a referral service for individuals interested in Music Therapy.

Americans for the Arts
1000 Vermont Ave., N.W. 6th floor
Washington, D.C. 20005-2304
Voice: 202.371.2830
Fax: 202.371.0424
WebSite: www.artsusa.org
Contact: Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO

Americans for the Arts is a national organization that supports arts and culture through private and public resource development, leadership development, public policy development, information services, public awareness, and education.

ArtAge Publications
P.O. Box 22472
Kansas City, MO 64113-0472
Voice: 816.361.1100
Fax: 816.361.1103
E-mail: bonniev@seniortheatre.com
Website: www.seniortheatre.com
Contact: Bonnie L. Vorenberg

Senior Theatre Connections is a comprehensive directory of Senior Theater performing groups, professionals, and resources by Bonnie L. Vorenberg. The directory costs $24.95 and may be ordered directly through its publisher, ArtAge Publications.

Arts for the Aging, Inc. (AFTA)
6917 Arlington Road Suite 352
Bethesda, MD 20814
Voice: 301.718.4990
Fax: 301.718.4992
E-mail: elucero@aftaarts.org
Website: www.aftaarts.org
Contact: Eva Lucero, Executive Director

AFTA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of older adults by providing them with access to the arts. Since 1988, AFTA has organized monthly arts workshops in mediums such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, bookmaking, dance movement, music, and theater for older individuals in the Washington D.C. area. Over the past nine years, AFTA has also offered intergenerational programs to more than 1,000 older adults and school-aged children. In addition to its workshops, AFTA arranges outings to local cultural venues like the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and Embassies. Through AFTA's senior dance troupe Quicksilver and art exhibitions, participants are invited to showcase their talents for others.

Center in the Park
5818 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19144
Voice: 215.848.7722
Fax: 215.848.0979
Web site: www.centerinthepark.org
Contact: Lynn Fields Harris, Executive Director

Center in the Park, a multi-purpose senior center, is located in an inner-city community which is primarily African-American. Its recent projects include an ongoing community site for an Artist-in-Education program, a collaboration with an inner-city high school that is helping students establish historical points of reference within the community, and a mural for the Criminal Justice Center inspired by members' neighborhood memories.

Connecticut Hospice Program
Arts Department
100 Double Beach Road
Branford, CT 06405
Voice: 203.315.7522
Fax: 203.315.7655
E-mail: kblossom@hospice.com or info@hospice.com
Website: www.hospice.com
Contact: Katherine Blossom-Mascagna, Director of Art Program

The Connecticut Hospice Program considers arts services to be as indispensable to healthcare as nursing and dietary services. The Arts Department is staffed by several artists, musicians, teachers, therapists, and volunteers who offer free, daily opportunities for expression, creativity, and the relief of stress, boredom, or pain to patients and families. Its activities include live music concerts, ongoing exhibits in the main gallery, and bedside arts.

Creative Aging Cincinnati
7970 Beechmont Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45255
Voice: 513.561. 7500
Fax: 513.561.2430
Contact: Mary Kay Morris

Since 1975, Creative Aging Cincinnati, formerly Art and Humanities Resource Center for Older Adults, has designed and presented mentally stimulating programs for thousands of older adults in a five-county area in greater Cincinnati. AHRC's programs often channel older people's personal perspectives and memories of historic events into original songs, dances, theatrical performances, and visual artwork. Its performances, which are held in large accessible sites, nursing homes, and senior centers, often incorporate musical elements with help from the Cincinnati Opera Outreach Program, symphony musicians, jazz artists, and other professional musicians. AHRC offers its programs free to adults aged 65 or older and frequently provides buses to accommodate individuals with transportation needs.

Elders Share the Arts
138 S. Oxford Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Voice: 718.398.3870
Fax: 718.398.3864
E-mail: sperlstein@creativeaging.org or
info@creativeaging.org
Web site: www.elderssharethearts.org
Contact: Susan Perlstein, Executive Director

ESTA is a community arts organization dedicated to validating personal histories, honoring diverse traditions, and connecting generations and cultures through living history arts programs. Its staff of professional artists works with individuals of all ages to transform life stories into dramatic, literary, and visual presentations that celebrate inner-city community life. Pearls of Wisdom, ESTA's touring storytellers, express their diverse lives and raise issues such as exploitation of elders, housing, and healthcare through stories, playlets, and songs that they perform for communities with limited access to art. Generating Community, ESTA's intergenerational arts partnership program, promotes art programs that bring together seniors and young students from various schools and centers.

Full Circle Theater Troupe
Center for Intergenerational Learning at Temple University
1600 North Broad Street, Room 206 Philadelphia, PA 19122
Voice: 215.204. 9386
Fax: 215.204.3195
E-mail: mbwood@temple.edu
Web site: www.temple.edu/cil/fct/index.htm 
Contact: Marilyn Wood, Managing Director

Full Circle Theater is an intergenerational ensemble of teens and older adults who create improvisational, interactive performances and socio-dramas on themes like ageism and the generation gap. These performances often teach and promote conflict resolution. The company performs up to 150 times a year and has raised funds for projects that confront specific issues like AIDS, violence, and dying.

GRACE (Grass Roots Art and Community Efforts)
P.O. Box 960
Hardwick, VT 05843
Voice: 802.472.6857
Website: www.graceart.org
Contact: Don Sunseri, Founder and Artistic Director

Since 1975, GRACE has been dedicated to the development and promotion of visual art produced primarily by older, self-taught artists of rural Vermont. GRACE recruits professional artists to hold instructional training and workshops at nursing homes, senior-meal sites, mental health centers, and hospitals. Through touring exhibitions, lectures, media documentation, and publications like States of GRACE: Grass Roots Art and Community Efforts since 1975, its participants' artistry has reached broad national audiences.

Institute on Aging
3330 Geary Boulevard, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94118
Voice: 415.750.4180
Fax: 415.750.4179
Website: http://www.gioa.org/
Contact: Dr. David Werdegar, President

Developed by the Mount Zion Institute on Aging and the UCSF/ Mount Zion Center on Aging, Artworks trains professional artists to conduct arts programs that accommodate the needs of older individuals and their families. These professionals design and implement projects in the visual and performing arts at adult day health centers and in the homes of frail older adults. Through creative expression, participants remain connected to the community and experience improved physical and emotional well-being.

JAM Workshop  
1830 Sutter Street, Suite 102
San Francisco, CA 94115
E-mail: jam_workshop@yahoo.com                               

JAM Workshop, formerly Japantown Art & Media Workshop, is a non-profit community group that promotes and preserves the art, culture, and heritage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  The former organization closed in 2001 but community artists and individuals are currently reorganizing and forming JAM Workshop.  

Kairos Dance Theatre
4524 Beard Avenue S.
Minneapolis, MN   55410
Voice:   612-927-7864
E-mail:   mariagenne@yahoo.com
Web site:   www.kairosdance.org              Contact: Maria DuBois Genné, Artistic Director

Kairos Dance Theatre is an intergenerational dance company whose performers range in age from 4 to 90 years old. Kairos Dance Theatre performs locally and nationally, reaching intergenerational audiences in venues where dance is not usually found, such as nursing homes, community centers, parks, libraries, schools and museums. Kairos' mission is to celebrate life, community, and the unique gifts of each individual by sharing the joy of dance with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. Through its program, "The Dancing Heart: Vital Elders Moving in Community," Kairos Dance Theatre offers older adults, their families, and caregivers an interactive, creative experience that combines opportunities for artistic expression and learning with the health-enhancing benefits of dance and music. Through short-term residencies and ongoing workshops, Kairos invites participants to experience the interweaving of dance and story, to redefine their beliefs about their physical and artistic abilities, and to join us as artistic collaborators in creating performances that we bring to diverse groups in the community.

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
7117 Maple Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Voice: 301.270.6700
Fax: 301.270.2626
E-mail: mail@danceexchange.org
Web site: www.danceexchange.org

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange brings the power of dance and story to a broad spectrum of individuals. The company is composed of ten dancers whose ages span six decades. These dancers perform, rehearse, teach, plan residencies, choreograph, assist in fundraising and administrative activities, act as spokespeople for the organization, and serve on the board of directors. LLDE's current programs for older adults include dance classes at senior centers and nursing homes, community performance events, studio dance incentives for older adults, and training for dancers, healthcare professionals, teachers, gerontology students, and others in the art of making dance in community settings.

Mill Street Loft
455 Maple Street
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
Voice: 845.471.7477
Fax: 845.471.7507
E-mail: carolejw@earthlink.net
Web site: www.millstreetloft.org
Contact: Carole Wolf, Executive Director

Mill Street Loft, a nationally recognized, multi arts educational center, is committed to bringing creative educational and culturally enriching programs to children and older adults through the Hudson River Valley region. Its intergenerational programs, including Seniors Go to Art Camp, the Intergenerational Chorus, Life Stage Theater, Oral Histories, Connections, Building Bridges, Totems, and Project ABLE (Arts for Basic Education, Life Skills, and Entrepreneurship), promote meaningful communication and interdependence between generations. Participants in these programs explore community, economic, and age-related issues through the common ground of music, creative movement, drama, storytelling, or the visual arts.

Museum One, Inc.
7823 Yorktown Drive
Alexandria, VA 22308
Voice: 1 800 524-1730
E-mail: Joan@museumoneinc.org                                    Web site: www.museumoneinc.org
Contact: Joan Hart, Executive Director

Museum One is an arts and educational outreach service which brings art appreciation and other art forms such as music, dance, and poetry to the community, with a special emphasis on the older adult and aging population. Museum One is based on the concept that group leaders for the older adults such as recreation therapists and activities directors can bring the cultural resources of the art museum and other arts facilities through activities and educational sessions. Museum One educational programs, such as slide programs, manuals, and books, are designed specifically for leading older adult participants at senior sites, ranging from nursing homes to assisted living to adult day care centers to retirement communities. Audiences are diverse, from the still active older adult to the Alzheimer's individual.

North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement (NCCCR)
Reuter Center, CPO #5000
University of North Carolina at Asheville
One University Heights
Asheville, NC 28804-8516
Voice: 828.251.6140
Fax: 828.251.6803
E-mail: rmarheimer@unca.edu                                Website: http://www.unca.edu/ncccr/
Contact: Ron Manheimer, Executive Director

Established in 1988, NCCCR promotes lifelong learning, leadership, and community service opportunities for retirement-aged individuals. In hopes of contributing to the development of an age-integrated society, it encourages creative intergenerational activities on campus and in the community. In addition to supporting a College for Seniors program at UNCA, NCCCR organizes special events like trips to theaters, museum tours, and line dancing for older adults.

The OASIS Institute
7710 Carondelet Avenue, Suite 125
St. Louis, MO 63105
Voice: 314.862.2933
Fax: 314.862.2149
E-mail: mmann@oasisnet.org                                  Website: www.oasisnet.org
Contact: Marylen Mann, Chairman

OASIS is a national education organization designed to enhance the quality of life for older adults through challenging programs in the arts, humanities, wellness, and volunteer service. It offers programs involving subjects like drawing, painting, sculpture, pottery, art and music appreciation, readers' theater, creative writing, acting, tap dance, and voice through a national network of community based OASIS centers in 26 US cities. OASIS now serves several hundred thousand individuals across the country.

Senior Adult Theater Program
University of Nevada- Las Vegas
4505 Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89154
Voice: 702.895.4673
Web Site: http://seniorprograms.unlv.edu  Contact: Douglas Hill, Assistant Director

The Senior Adult Theater program was founded in 1990 to encourage older adults to pursue their diverse interests in subjects like design, acting, and promotions through theater courses. Students of all ages and from many states can enroll in the program to learn about senior theater, but Nevada residents aged 62 and older have the extra incentive of being able to earn up to six tuition-free credits per semester. The program has grown from 25 to over 100 students and has been featured in articles, in journals, and on NBC tv.

Senior Arts
P.O. Box 46479
Albuquerque, NM 87196
Voice: 505.877.4430
Contact: Leanne Mennin

Senior Arts invites New Mexico's finest artists to participate in a culturally diverse and challenging arts program for Albuquerque's senior citizens. The program consists of workshops and performances in the disciplines of music, dance, theater, literature, and visual arts held in all of Albuquerque's public senior centers as well as a number of satellite and residential sites. These workshops and performances, which have covered topics like Spanish tinworking, Polish paper-cutting, bilingual poetry, Pueblo ceramic-sculpting, Indian hoopdancing, and African-American storytelling, reflect Senior Arts' commitment to developing both traditional and contemporary art forms.

Senior Performers Committee of the Screen Actors Guild
360 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10012-3111
Voice: 212.533.1487
SAG Committee Office: 212.827.1448
Fax: 212.358.8711
E-mail: gee2@bway.net
Contact: Geena Goodwin, Chair

The Senior Performers Committee strives to change senior images throughout the movie and television industries and to increase opportunities for work by demonstrating that the senior stereotype is not valid. The committee hosts speakers, distributes flyers and questionnaires, and publishes brochures that demand revisions in the way that advertisers, directors, artists, and publicists view older adults. Recently, the committee has also focused on older adults' involvement with the internet and other new technologies.

The Stagebridge Theater
2501 Harrison Street
Oakland, CA 94612
Voice: 510.444.4755
Fax: 510.444.4821
E-mail: info@stagebridge.org
Website: www.stagebridge.org
Contact: Stuart Kandell, Founder

Since 1978, Stagebridge's mission has been to include older people in theater and to use performance as a means of bridging generations. Storybridge, its intergenerational arts and literacy project, enables low-income older adults and at-risk children to interact and learn through storytelling programs like "Grandparents' Tales" and "Senior Storytellers in the Schools." Stagebridge also coordinates classes in acting, improv, storytelling, and scene study, as well as performances of original plays about aging for individuals in schools, rest homes, hospitals, libraries, senior centers, and theaters. Its quarterly newsletter currently reaches 3,000 subscribers.