Creative Later Life Network Meeting – Thursday 8 December

Find out full details of the latest Creative Later Life Network Meeting and access the more recent edition of the Age of Creativity Network Newsletter.

The next Creative Later Life Network Meeting will take place on Thursday 8 December from 11:00 – 12:00. This meeting will focus on Lived Experience – how creativity and culture can support us to learn more about older people’s lives and how these stories can become the inspiration for creative projects. To book your place, please contact farrellrenowden@ageukoxfordshire.org.uk.

The latest Age of Creativity newsletter has also been published. This edition features an update on the brand new Age of Creativity website, as well as some editorials on creativity in later life, some useful training courses, and much more. Click here to view the latest edition.

Creative Later Life 2025 – Introductory Meeting on Thursday 9th June

The Age of Creativity have secured funding to begin a new programme of delivery “Creative Later Life 2025” – find out how to join the introductory meeting on Thursday 9th June.

The Age of Creativity are delighted to announce that we have secured funding to begin a new programme of delivery “Creative Later Life 2025”. The goal of Creative Later Life 2025 is to ensure that older people have equity of access and agency across the creative and cultural sector by the year 2025 – click here to find out more. To kick-start this new programme, we will be holding an introductory meeting on Thursday 9th June from 11am to 12pm, to start discussions about the pathways older people can have to creativity. For a meeting invite, please email farrellrenowden@ageukoxfordshire.org.uk – everyone from the Age UK Network is welcome!

Age of Creativity Festival 2022 – How you can get involved

This year’s Age of Creativity Festival takes place throughout May. Find out how your organisation can get involved, including how to share your upcoming creative events on the Festival website.

The Age of Creativity Festival is a yearly event to celebrate creativity with, for, and by older people! This year’s Festival runs throughout May and the website is now open for submissions of age-friendly creative events that are taking place, both on and offline. Take a look at the Age of Creativity Festival website to see if there are any events you would like to share with your networks, or if you have any upcoming events you’d like to add to the site. You can find out more information about the festival below.

The Age of Creativity Festival is an annual event to celebrate a creative later life across England. The festival is led by Age UK Oxfordshire, with Age UK and hundreds of Age of Creativity network members. Local Age UKs and other age-friendly organisations are encouraged to take part by listing their creative events and activities on the Festival website. You’ll find 100+ creative and age-friendly activities for older people to try – both online and offline on the Festival website, many of these taking place throughout 2022.

Farrell Renowden, who organises the Age of Creativity Festival, recently presented about this year’s festival at the most recent meeting of the Creative Later Life Network. You can view Farrell’s PowerPoint from this meeting below, containing “the who, what, where, when, and why of the Festival” and all relevant links. Farrell has also shared some additional resources that were raised during the discussions which may be of interest:

To get creative information for older people in your communities, sign up for the festival e-newsletter here: Age of Creativity | Home. You can also find more creativity resources on the Creative Later Life Hub.

For more information, or to join the Creative Later Life Network, please email Farrell Renowden.

Creative Later Life: October Meeting – Free Creative Resources for Local Age UKs

The next Creative Later Life meeting will take place on Thursday 14th October from 11:00-12:00 and will focus on free creative resources for local Age UKs.

The next Creative Later Life meeting will take place on Thursday 14th October, 11-12pm on Teams. Led by Age UK Oxfordshire’s Farrell Renowden, the theme for the meeting is ‘My Top 10 list of FREE creative resources for local Age UKs’. Farrell will talk participants through 10 of the most useful resources that she uses day to day. Book your place below.

Farrell is often asked how staff and volunteers can find accessible websites and useful toolkits or sign up for creative networks and national campaigns, so this session is ideal for those partners that are keen to develop their knowledge on the topic and get extra support- that is already freely available for us to use. 

November’s meeting will take place on Thursday 11th, 11-12pm, and will focus on tackling inequalities with creativity. 

All colleagues across the Age UK family are welcome, please email farrellrenowden@ageukoxfordshire.org.uk for a link or to be added to the CLL mailing list for updates.

Find out more about the Creative Later Life Network here.

Creative Later Life: September Meeting – Music Special

The next Creative Later Life meeting will take place on Thursday 9th September from 11:00-12:00 and will focus on Playlist for Life.

Whether you are new to Playlist for Life or already part of their network, the team have new free resources to enable more people to enjoy more music. Click here to join us at the next Creative Later Life Meeting on Thursday 9th September from 11:00-12:00, for the chance to hear how staff, volunteers, carers and colleagues are using Playlist for Life resources locally. Everyone across the Age UK Network is welcome, so please share it with any colleagues you think would be interested. We apologise that this reminder is at such short notice but we still wanted to share it with you in case you are able to attend on Thursday. This meeting will also be recorded and circulated afterwards for those who can’t make it on the day.

Playlist for Life say:

“Listening to the music that we love has many psychological benefits. In this session you’ll hear about the benefits of ‘personal’ music and how it can help improve wellbeing for people living with dementia. Whether it’s the music from a first dance, lullabies from childhood or a theme tune from a favourite TV show, singing or listening to just one song together that holds special meaning for someone can brighten their day and help you connect.”

For a flavour of their work, check out: ‘Get started with our resources’ 1 min 45 sec video and a longer 4 min Discover Playlist for Life video.

We look forward to seeing you at this Thursday’s meeting.

If you would like to join the Creative Later Life Network, please email Farrell Renowden at Age UK Oxfordshire.

Creative Later Life Meeting – “Creativity in Co-production”

The next Creative Later Life Meeting will take place on 12th August 2021 from 11-12pm and will feature a presentation from Ageing Better’s Project Lead, Vicky O’Donoghue.

The Creative Later Life network is led by Age UK Oxfordshire, supporting other local Age UKs to develop their creative offer locally – it is free and open to everyone across the Age UK Network. Each month we hold a meeting that includes best practice examples and useful information from a guest speaker. Our next meeting takes place on the 12th August 2021 from 11-12pm, where Ageing Better‘s Project Lead, Vicky O’Donoghue will explore the concept of co-production, explain how Ageing Better successfully applied this approach, and introduce one of the key themes, “Creativity in Co-production”. To join the Creative Later Life Network or to register for the meeting then please email farrellrenowden@ageukoxfordshire.org.uk.

Ageing Better is a network of 14 programme areas across England, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.  Now in its 7th year, Ageing Better has undertaken a test and learn approach to developing creative ways for people aged over 50 to be actively involved in their local communities, helping to combat social isolation and loneliness.

As part of Ageing Better’s legacy, 64 representatives from across the network worked together to co-create a national toolkit & resource library featuring their co-production approach; the ways in which professionals and citizens worked together to co-create services, projects and activities.

Co-production has been at the very heart of Ageing Better’s work. The voices of older people have been involved within every aspect of the programme, from the setting up, dissemination, design, and delivery, through to the evaluation of services, projects & activities, for people aged 50 and over.

Project Lead, Vicky O’Donoghue will explore the concept of co-production, explain how Ageing Better successfully applied this approach within their work, and introduce one of the key themes, “Creativity in Co-production”.  

During the session Vicky will demonstrate the Toolkit, share insights into how co-production can enhance creativity, and facilitate a discussion around the stories, tools and resources that are freely available within the toolkit, and how they might enhance community-based projects, with a specific focus on ideas for working with older people.

If you’d like to find out more about the wider Ageing Better programme prior to the session, here’s the link to The National Lottery Community Fund website

To join the Creative Later Life Network or to register for the meeting then please email farrellrenowden@ageukoxfordshire.org.uk.

We hope to see you there!