Lively Arts
by Elizabeth Pope
Frances Hodsdon of Jefferson, Maine, is a firm believer that artistic endeavors erase age. "Many people don't realize I'm 77," she says. "Maybe that's because I'm so active. I'm still teaching and doing my own work." Hodsdon, a well-known visual artist, printmaker, and teacher recalls one woman who took printmaking classes into her 90s. "She was an inspiration to me," Hodsdon says. "She came every week in winter for a decade until she died. It meant a lot to her to be with other people in the studio."
The latest research supports Hodsdon's observation: the arts can keep you healthy. Creative activities like painting, writing, pottery, drama, singing, and storytelling raise self-esteem, increase enthusiasm for life, and result in fewer doctor visits, says Gene D. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., of George Washington University.
Cohen's ongoing study at GWU's Center on Aging, Health and Humanities of approximately 300 men and women tracks several arts programs around the country, among them the Senior Singers Chorale, an Arlington, Virginia-based chorus (www.levineschool.org or 703-237-5655), the National Center for Creative Aging/Elders Share the Arts in Brooklyn (www.elderssharethearts.org or 718-398-3870), and the Center for Elders and Youth in the Arts in San Francisco (www.gioa.org/programs/art/art.html or 415-447-1989 x534). Early findings are promising. The arts participants, whose average age is 80, schedule fewer doctor appointments and use fewer medications than members of the control group (who are not involved in the arts). They also have fewer incidents of depression, higher morale, and more involvement in outside activities. "There's the feeling that ‘Gee if I can achieve this here, what about other places?’" says Cohen.
Mary Barkley of Falls Church, Virginia, a retired fifth grade teacher, had never sung in public before joining the Senior Singers Chorale, which has performed at the Kennedy Center and other prestigious venues. "I love to sing and I enjoy the music," says Barkley. She can't be sure whether the choir benefits her health. "But, at 95, I'm limited," she says. "I used to walk briskly and now I use a cane. Still, my spirit is high and being with people has made my life happier and more fulfilling." She is convinced that "old teachers never die, they just keep going to class."
Auditions for the choir are not required, nor is experience–just a readiness to learn, says director Jeanne Kelly of the Levine School of Music. "For many members, it's the highlight of their week," she says. "They sing four parts, and study vocal production and performance technique. They put every ounce of energy into their time on stage–they love entertaining and giving back."
Cohen's study is based on earlier research indicating that having a sense of control in a situation improves health. "Biologists have examined older people with a sense of mastery and have seen positive changes to the immune system," he says. "Every week you get energized by a sense of accomplishment and the next week you get reenergized."
Excellent teaching by professional artists or historians is a key element in producing a strong impact on older adults, says Cohen. "We're not talking about paint-by-numbers here," he says. "It's important that the person leading the program has the background to sustain a very high momentum with a depth of experience and knowledge."
Senior Singer Chorale director Kelly notes that the choir functions almost like a support group with members watching out for one another. "We have had singers whose spouses passed away, and they are there the next week," she says, "And when the singers themselves are ill, they return as soon as possible. They know they're going to laugh and learn."
Arts programs also offer opportunities to make new friends. Members of the Twin Cities-based Kairos Dance Theatre (www.kairosdance.org or 612-927-7864) span four generations from age 4 to 90. Some perform using canes, walkers, and wheelchairs. Besides benefiting from a healthy workout and the artistic challenge, the dancers have grown close during weekly rehearsals and numerous performances. "There are magic moments," says Ira Gordon, 62, a retired philosophy professor and member of the intergenerational troupe. "In the course of a duet, a trio, or a group ensemble piece, something just clicks, and in a fraction of a second some new understanding emerges without a word spoken."
Cohen is studying storytellers through the Pearls of Wisdom living history program sponsored by Elders Share the Arts. One such storyteller, Carrie Raiford, 82, of Brooklyn visits schools, nursing homes, and senior centers to talk about her childhood picking cotton on a sharecropper's farm or teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. Raiford calls the oral history program "a dream come true," one that has brought her new friends and taken her to London on a storytelling expedition.
"I love to talk," says Raiford. "I always wanted to be a public speaker and I've got stories about everything." One of her favorite tales is about the time she went home after a summer working in New York City and forgot the rules of bus-riding for African Americans in pre-civil rights South Carolina. She wondered why the driver started shouting when she sat up front. "Then it dawned on me, and I was terrified," she says. "In those days, they'd take you in the woods and kill you. Later, my daddy kept yelling at me, ‘How could you forget?’ My family wouldn't let me back on the bus again. When I tell the children about those times, you can hear a pin drop."
