Arts for the Aging

The Power of Imagination

Since 1988, Arts for the Aging, Inc. (AFTA) has promoted that physical and cognitive activity, especially in the arts, is key to healthy aging. Now, research is beginning to show the positive impact of arts on mental and physical health, longevity, and the overall quality of life for seniors. AFTA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization providing artistic outreach to senior citizens living with age-related disorders and impairments. Seventeen professional artists lead visual, performing, and literary art workshops in senior centers throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. AFTA focuses its outreach where impact is greatly needed – in underserved, not-for-profit senior day care centers, nursing homes for physically and cognitively impaired seniors, and in community centers where seniors seek daily stimulation in order to remain feeling vital. The diverse AFTA curriculum underscores an imperative mission to enhance the quality of life for the fastest growing age group in the U.S. today – seniors. One in ten Americans says they have had a family member with Alzheimer’s disease. By mid-century, the Alzheimer’s population will more than double – that’s 16 million people losing their ability to perform simple, everyday tasks, while also living longer. Age-related physical and cognitive impairments in a population this size will require more attention to intervention strategies like AFTA’s, which promote innovative daily mental and physical stimulation.

AFTA workshops incorporate interactive techniques to: impart a sense of accomplishment and learning; increase sensory stimulation, verbalization, and participation; foster the acquisition of new skills; enhance the process of reminiscence; encourage self expression and participation through the validation of limitations and strengths; develop meaningful interpersonal relationships; and build communal spirits within senior centers. Feelings of agitation, isolation, and loneliness are diminished and memory is stimulated and enhanced. After a slide talk on the history of boats for a men's group with Alzheimer's disease, an AFTA instructor overheard one participant say to another, “You were in the Navy? So was I.” Several, in fact, were former naval officers. They recognized places depicted in the slides and shared a few memories of their own. Short-term memory for these men is fragile, if not tangled. Nonetheless, the AFTA instructor finds access to the wisdom of more coherent long-term memories and strengthens bonds by unearthing shared experiences.

The 85 workshops offered free of charge to nearly 50 underserved senior centers include:

• Visual Arts – art history, drawing, collage, painting and sculpture
• Performing Arts – opera, creative movement, dance in many forms, including improvisation, modern, healing, Spanish dance, and with Quicksilver, AFTA’s age 65+ senior dance troupe
• Musical Arts – piano, violin/fiddle, guitar, voice, bones, harmonica, drumming, music and poetry collaborations
• Literary Arts, Intergenerational Programming, Cultural Outings – poetry and haiku reading and writing, storytelling, intergenerational workshops with schools and summer camps, and exhibition tours at museums, embassies and cultural centers.

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Lolo Sarnoff

AFTA’s leader and founder is sculptress Lolo Sarnoff. A pioneer in the use of fiber optics, Sarnoff is particularly proud of her sculpture “The Flame”, commissioned in honor of President Kennedy and located at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House, first tier.

Sarnoff also has had a career as a scientist, assisting her husband, Dr. Stanley J. Sarnoff, in many research projects, including the development of the Electro-Phrenic Respirator, the only device applicable for Bulbar polio patients, for whom artificial respiration could not be established by the iron lung. The Electro-Phrenic Respirator actually saved the life of her own daughter. This medical breakthrough was publicized internationally in newspapers and medical papers as a life-saver. Headlines proclaimed “The Device Cheats Death.”

Born a Swiss citizen, Sarnoff graduated from the Reimann School of Art in Berlin. After marrying an American, she relocated to New York and later to Washington, D.C., where she has been residing for the past fifty years. A renaissance woman in every possible way, Sarnoff  continues to combine her love of arts and science to improve the lives of older adults.

Shortly after founding AFTA in 1988, Sarnoff testified before Congress (1992) about the importance of artistic stimulation for seniors with Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related impairments, as well as the necessity for increased funding for senior day care.

For more information

Arts for the Aging, Inc. (AFTA)

Lolo Sarnoff’s Web site