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What does it take to make creativity a meaningful part of how communities support people as they age?

That question brought 48 state leaders from across the West together in Salt Lake City this summer for Lifetime Arts’ first Creative Aging Leadership Summit. They came from arts agencies, aging services, libraries, health, veterans services, and other sectors. Some represented states with years of creative aging work behind them. Others were just beginning. But they shared a larger goal: moving creative aging beyond individual programs and into the systems, partnerships, and policies that shape how people age.

The Summit grew out of Lifetime Arts’ work with Western states, but the lessons extend far beyond the region. Across the country, we are working with state and cross-sector leaders who are asking similar questions.

What we heard in Salt Lake City reinforced something important: states have a powerful role to play in making creativity part of healthy aging. And they don’t have to build a new system to do it.

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