OLDER PEOPLE should be given more opportunities to engage in the arts, President Michael D Higgins said yesterday.
Speaking at the opening of Creating a New Old: A Global Conference on Ageing, the President said it was ridiculous to think there was any part of the age cycle that excluded the arts.
A change in consciousness was needed to ensure inclusiveness for older people, he said.
The international conference, with delegates from the UK, US, Australia and the EU as well as from Ireland, is exploring how creative activity can help people maintain dignity, quality of life and independent living throughout older age.
Mr Higgins, who received prolonged applause from those attending the conference at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin yesterday, said the idea that older people are supposed to be “sitting there waiting for someone to dump your memories on” was wrong.
Older people must be given more opportunities to engage with the arts, he said, “and it must be a lot freer than it is”. He also warned against the introduction of charges to venues such as museums which are now free.
“Now is not the time for putting any barriers or charges, or anything, between people and enjoyment and participation in the arts,” Mr Higgins said.
Culture should be a “bedrock of citizenship” rather than a thing to be purchased, he said.
Organised by Age and Opportunity and the Bealtaine festival, the three-day conference is also exploring how the creative powers of older people can be harnessed for society.
Speakers include Susan Langford MBE, director of UK inter-generational arts project Magic Me, who believes cocktails should be served in care homes, and choreographer and performer Liz Lerman.
Speaking yesterday, Age and Opportunity director Catherine Rose said the reality of our ageing demographic was being seen as “an ever-increasing strain on limited resources”.
Only by “altering the mindset of society towards ageing” could there be “a newer, more inspired and inspiring reality”, said Ms Rose.
