Achievements

March – International Women’s Day

This month we celebrated International Women’s Day by launching another Creative Ageing Fanzine featuring Sita Brand, posting the Advent of Ageing artwork and statements across our social media and directing people to our female artist focused Fanzines

Find out more here.

March – Fanzine: Sita Brand

This month we celebrated International Women’s Day by launching another Creative Ageing Fanzine featuring Sita Brand, posting the Advent of Ageing artwork and statements across our social media and directing people to our female artist focused Fanzines

Find out more here.

February – Fanzine: Meet Me at the Albany

We created a brand new Fanzine for 2026 featuring Sophie Merriman, Producer of Meet Me at the Albany an arts and social club for people over 65, delivered in partnership with the Entelechy Arts. She reflects on challenging ageism, listening deeply, and reshaping assumptions about older people in creative spaces.

Find out more here.

January – The January Challenge

We were thrilled to work with 64 Million Artists to launch this creative prompt! The January Challenge is 31 days of creative prompts to spark imagination and connection.

“Take a moment to sit comfortably, pause, and connect with yourself. Let your imagination lead you. Now, imagine a future version of yourself, older than you are now. What are you doing? How are you being creative?“

Find out more here.

December – The January Challenge

We closed the year by launching our participation in the January Challenge with 64 Million Artists encouraging everyday creativity for all.

Find out more here.

November – Fanzine: Tayo Akinbode

We interviewed composer and musical director Tayo Akinbode about ageing, creativity and what it means to grow into the role of an elder in the arts.

“We live in this tension… coming from a culture where elders are revered… and living in a culture where elders are written off.”

Find out more here.

October – International Day of Older People

We marked international day of older people with the launch of a radical Creative Ageing Fanzine featuring Greta Mendez.

July – Disability Pride Month

We honoured disability pride month in our E-News featuring insights from Jo Verrant of Unlimited and Activist Jess Thom of TourettesHero.com

Find out more here.

June – Creative Ageing Network

Recipe for change Manifesto. The film shines a light on older people taking part in creative and cultural activities, showing that creativity doesn’t fade with age.

Find out more here.

June – Advent of Ageing Calendar Launch

An interactive artwork commissioned as part of the RUPT Associates enquiry, funded by Llankelly Chase. Initial mailout to 40 creative organisations and colleagues chosen by the RUPT Associates and CADA’s Trustees.

Find out more here.

June – Advent of Ageing Poem Launch

May – Better Than the Alternative – A Creative Ageing Symposium

Arti Prashar OBE gave a keynote speech on ‘Late Style’, raising questions about inclusion and visibility of older artists.

Find out more here.

April – The Baring Foundation’s National Creative Ageing Directory

CADA Appeared in The Baring Foundation’s National Creative Ageing Directory

Find out more here.

March – Radical Creative Ageing Living Labs

Reports on the first three CADA Living Labs produced.

Find out more here.

February – Creative Ageing Peer Learning Steering Group

Arti Prashar was invited to join this ACE initiative , which will meet until 31st March 2026. This Steering Group will shape the overarching themes of the ACE Creative Ageing programme based on shared needs emerging from across the sector.

Find out more here.

February/March 2025 Evaluation of Banbury Heritage Project.

This research project ran between March 2023 to December 2024, a collaboration between Historic England and Age UK Oxfordshire. It explored how older communities that are under-represented and under-served in the heritage sector can lead delivery in their own historic places to support wellbeing. CADA were delighted to be involved in capturing and disseminating the learning. Along with a new podcast series, hear more about  a wide range of creative outcomes from the project by visiting the Creative Later Life website here.  There is also an event recording on Radical Creative Ageing Evaluation with subtitles.

Find out more here.

December – Lookback at our achievements

We took time to reflect upon the year and celebrate our achievements.

November – Reaching out to be Global

We attended this free online event aimed at those working in the field of Creative Ageing who are keen to connect with others, share practice and explore international partnerships in Wales, England, Finland, Northern Ireland and Ireland. CADA’s RUPT Associate Maya Choudhry represented England at the event.

October – Radical Kindness

We focused on Radical Kindness this month with guest Editor Andy Barry providing a wonderful article for our newsletter.

Find out more here.

September – Radical Creative Ageing: Passion and Practice Event

We dedicated our E-Newsletter to our findings and feedback from The Radical Creative Ageing: Passion and Practice Event. We launched the event video, podcast and Fanzine as well as compiling all the lovely feedback.

July – Radical Creative Ageing: Passion and Practice Event

The Radical Creative Ageing: Passion and Practice Event was curated and facilitated by the RUPT associates at Whitworth Gallery, Manchester.

June – Radical Creative Ageing Living Labs programme begins.

See details in March 2025.

April – British Council Thailand and Museum Siam

CADA was invited by the British Council Thailand and Museum Siam to present an online sharing session at the UK Policies and Governance on Museums and Ageing and Best Practices conference on 29th April. Farrell Renowden gave an overview of CADA and Arti Prashar and Elizabeth Lynch presented the rationale for and findings of the Visionaries research.

March – RUPT Associates selection

CADA selected four RUPT Associates, who represent intersectionality in terms of age/ ethnicity/disability/sexuality: Amanda Holiday, featured in Tate Britain’s exhibition, Women in Revolt!; Bunmi Ogunsiji, British Nigerian writer, longlisted in the National Poetry Competition; Maya Chowdhry, a QTIPOC older interdisciplinary artist; Sama Hunt, a multidisciplinary artist/art psychotherapist.

February – Fanzine: Dominic Campbell

Building on the success of our first Fanzine, we developed the second in our series with Dominic Campbell, Founder of Creative Ageing International. With 458 views on LinkedIn, it was recognised and shared by Ashton Applewhite, author of ‘This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism’ and an internationally renowned spokesperson on the global impact of ageism.

January – RUPT Associates Recruitment

CADA began to embed lived experience at every level of the organisation, by recruiting a small group of ‘RUPT Associates’, older diverse creatives with a socially engaged practice, supporting us to creatively disrupt the status quo narrative around ageing. A call out through our media channels and networks generated over 2K in website visits, 80 expressions of interest, and 50 high-quality applications.

December – The Age of Creativity national network

The Age of Creativity national network, with over 10K social media followers, asked CADA to take over communications as it wound down. In just one month, CADA increased subscribers to our monthly e-news by 640, from 384 to 1022 people, who represent a wide range of arts, culture, age, care, community, and academic sectors, and this following continues to grow.

November – Fanzine: Stella Duffy

CADA co-created the first of our Fanzines, reflecting our new strategic plans. Dr. Stella Duffy OBE, renowned Creative Ageing activist, said: ‘Creativity is thinking by doing, together.’ With an impressive response by our growing audience, our interactive fanzine was opened by 250 people, viewed by 580 people on Instagram and the interview was viewed by 88 people on YouTube.

October – The National Creative Ageing Conference

The National Creative Ageing Conference took place in Newcastle and Co-Chair, Elizabeth Lynch MBE, shared CADA’s new vision for the future, with over 100 delegates. As key partners, CADA also hosted the online directory of delegates for the conference and promoted the event, with 3500 Twitter impressions on the day.

September – CADA’s Board Awayday

CADA’s Board Away Day produced a three-year strategic plan, with objectives that continue to evolve: Voice and Visibility, Radical Creative Ageing Living Labs, and Celebrating Our Ageing. During the day, Co-Chair Elizabeth Lynch MBE commented, “Art and creativity is happening, not just with artists, but with older people on the ground – but it’s invisible to the mainstream.”.

August – ‘Creative Ageing: What Next? An agenda for the future’

Arti Prashar OBE, Farrell Renowden and former Director Virginia Tandy OBE, were commissioned to write an editorial for the Baring Foundation, as part of the ‘Creative Ageing: What Next? An agenda for the future’. Published as part of the National Conference in October 2023, these 15 essays were viewed by 8.5k on Twitter.

July – Connecting Through Culture As We Age research project

The Connecting Through Culture As We Age research project came to a close. It had focussed on socio-economically/racially minoritised older people, led by partners at Bristol University. Having sat on the expert board for two years, CADA shared the key recommendations with its extensive networks, and 128 people actively engaged with the content.

June – International Creative Ageing Summit

CADA worked with international partners to deliver the 3rd annual International Creative Aging Summit. With 440 Cultural and Ageing leaders from 24 countries, this online event focussed on innovative cross-sector partnerships, with examples from across the world. The Director chaired an extended event exploring the role of libraries and intersectionality..

May – CADA Recruits New Director

Farrell Renowden joined CADA as part-time Director, with over a decade of leadership in the Creative Ageing field. Specialising in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Creative Evaluation, and Creative Place-Making, the transition of roles provided an opportunity for a rapid review of strategic delivery during the Summer of 2023..

April – Virginia Tandy OBE leaves CADA

Virginia Tandy OBE left the organisation after three years in post, with a legacy of high-quality research, including our report Visionaries: A South Asian Arts Counter Narrative, co-written by arts advisors Arti Prashar OBE and Elizabeth Lynch MBE and featured in Arts Professional. They were invited to join CADA’s board of Trustees and became Co-Chairs April 2023..