This page reflects what we’ve achieved collectively. Our progress is not just measured in outcomes, but in the growing movement to rethink ageing and the role creativity plays within it.
Intergenerational Creative Practice forum
May 2026
As guest speakers at Art Council England’s Intergenerational Creative Practice Forum, we joined a two hour online discussion exploring what, why, and how intergenerational practice works. CADA Chair Arti Prashar offered a thought-provoking perspective on its impact in practice.
International Women’s Day
March 2026
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
Fanzine: Sita Brand
March 2026
In this edition we interview storyteller Sita Brand who reflects on the power of story as we grow older.
She believes storytelling helps us understand ourselves and each other, and that how we ask for stories matters. Instead of asking elders what they remember, she suggests asking what they’ve never been allowed to tell.
Fanzine: Meet Me at the Albany
February 2026
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.
The January Challenge
January 2026
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?“
2025
Fanzine: Tayo Akinbode
November 2025
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.”
Fanzine: Greta Mendez
October 2025
We marked international day of older people with the launch of a radical Creative Ageing Fanzine featuring dancer and choreographer Greta Mendez. “My call to action is still with those young people, […] that is the future… how do you create a system, an industry, to guide young people, that when you reach my age, you’re not afraid that you don’t have enough money to live out the rest of your life.”
Barrow and Beyond
October 2025
Our Co-Chair Arti Prashar joined ‘Barrowful What Next’ for Barrow and Beyond. The two day event explored the future of arts engagement for older people including the vital and often under – recognised role of artists themselves.
International Day of Older People
October 2025
To celebrate the International Day of Older people, we joined the first global meeting of the new International Creative Ageing Network which is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, with an interest in arts and culture for older people.
Bradford City of Culture
October 2025
509 Arts’ Life Class performance was a joyful and serious look at the ageing body and the changes that happen to us as we age. CADA’s Co-Chair Elizabeth Lynch took part in a post-show panel, recorded for the ‘Cuppa T’ series of conversations on creativity and ageing – part of Bradford City of Culture 2025.
Disability Pride Month
July 2025
We honoured disability pride month in our E-News featuring insights from Jo Verrant of Unlimited and Activist Jess Thom of TourettesHero.com
Recipe for Change Manifesto
June 2025
The film shines a light on older people taking part in creative and cultural activities, showing that creativity doesn’t fade with age. CADA was asked by the Creative Ageing Network to produce the YouTube short for dissemination.
Age Without Limits Day
June 2025
To mark the day, CADA’s RUPT Associates – Maya Chowdhry, Amanda Holiday, and Sama Hunt launched a bold new poem, Advent of Ageing that reimagines what it means to grow older.
RUPT Associate Artists Commission
June 2025
The Advent of Ageing Calendar was launched. This interactive artwork commissioned as part of the RUPT Associates enquiry, funded by Llankelly Chase. The artwork was sent as a gift to 40 creative organisations and colleagues chosen by the RUPT Associates and CADA’s Trustees.
Better Than the Alternative Creative Ageing Symposium
May 2025
The Dukes (Lancaster) hosted a Creative Ageing symposium, ‘Better Than The Alternative’. The 2-day event brought together people from all over the country to celebrate and champion the fantastic work being done with and by older people. CADA Co-Chair Arti Prashar gave a keynote speech on ‘Late Style’, raising questions about inclusion and visibility of older artists.
The Baring Foundation’s National Creative Ageing Directory
April 2025
CADA was included in The Baring Foundation’s National Creative Ageing Directory. With over 250 entries organised by location, the Directory is intended for arts organisations looking for peers, care homes and older people’s organisations looking for arts partners, and older people themselves who might be looking for a creative activity.
Radical Creative Ageing Living Labs
March 2025
In 2024 and 2025, CADA played a pivotal role in delivering three Living Labs projects. These Living Labs brought together academic insight, artistic practice, and deep community knowledge, actively involving real users in real contexts to design, test, and refine new ideas.
ACE Creative Ageing Peer Learning Steering Group
February 2025
We were 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.
Evaluation of Banbury Heritage Project
February / March 2025
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.
2024
Reaching out to be Global
November 2024
We attended this 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.
Radical Kindness: Creating space for underrepresented people.
October 2024
We focused on Radical Kindness this month with guest Editor Andy Barry providing a wonderful article for our newsletter. “The elders we work with often tell us they value the opportunities to meet and work with people they might not otherwise get to interact with.“
Radical Creative Ageing: Passion and Practice
September 2024
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.
Radical Creative Ageing: Passion and Practice Event
July 2024
The Radical Creative Ageing: Passion and Practice Event was curated and facilitated by the RUPT associates at Whitworth Gallery, Manchester. Over 100 delegates attended and took part in a promenade through the gallery “What do we want? Equal Access!”
British Council Thailand and Museum Siam
April 2024
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.
RUPT Associate Artists
March 2024
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.
Fanzine: Dominic Campbell
February 2024
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.
Creative Health Podcast
January 2024
London Arts and Health invited everyone interested in the intersections of health and culture to come together for a day of exchange, reflection, boundary pushing and action planning. CADA Co-Chair Elizabeth Lynch attended and was interviewed for this podcast.
RUPT Associates Recruitment
January 2024
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.
2023
The Age of Creativity national network
December 2023
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 by 640, from 384 to 1022 people who represent a wide range of arts, culture, age, care, community, and academic sectors. This following continues to grow.
Fanzine: Stella Duffy
November 2023
CADA 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.
The National Creative Ageing Conference
October 2023
The National Creative Ageing Conference took place in Newcastle. CADA’s Co-Chair, Elizabeth Lynch MBE shared our 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.
CADA’s Board Awayday
September 2023
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.”
‘Creative Ageing: What Next? An agenda for the future’
August 2023
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.
Connecting Through Culture As We Age research project
July 2023
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.
International Creative Ageing Summit
June 2023
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. We chaired an extended event exploring the role of libraries and intersectionality.
CADA Recruits New Director
May 2023
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.
Virginia Tandy OBE leaves CADA
October 2023
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.
Secrets of Success Report
February 2023
This Secrets of Success Report by Kathleen Soriano (for the Clore Leadership Programme) asks the question – how do older female workers, previously in leadership positions within museums, libraries and galleries, approach building a career post institutional life? What sustains them and supports their success, and what led them to make the change in the first place?
2022
Active Ageing International Conference
October 2022
We spoke on reframing ageing and presented CADA’s approach at the Active Ageing International conference being run by the Czech Government. “We must reframe our view of ageing, confront our mortality and recognise the importance of healthy ageing, not just for other people but for ourselves”
Beyond Older Age
September 2022
This booklet offers great insight into the
diversity of life experience of older people
and some practical and effective research
methods. It also highlights the central
importance of social connection and
agency to ageing well.
Ageing Artfully Going Global
June 2022
In June 2022 we hosted our first international online conference ‘Ageing Artfully Going Global’ in partnership with The Baring Foundation, the City of Helsinki and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. You can find recordings of the day on our YouTube channel.
Visionaries: A South Asian Arts and Ageing Counter Narrative’
April 2022
We launched ‘Visionaries: A South Asian Arts and Ageing Counter Narrative’. The report records the experiences of older South Asian artists and provides a snapshot of projects by, and for, South Asian people. The report was co-written by arts advisors Arti Prashar OBE and Elizabeth Lynch MBE.
2021
Cultural Audiences in England 2019/20
October 2021
We delivered an event discussing the impact of COVID-19 on older people’s cultural engagement and future future of research into creative ageing. ‘Voices of older people have been missing over the last 18 months, culture can change this’. Our first event looked at how COVID-19 has affected older people’s cultural engagement and how we can move forward.
Culture Champions Impact Highlighted
September 2021
This project showcased how older people in Greater Manchester have shaped local culture through engagement initiatives. ‘This scoping report contributes to CADA’s exploration of how to amplify the voice of older people in the cultural life of the country’.
”Visions and strategies for the arts and our ageing societies”.
International Creative Ageing Seminar.
January 2021
We participated in this global webinar organised by ARMAS-Festivaali in Helsinki, exploring strategies for increasing cultural engagement among older people. The webinar explores what kind of strategies have been used to secure cultural rights for older people.
2020
CADA is Launched
1st October 2020
CADA (Creative Ageing Development Agency) officially launches on the 30th anniversary of International Day of Older Persons.
Creative Ageing: Development & Agency 