SPARC
Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide
Off the Wall, Arnold Wechsler, age 82, Carter Burden Center for the Aging. Image courtesy of Gallery 307. Photo by: Sonia J. Lessuck
SPARC, Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide, is a community arts engagement program that places artists-in-residence at senior centers across the five boroughs of New York City. A collaboration among the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Department for the Aging, and the City's five local arts councils situated in each borough, SPARC was developed as part of Age-Friendly NYC, a citywide effort to make the City more livable for seniors.
SPARC connects artists of high merit and excellence directly with older adults to impact their well being positively through arts-based activity at senior centers throughout New York City. Selected artists are sensitive to the needs of seniors and interested in engaging their communities. The program provides artists-in-residence with access to workspace in senior centers and a stipend, when funding is available. In exchange, artists-in-residence collaborate with senior center staff to create and deliver arts programming at the senior centers for the older adults they serve and their communities at large. Each senior center is unique and offers access to different types of spaces, resources and communities.
In 2012, SPARC will place fifty artists in residencies across the five boroughs. Administered by LMCC, twelve projects have been placed in eleven senior centers around Manhattan.
