Cultural Participation and Creativity in Later Life

To encourage meaningful participation of older people in the arts as creators, organisers and audience; to challenge negative attitudes towards ageing; and to contribute to the fostering of policy for the arts in older age, are the goals of the European Network for Age and Culture "age-culture.net". The network was established in November 2005 as an initiative of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It links cultural operators, producers, and creators of culture who are active in the fields of arts education and culture in older age from all over Europe. Partners from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain and the U.K. share and exchange best practice in this field of work. They develop multilateral cooperative projects and promote a positive culture of ageing through advocacy, information, education, training and strategic partnerships. With this European manual the network partners want to demonstrate a panorama of the diversity and richness of cultural activity for, with and by older people in Europe.