Deputy Mayor funds Festival of Creative Ageing
To mark International Older People’s Day on October 1, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan funded the Age Against the Machine Festival of Creative Ageing. The festival took place on September 13 and ended on October 6.
Age Against the Machine was the London Borough of Lewisham’s Festival of Creative Ageing, winner of a Cultural Impact Award as part of the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture initiative.
Age Against the Machine was a ground-breaking arts festival which explored the ways creativity can promote positive ageing, making a fundamental impact on quality of life. It celebrated older people as artists.
The festival opened with The Home, a radical, immersive work set in a care home, and included more than 20 community commissions chosen from over 100 original ideas from local people. The programme included shows, films, exhibitions, discussions and outdoor performances across the borough, and the festival ended with a joyous day of events at the Grand Finale.
Culture is in every corner of London and has the power to improve our health and bring people together. The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture initiative is all about celebrating the amazing art and culture that is in our local communities and harnessing its potential to improve all of our lives.
This is exactly what Lewisham’s Festival of Creative Ageing aimed to do. Lewisham put together a fantastic programme which provoked conversation and explored the universal experience of ageing. The festival celebrated the creativity of older people, took art and music into care homes and brought different generations together to create connections and shared experiences.