In a recent blog post, the American Alliance of Museums promotes ways that museums can help strengthen age-friendly communities as places of social connection, employment, mental and physical engagement and combatting ageism. The article also notes that museum programming specifically designed for people with dementia and their caregivers has been shown to reduce levels of depression and improve cognitive functioning and overall quality of life. In addition, engaging with art through viewing, making, and movement can help people coping with Parkinson’s disease or other debilitating illnesses to maintain their mobility and social connections.

While highlighting the improvements museums can make in supporting older adults, the blog post promotes a previously released resource called “Museums as Community Infrastructure.” Aside from supporting livable communities for older adults, the resource also touches on youth education, mental health, emergency response and cultural sustainability as other factors where museums can strengthen community.

Along with some examples of how some museums have seized these opportunities, there is also a “Framework for Action” that can help museums support age-friendly communities. These include:

To help create age-friendly communities, museums can:

• Inventory barriers to access or use. This might include physical barriers (including stairs, ramps, handrails, and restrooms), comfort (includ­ing seating, acoustics, lighting, and readability of signage), cultural or social barriers (including attitudes and behavior of staff and ageism reflected in marketing, exhibits, and programming), and transportation (including availability and location of parking and access to public transpor­tation). Ensure that digital design is age-friendly as well.
• Provide age-equitable opportunities for employment and volunteering. Consider training managers and human resources staff on how to avoid ageism in hiring and employment, establishing a working group of paid and volunteer staff to identify how to value and support older volunteers, including age and ageism in the muse­um’s DEAI plans and policies, and addressing age-related stereotypes and assumptions in DEAI training.
• Assess how older adults are repre­sented in your content, from exhibits to marketing, and work to ensure that elders are both seen and valued.
• Identify older adults in your com­munity who are “culture-bearers” and give them platform, power, and authority to transmit the knowledge, experience, skills, and stories that they care for.
• Design programs and services that actively foster intergenerational connections: In addition to creating rewarding relationships, dialogue between older adults and youth has been shown to be an effective tool to reduce ageist attitudes and behaviors.

More information is available on the AAM blog post here.