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Creative Aging

Creative Aging is a centerpiece of The Phillips Collection’s art and wellness initiatives, reflecting founder Duncan Phillips’s belief in the profound and positive impact that art can have on our well-being. Creative Aging began in 2011 with one partner, Iona Senior Services in northwest DC. In 2018, the museum expanded its Creative Aging partnerships to include Arts for the Aging (throughout the DC metropolitan area) and Congress Heights Senior Wellness Center (in southeast DC, near Phillips@THEARC).  

Creative Aging is a multi-visit program of mindful looking, informal discussion, and expressive making. During conversations and art making with Phillips educators and our partners, older adults   explore works of art, share ideas, identify feelings, and forge connections with one another. Each organization brings a distinct perspective to the co-created programs: AFTA’s multi-disciplinary arts integration, Iona’s in-depth art therapy, and Congress Heights Senior Wellness Center’s community connections. We believe that these partnerships offer older adults joy-giving and life-enhancing experiences through the arts. 

Launched in 2023, Reframing Care: Mindfulness + Art at The Phillips Collection is our first Creative Aging program open to the public. This series offers resources, support, and artful engagement for care partners and their loved ones living with memory loss. Through arts engagement—conversation, storytelling, improvisational play, art-making, and guided meditation—we reimagine our relationship to dementia in positive, hopeful, and practical ways. 

See Community Exhibitions

Art and Wellness Club

Led by local and national wellness teachers, join us for free 30-minute online guided meditations. Inspired by an artwork from the collection, each session focuses on a different mindfulness practice and includes a Spotlight Talk by a Phillips Educator about the artwork.