By way of a weekly newsletter from NYFA, I learned about the start of a continuing study by the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Columbia University that looks at the needs of aging artists. They had conducted earlier research on New York artists (along with those in other cities) in 1988 and 1997. According to the executive summary, there is an urgency to this study based on the impeding retirement of baby boomer artists.

While foundations and other funders have long directed their largesse to emerging and even mid-career artists, notably few have concerned themselves with the artist as s/he matures into old age- artistically, emotionally, financially and chronologically. Special attention to aging artists is important for material support and policy-making and is made more urgent in a time of scarce resources when the baby boomer generation is about to enter the ranks of the retired.

Among the problems faced by the Research Center is actually finding artists. “Past evidence shows that as people age, they often become more isolated from each other, making it difficult for organizations to serve them as a group as well as posing many individual problems.” The Research Center uses a methodology developed by sociologist Douglas Heckathorn previous employed to conduct a survey for the NEA that required them to seek aged jazz musicians.

I heard a series of interviews on NPR last year about the jazz survey which really underscored the plight of these jazz musicians now that they had retired. It was the recollection of these stories that made me notice the call for study participants on the NYFA newsletter.

If you read this blog and are an aging artist (62+) living in the five boroughs or know someone who is, contact the Research Center for Arts and Culture at 212.678.8184 or email rcac@columbia.edu. There is also a meeting on March 27, 2006 from 6-8 pm about the study.