For the past three years, thousands of older people in Ireland have been celebrating Bealtaine, the ancient May festival of summertime, in a vibrant gesture of kindling and re-kindling their creativity through a two-way dialogue with the arts.
Poetry recitals in the Phoenix Park; a Good Old Days concert in the University Concert Hall, Limerick; an exhibition on Wexford in the 1950s and 1960s; and storytelling sessions in Schull hospital, Co Cork, are examples of the events organised by active retirement and senior citizen groups as part of this month-long festival. Older people are also invited to attend regional and national art institutions where, in some cases, guided tours and matinee performances are put on specially for them throughout the month. Of these, the virtual reality tours of contemporary Irish art in the Arthouse multimedia centre, Temple Bar, most strongly defy the more sedentary images of older people held by many younger people. Another stereotype-smashing event, scheduled for Trinity College, Dublin next Thursday at 2 p.m., is a debate in which a team of older people will reject the motion that "Contemporary art is trash" while a debating team of secondary-school students defends it, at the Douglas Hyde gallery. "Our objectives are to change attitudes to ageing and to increase participating levels among older people to help them stay healthy and well. The arts offer us a really dramatic way to achieve our objectives," explains Catherine Rose, director of Age and Opportunity, the co-ordinating body for Bealtaine.
"Arts and community workers don't have the same baggage as healthcare specialists who, up to now, have thought of older people as a burden. People in the arts don't carry that notion of dependence as they have no other way of taking care of people except by giving them access to painting, sculpture and other art forms. "Older people can learn and continue to learn and those who get access to the arts for the first time can find latent talents, which is just so exciting," she continues. "Through Bealtaine and other arts initiatives such as the outreach programmes at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Abbey Theatre, older people are gaining a renewed sense of adventure about life. They are having fun, making friends and opening up whole new vistas for themselves," she adds.
In spite of her wholehearted enthusiasm, Rose does, however, express the need for greater financial resources to provide a more widespread geographical access to such things as drama and writing workshops for older people. She also believes that some arts communities have yet to realise the relevance of the arts to older people.
"Bealtaine - Celebrating Creativity In Older Age" runs until May 31st throughout the country. A programme of events is available from Age and Opportunity at 01- 8370570.
