Arts for the Aging, Inc. (AFTA) was incorporated in the fall of 1988 by Lolo Sarnoff and some of her friends, with Lolo Sarnoff as its President & Founder. In 2004 Lolo became Chairman of the Board and Donald T. Bliss, Jr., took over as President. AFTA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. The purpose of AFTA is to help enhance the lives of physically and psychologically impaired seniors who are participants in senior day care centers.

What began as an experiment to help patients with Alzheimer's soon became a full time project dedicated to ameliorate the lives of fragile seniors in the Greater Washington Area and Baltimore. By giving seniors a creative outlet, AFTA helps improve the quality of life and the person's own sense of accomplishment.

Lolo quickly saw the benefits of sharing ones talents and helping others to realize theirs. In 1992, she testified in front of Congress about the importance of artistic stimulation for Alzheimer's and other impaired seniors and the necessity to increase funding for senior day care centers. "Art is no cure," she said in an interview published in the Swiss American Review (April 6, 1995), "but it restores a feeling of self-esteem and well-being and diminishes some frustration."

AFTA has grown to employ 20 professional artists, who teach 87 workshops in 38 senior day care centers.

AFTA programs and workshops include:

Visual Arts:

• Painting and Drawing
• Printmaking
• Sculpture

Folk Arts:

• Collage
• Quilting
• Bookmaking
• Storytelling

Performing Arts:

• Music
• Singing
• Poetry
• Dance/Dance movement
• A Senior Dance Group named Quicksilver by the participants performs in various senior day care centers and at art festivals in Maryland and DC.

Intergenerational Classes combine grade school children with participants in senior day care centers.

Cultural Outings

Museum Visits

Lectures

Exhibits at libraries including the Martin Luther King Library in Washington, DC

AFTA received the Community Service Award from the Greater Washington Urban League in November 1999.

To learn more about Arts For The Aging, Inc. (AFTA), please visit their web site at www.aftaarts.org.