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PORTLAND, Maine

Master of Public Health Students and Park Danforth Awarded Creative Aging Grant

Master of Public Health students Collyn Baeder and Zoe Hull, in partnership with the Park Danforth, a senior living community in Portland, were awarded a $943 grant from the Maine Art Commission’s Creative Aging Partnership Program. The program supports the development and implementation of art programs for aging adults, with the intention of generating opportunities for lifelong learning, promoting social engagement and mastery of skills, and providing new creative possibilities for adults over the age of 55.

The grant will support a six-week art program, “Art and Storytelling at the Park Danforth,” for the community’s residents. It will involve drawing and painting, placing special emphasis on storytelling through art. The final session will be a culminating art exhibit at the Park Danforth, where participating residents will have the opportunity to share their work with friends, family, and Park Danforth staff.

Baeder and Hull applied for this grant on behalf of Park Danforth with the aim of increasing the residents’ access to artistic opportunities. The program will build on the success of an interprofessional arts-based research project recently conducted with Master of Science in Occupational Therapy students Michaela Hoffman, Adrian Jung, Rebecca Masterjohn and Virginia Sedarski.

For more information about this program, please contact Collyn Baeder (cbaeder@une.edu) or Zoe Hull (zhullsfredo@une.edu).

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.