engAGE Living Lab Créatif. The Story.

A very appreciative thank you to Carly McAskill, a research assistant for the engAGE Living Lab, for providing the story and information below. The story reinforces the need for community gatherings for older adults, to lessen isolation, and the value and benefits of connecting through creative practices at all ages.

Image Graphics Credit. www.engagelivinglab.org

The story of engAGE Living Lab Créatif from January 2020-Present.

The Creative engAGE Living Lab (ELL) is a Concordia University research project funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Volet Santé. This project began with a solution to the current public health crisis caused by social isolation and loneliness experienced by record numbers of older adults, that is now being amplified by a world pandemic and global climate change.

The ELL opened its doors in January 2020 in a neighbourhood mall in Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec, where older adults had already been gathering for years to exercise, talk, and solve problems over cups of coffee shared with friends. Starting with the community-defined evidence that this site was already successfully serving as a gathering place for older adults, our team of university researchers set up a social infrastructure to informally learn more about how this was working. We invited participation from older adults (>60) to join in a rich sensory world of making and exploring science through diverse creative public practices including music, visual arts, literature, film, digital technologies, dance, and sand play.

Our plan was to bring together scientific knowledge and creative practices from intersectoral scholars, representing Health Sciences, Fine Arts, Business, Social Sciences, Engineering and Digital Technologies that respond to themes based on older adults’ concerns and interests. This ready-for-action plan animates a specific type of physical community space that we called a creative living lab, for co-creation, design and dissemination of university-community research. This interactive indoor enrichment park for seniors includes an ongoing art hive and “media spa,” and provides a space where older adults were supported in hosting their own gatherings and skill sharing events. A place where the oldest-older adults and scientists alike collaborate and share their inventive projects with the public to produce a new synergy for health and wellbeing innovation for all.

When the pandemic caused our public site to be locked down, the engAGE Living Lab (ELL) team spurred into action to reposition its in-person activities online. Now, almost a year later, we continue to offer a rich and diverse online programming inspired by our community of older adults; while activating a new research-based phase in our offerings.

About ELL in a nut shell.

• engAGE Living Lab Créatif: A research project at Concordia University that aims to reduce social isolation and feelings of loneliness for all ages. The project seeks ways to build bridges between older adults, university researchers, and the greater community through knowledge sharing, technological exploration and creative expression.

• engAGE Living Lab Créatif Activities.

• Art Hive: An intergenerational open-studio space welcoming the strengths and creative capacities of all participants through self-directed art-making.

• Digital Skill-share: Share and discover digital skills of all levels, learn how to stay connected with Zoom's basic features, and troubleshoot online technical issues with Momo.

• St-Henri Art Hive & Beyond: Continuing an 8-year tradition of the seniors’ group of the St-Henri Art Hive. All seniors 65+ are invited to join this open-studio for self-directed creativity and community connection.

• Movement Hive: An open-studio space to explore self-awareness and self -acknowledgement through the body. This Hive offers participants a safe community space to move, play, and experience their bodies through dance and intuitive movement. This studio space is supported by trained facilitators in somatic education, yoga and dance practices.

• MusicART Hive: An inclusive, creative space that integrates a touch of rhythms, spontaneous movement and art.

• Postcards from the Kitchen: An intergenerational activity focused on sharing recipes, memories of people and places, and stories related to food.

• Book Club: The NDG YMCA and engAGE Living Lab Créatif invite you to a monthly online book club. It is for people who love to read and differs from other book clubs in that participants do not all read the same book.

• Creative Science Shop: biweekly open-studio online meet-up welcoming an exchange of ideas, innovations, community research, and scientific and artistic projects. Join us for a conversation and a skill share in the workshop to hear what is important and relevant, especially amongst older adults in the community. This group brings together passion in the arts and science across generations and amongst students, community members, and researchers.

—- engAGE Living Lab Créatif