The Creative Age
56 creative older people. Multiple continents. One shared online stage.
On 1st October 2024, in celebration of the United Nations International Day of Older Persons, The Creative Age brought together 56 older performers from across the world for an ambitious live online performance exploring creativity, ageing, connection, and hope.
Watch the performance here
Produced by Re-Live, the event was co-created with an international team of life story practitioners, Atlantic Fellows from the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), and DanceStream in New York.
Performances featured spoken word, music, dance, film, and storytelling from Wales with Re-Live’s Company of Elders, South Africa, Brazil, Lithuania, New York, and Arizona. Performances were streamed and mixed live across continents, creating a shared online space where older people took centre stage.
The Creative Age challenged ageism by celebrating the creativity, openness, and lived experience of older people, while also highlighting the role of the arts in wellbeing, dementia, community, and social connection.
The performance created a space where older people from different cultures, countries, and backgrounds could share their creativity with an international audience, while audiences around the world witnessed the power of connection through the arts.
Audience members joined from more than 20 countries worldwide, including India, Nigeria, Argentina, South Africa, the USA, Brazil, Poland, the Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Lithuania, Ireland, and across Wales and the UK.
If the performance had physically toured to all the countries represented by the audience, the journey would have covered more than 60,000 miles — from Patagonia to India, Norway to South Africa.
The event demonstrated how technology and creativity can bring people together across continents, generations, and cultures, creating moments of shared humanity despite physical distance.
Supported by:
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Arts Council of Wales, Creative Aging International, Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), and the Atlantic Fellows.
Poster design by Casey Raymond.
