PRESIDENTIAL SYMPOSIUM: MUSEUMS AND AGING: NOVEL NETWORK OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT OPTIMAL AGING

Abstract Museums represent an evolving and under-recognized network of opportunity for examining aging while supporting optimal aging across the lifespan. Museums bind communities together in a civic body by “…identifying its highest values, its proudest memories, and its truest truths.”(Duncan, 1991). They represent a secular ritual of the modern state in which the spiritual heritage of the nation is offered as a public reinforcement of political values. Art museums are also sites which enable individuals to achieve liminal experience - to move beyond the psychic constraints of mundane existence, step out of time, and attain new, larger perspectives. The interaction and potential synergies between museums and aging have been insufficiently explored in gerontological scholarship, with the existing emphasis largely focussing on facilitating access to older people and those with age-related health conditions. This symposium reflects and magnifies the networking of GSA with a major art museum through an Educational Site Visit during GSA 2019 to the Blanton Art Museum. It proposes to review museums and ageing in a broader context, exploring the context within which aging is represented in the discourse of heritage and museums, museums networking to provide a repository of late-life creativity, networks of older people as a key resource and client group for museums, life-course and inter-generational engagement with museums. Finally, the insights that the ageing of art works provide for curating the longevity dividend through developing scholarly networks between gerontologists and curators.

discusses an experiential learning pedagogical approach to teaching social determinants of health to graduate students at a historically Black university and highlights how to apply theoretical concepts to creating community needs assessments and health promotion programming for the local community. The third presentation discusses efforts to teach undergraduate students about older LGBT individuals, who represent a growing group of minority elders. This presentation advocates for the use of various strategies for integrating both research and pedagogical approaches to increase knowledge and awareness of LGBT aging topics. The last presentation focuses on the promotion and dissemination of scholarship produced at minority-serving institutions (MSI) through the creation of a new open-source journal. This presentation describes publication challenges for tenure-track MSI faculty and developed opportunities for inclusiveness of such scholarship. The symposium discussant will summarize these challenges, opportunities, and implications to promote minority-focused gerontological topics in academia.

MINORITY AGING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Tiffany R. Washington 1 , 1. University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States Service-learning is the pedagogical approach of integrating classroom learning objectives with community-based experiences. In gerontology education, service-learning is one way educators can collaborate with their respective communities to expose students to topics in minority aging. This paper presentation describes students' experiences in a service-learning gerontological social work course embedded in a universitycommunity partnership that took students beyond the classroom and into the community to learn about minority aging. In-classroom topics included social injustices in aging, caregiving in African American families, culturally-tailored caregiving interventions, and health disparities. In the community, students conducted in-home visits engaging persons with dementia in a tailored activities, thus freeing caregivers to engage in self-care activities. Classroom and community experiences were connected through ongoing reflection, critical thinking, and problem solving activities. Survey data revealed students experienced increased gerontological self-efficacy and increased knowledge and attitudes about dementia. This study has implications for future course design around minority aging.

DIVERSITY IN ACTION: PRACTICE-BASED LEARNING FOR IMPROVING COMMUNITY HEALTH Amy Thierry 1 , 1. Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Non-traditional learning methods in diverse classrooms, particularly at HBCUs, can prepare students for successful careers in aging. In a graduate-level public health course on the social determinants of health, students engaged in an experiential learning opportunity to address health disparities within a historic Black neighborhood in New Orleans. Through a combination of classroom lectures, community integration activities, and skills-building training with faculty and public health professionals, students applied a health equity life course framework in developing, implementing, and evaluating a multi-faceted community needs assessment used to guide health promotion programming for neighborhood residents. In this example, student mastery of complex concepts was achieved through hands-on experiences that had a direct impact on the community. Moreover, a communityengaged educational environment allowed students to take ownership of their learning, develop their professional identity, as well as initiate a sustainable partnership with the community through which improvements in health can be made.

CREATING DIVERSE SPACES IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION: OLDER LGBT RESEARCH AND TEACHING
Maggie Syme 1 , 1. Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States According to SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders), an estimated 3 million older adults currently identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered (LGBT), which is expected to double in the next decade, making them one of the fastest growing minority aging groups. Yet, there is very little attention being paid to older LGBT individuals, a dearth of information on their experiences, and multiple stigmas that compound to make this a challenging space for education and research. This presentation will discuss several different strategies to integrate research and teaching in order to make LGBT elders a relevant and impactful topic in undergraduate education. These include students undertaking field research on dating ads, creating infographics for health challenges, and evaluating sexual wellness research to illustrate similarities and differences among LGBT older adults and their heterosexual counterparts. Specific considerations for approaching topics in undergraduate contexts will be discussed.

USING OSJ PUBLISHING AND TEAM PEER REVIEWS TO EXPAND SCHOLARLY WORKS FROM A DIVERSIFIED AND INCLUSIVE PERSPECTIVE
Pamela P. Brown 1 , 1. Albany State University, Albany, Georgia, United States While Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) are often more teaching than research focused, promotion and tenure heavily rest on the success of being published. It is challenging to publish with high teaching loads and limited research time. A viable alternative is to publish the scholarship of teaching/learning work conducted within MSI classrooms. Open Source Journals (OSJ) assists with the publication needs of MSI faculty and can bring a more diversified andragogic practice out to the public sphere. It also allows for the publishing of more peer-reviewed journals, thus allowing for a greater expansion of diversity in the editorial process. This presentation will focus on a newly created OSJ, which focuses on MSI faculty and innovative teaching. A discussion of a team peer review process is included which focuses on the ability to be inclusive in publishing scholarly works from MSI faculty and those who work with historically underserved student populations. Museums represent an evolving and under-recognized network of opportunity for examining aging while supporting optimal aging across the lifespan. Museums bind communities together in a civic body by "…identifying its highest values, its proudest memories, and its truest truths." (Duncan, 1991). They represent a secular ritual of the modern state in which the spiritual heritage of the nation is offered as a public reinforcement of political values. Art museums are also sites which enable individuals to achieve liminal experience -to move beyond the psychic constraints of mundane existence, step out of time, and attain new, larger perspectives. The interaction and potential synergies between museums and aging have been insufficiently explored in gerontological scholarship, with the existing emphasis largely focussing on facilitating access to older people and those with age-related health conditions. This symposium reflects and magnifies the networking of GSA with a major art museum through an Educational Site Visit during GSA 2019 to the Blanton Art Museum. It proposes to review museums and ageing in a broader context, exploring the context within which aging is represented in the discourse of heritage and museums, museums networking to provide a repository of late-life creativity, networks of older people as a key resource and client group for museums, life-course and inter-generational engagement with museums. Finally, the insights that the ageing of art works provide for curating the longevity dividend through developing scholarly networks between gerontologists and curators.

MUSEUMS AND AGING: VISTAS, SYNERGIES, AND OPPORTUNITIES
Desmond O'Neill 1 , 1. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Against a background of an overall decrease in attendance at museums, older Americans represent a contrast with a marked increase in attendance of those aged over 75. Drawing on theorists of museums and the narratives on ageing in the literature of museums, this introductory presentation gives an overview of the socio-political context of museums, the activities and roles of older people as currently presented through networks such as the Network of European Museums Organizations, and propose a fresh vision of the networks and synergies between older people, museums and gerontology.

MUSEUMS AS A NETWORK REPOSITORY OF LATE-LIFE CREATIVITY
Manfred Gogol 1 , 1. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany Through collaboration and exchange for exhibitions, art museums represent an under-explored network for displaying late-life creativity and the longevity dividend. Drawing on the collection from many galleries brought together for the Letzte Bilder (Last Pictures) exhibition by the Schirm Gallery Frankfurt, this talk will illustrate the possibility of creating educational programs, Late Life Creativity trails both virtual through podcasts and structural, as well as specific exhibitions of late-life creativity as a catalyst for reimagining and reframing ageing. Further approaches are the focus on the life course of works of artist like Cy Twombly at the Museum Brandhorst Munich or Pablo Picasso at the Museum Barberini Potsdam, as well as studying aging in artists self-portraits. The interaction of creativity with age, diseases, and functional decline in the museum context can promote the changing of role models and our understanding of productivity and creativity by ourselves as well as in the society.

EDUCATION, GERONTOLOGY, AND MUSEUMS
Ray Williams 1 , 1. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, United States Many adult museum visitors welcome the invitation to make personal connections to works of art. Time for individual reflection and sharing with others may enable relationships to deepen and new insights to emerge. This presentation describes an approach to gallery teaching that honors the memories, associations, and emotions that visitors bring to their encounters with works of art. The approach has been particularly effective with groups of health care professionals, and as a reminder to docents of the powerful affective experiences that will naturally occur for some members of the public. Drawing on the experiences of collaborative networks of museum and medical educators, we outline the basis of rich opportunities for developing lifespan and gerontological educational projects in museums. Museums, like other cultural institutions, are beginning to embrace a new role: facilitating creativity of older adults through education programs. A cohort of 20 American museums from Alaska to Puerto Rico are embarking on an ambitious two-year program, funded by Aroha Philanthropies, to develop successful creative aging programs in their communities. The cohort includes art museums, history centers, botanical gardens and a science museum. The group has received extensive training and technical assistance to build their capacity and awareness of needs and desires of older adults. The American Alliance of Museums (AAM), a partner in this initiative, is leading a deep dive into the potential of museums to enable older adults to learn, make and share the arts. With Aroha's support, AAM has created a two-year position, the Aroha Senior Fellowship in Museums and Creative Aging to lead an exploration of how museums can deepen their engagement with creative aging.

KEEPING THINGS, BUT ONLY FOR A WHILE
David J. Ekerdt 1 , 1. University of Kansas, Lawrence,

Kansas, United States
The life course is accomplished by material culture held as a convoy of possessions, but also sustained by public affordances and amenities that include the artifacts and artworks to be found in museums. In both places-household