What if retirement was a time to create, to be in a community with fellow artists?

In this episode of Your Creative Midlife, I talk with producer Christine La Monte about Viva Verdi!, the Oscar-nominated documentary she produced with Director Yvonne Russo. The film tells the story of aging musicians in Milan’s Casa Verdi, a home created by renowned composer Giuseppe Verdi. The home opened in 1902 and has since housed more than 1,500 artists.

The residents still teach, perform, sing, and mentor the next generation. Verdi himself said: “Among my works, the one I like best is the home that I have had built in Milan for accommodating old singers…that home is truly my most beautiful work.”

In This Episode You'll Learn:

→ How Casa Verdi is different from a traditional retirement home

→ The value of intergenerational exchange

→ The role music plays in extending quality of life, propose, and community.

About Christine La Monte:

Christine La Monte is the producer writer of Oscar®-nominated documentary VIVA VERDI! and former studio marketing executive at Disney, Universal and Orion Pictures, is the founder and president of La Monte Productions. As a producer, writer, and director, she’s known for independent films with international scope and cultural impact, creating powerful stories at the intersection of art, music and politics. Currently under the La Monte Productions banner, she has three Italian feature documentaries: VIVA VERDI! Academy Award® nominated for Best Song, “Sweet Dreams of Joy” by Nicholas Pike, is an intimate glimpse into the lives of the celebrated opera singers and musicians living out their “third act” while mentoring music students who live among them at Casa Verdi Milan, the home that Giuseppe Verdi built in 1896.

Resources Mentioned:

• Watch Viva Verdi: https://vivaverdithefilm.com/
• Learn more about Casa Verdi: https://www.casaverdi.it/en/
• Learn more about Christine La Monte: https://www.lamonteproductions.com/about/
• Listen to my interview with John-Morgan Bush, Dean of Juilliard Extension School: https://youtu.be/m-6R15awqJM

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com. Are you on your own artistic or creative journey? We want to know about you! Please contact us through the website. Dare to follow your muse!

Have you been following the new research about the importance of art and music in healthcare settings? This is such an important part of bringing art and music back into our lives, both as practitioners and also just being in a world where we are listening to music and seeing art, especially in healthcare settings.

On this episode of Your Creative Midlife, I talk with Larissa Trinder, the Executive Director of Arts and Medicine for New York City Health and Hospitals. This program has been doing some really interesting work that brings music and art not only to patients and caregivers in a hospital setting, but also doctors and hospital staff.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

→ What the new research says about the impacts of visual art and music on our health

→ How the NYC hospital system built a collection of over 8,000 pieces of art

→ How the arts can be used to prevent burnout for healthcare workers

About Larissa Trinder:

Larissa Trinder is responsible for stewarding NYC Health + Hospitals’ collection of more than 8,000 works of art, the largest such collection in New York City, as well as creating and implementing programs for patients, staff and the community that utilize the arts as a tool in healing. She is a staunch advocate for the importance of the arts and humanities within a healthcare system to advance patient health outcomes, enhance staff engagement, morale and retention and to empower communities.

Resources mentioned:

• “A Dazzling Art Collection Hiding in Plain Sight”: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/08/nyregion/nyc-hospitals-public-art.html
• Learn more about NYC Health + Hospitals: https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/artsinmedicine/art-collection/
• Learn more about the Arts and Medicine Team: https://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/artsinmedicine/team/
• Listen to my interview with John Morgan Bush, Dean of Juilliard Extension School: https://youtu.be/m-6R15awqJM

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com. Are you on your own artistic or creative journey? We want to know about you! Please contact us through the website. Dare to follow your muse!

You may know Alex Honnold, the only person to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan rock cliff without any gear. But did you know that Honnold’s mother, Dierdre Wolownick, is the oldest woman to climb the same mountain (with gear)? Or that she only started training in her 60s?

Melissa Davey, a documentary filmmaker, wanted to share Diedre’s story. Her film Climbing into Life is now available to stream on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube Movies, among others.

In this re-released episode of Your Creative Midlife, I talk with Melissa Davey about Dierdre's story and Melissa’s own journey into filmmaking in mid-life.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

→ How Dierdre trained for her climb to El Capitan

→ How Melissa Davey approached the documentary

→ Why this documentary is different from Melissa’s first film

If you've ever dreamed of pushing yourself beyond your limits or starting a new creative chapter later in life, this episode will inspire you to begin.

About Melissa Davey

Melissa Davey, age 75, retired from a lengthy corporate career in 2016 to pursue her second act and dream of becoming a filmmaker. At age 65, after a day on the set with a famous Director, she decided to take a risk and left her career to jump into the unknown.

Pursuing her dream of becoming a filmmaker became a reality in late 2018 when Melissa completed her first film, Beyond Sixty, a feature-length documentary about women over the age of sixty. During 2019 Melissa’s film was accepted by and screened at 8 film festivals throughout the United States and Canada, winning awards and confirming that it is never too late to learn something new.

Melissa recently completed her second documentary, Climbing into Life, the story of Dierdre Wolownick, the mother of Alex Honnold. The film has been accepted into nineteen film festivals so far and has won numerous awards.

📖 Watch Climbing Into Life

• YouTube TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wShg2R_kuXw
• Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Climbing-into-life-Melissa-Davey

📖 Resources Mentioned

• Learn more about Dierdre: https://www.instagram.com/dierdre_wolownick_honnold/
• Learn more about Melissa Davey: https://melissadavey.com/climbing-into-life/
• Listen to Betsy’s earlier interview with Melissa Davey: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dont-dismiss-your-dreams-melissa-davey-on-becoming/id1556317668?i=1000552662832
• Learn more about Alex Honnold: https://www.alexhonnold.com/#bio

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com. Are you on your own artistic or creative journey? We want to know about you! Please contact us through the website. Dare to follow your muse!

What happens to a craft when there aren't enough people left making a living at it?

In this episode of Your Creative Midlife, I'm recording from the podcast studio at the Nantucket Historical Association with Mary Lacoursiere, artistic director of its Heritage Craft Program. I then go behind the scenes with Mary at the program headquarters.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

→ What are heritage crafts (and why they’re not just for hobbyists)

→ The evolution of the program on Nantucket

→ Why making in community is more important than ever.

If you've ever dreamed of creating in community or starting a new creative chapter later in life, this episode will inspire you to begin.

📖 About Mary Lacoursiere

Mary Lacoursiere graduated from Pratt Institute with an M.F.A. in printmaking and painting. She had a studio in New York City for fifteen years, specializing in hand-painted sisal rugs, murals, and restoring historical paintings. A member of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration since 1978, Mary has been a contributing artist for Lifetime Television and Hearst Entertainment and currently owns and operates Emery Design here on Nantucket. She is also the director of Education at the Nantucket Historical Association.

📖 Resources Mentioned:

• Learn more about the Heritage Craft program: https://nha.org/whats-on/programs/heritage-craft/

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com. Are you on your own artistic or creative journey? We want to know about you! Please contact us through the website. Dare to follow your muse!

What happens when you sign up for something you might turn out to be bad at? In this episode of Your Creative Midlife, I'm exploring embroidery on Nantucket, in its different forms. It's the part of this island the influencers aren't telling you about.

What I didn't expect was how much this experience would end up being about limits. I learned that I am not good at everything (and how to be ok with that).

In This Episode You'll Learn

→ On being a beginner in midlife

→ The history of The Nantucket School of Needlery

→ The legacy of Erica Wilson, the Julia Child of needlework

→ The surprising health benefits of participating in the arts

→ Richard Saja's avant-garde needlework

If you’re interested in learning about needlework and how to manage a creative project when you meet your limit, this episode is for you.

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction and needlekeep

02:38 – RIchard Saja and avant-garde toile

04:47 – Erica Wilson, the Julia Child of Needlework

06:00 – The Nantucket School of Needlery

08:00 – Sip and Stitch at Erica Wilson

09:20 – The story of Nantucket’s Airport code, why it is ACK

10:30 – Resources from the 1800 House

Learn More About Needlework

• Listen to The GAM episode on needlework https://thenantucketgam.podbean.com/e/11/

• Visit Erica Wilson’s store for a class on Nantucket https://ericawilson.com/pages/60years

- Connect with Richard Saja

• https://www.instagram.com/richardsaja/

About Your Creative Midlife

Your Creative Midlife is a podcast and YouTube channel hosted by Betsy Bush, featuring inspiring conversations with artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and makers who discovered new creative paths after 50. Whether you're retired, an empty nester, or simply ready to explore a new passion, you'll find practical advice, encouragement, and real stories that prove it's never too late to create.

🌐 Website: https://www.yourcreativemidlife.com

📩 Share Your Creative Story: https://www.yourcreativemidlife.com/contact

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com. Are you on your own artistic or creative journey? We want to know about you! Please contact us through the website. Dare to follow your muse!

I’m sharing the results of a collage workshop I took at the Visual Arts Center of the Artists Association of Nantucket, one of the island's major art centers. As a budding collage artist, this was an amazing experience, and it really gave me a chance to do a deep dive for four days in a row with a great instructor and great classmates.

I talk about the different techniques I used in each collage and how I’m discovering the value of process over getting a finished product.

Here are my takeaways:

1. It really is about process over product. If you focus on having something "worthy" to bring home to show people, the experience is less fun.

2. Use materials that you already have (my favorite stop is the Nantucket Dump -- more on this later)

3. Collage is really problem solving; not everything on the canvas has to be paper (you can also use paint).

4. Making art every day is exhausting; so much respect for the professionals.

I hope you've had a summer that's been productive, relaxing, and maybe you've tried something different, maybe you've taken up something new, some ex exploration or some play, because that's what we need to be doing to stay healthy and happy as we continue our creative midlives.

Links:

Learn more about the Artists Association of Nantucket: https://www.nantucketarts.org/

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com. Are you on your own artistic or creative journey? We want to know about you! Please contact us through the website. Dare to follow your muse!

How would you like to try something completely new? That's what I'm doing with my summer, calling it Nantucket Camp. How about paper marbling? It's a heritage craft, which means, in some ways, it's considered endangered.

Here’s how I learned to make marbled paper, just like Renaissance Florence or Venice! I took the workshop run by The Nantucket Historical Association. They have a heritage crafts department where you can learn many different things. We made our papers and then used the paper to cover a clamshell box, inside and out. It was so much fun. I can’t wait to try paper marbling again!

Links:

The Nantucket Historical Association Heritage Crafts: https://nha.org/learn/heritage-craft/

The Nantucket Historical Association Gam Podcast: https://nha.org/the-nantucket-gam-podcast/

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com. Are you on your own artistic or creative journey? We want to know about you! Please contact us through the website. Dare to follow your muse!

This summer I'm treating Nantucket Island like summer camp, exploring new activities like pottery, collage, paper marbling, and so much more. You can try so many artistic pursuits on this island. So if you see something new that you want to try, join me for Camp Nantucket.

The first episode drops Thursday, July 23rd!

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com. Are you on your own artistic or creative journey? We want to know about you! Please contact us through the website. Dare to follow your muse!