The arts and humanities contribute to knowledge through ways of knowing that transcend the verbal, linear, and measurable. This presentation discusses the role of the Vital Involvement (VI) construct in behavioral engagement of elders in H&A activities. Practitioners implement interventions that engage older adults in arts participation, and evaluate individual participation impact in terms of validated outcome variables. The VI construct contextualizes elder arts participation within lifelong psychosocial development. As VI is fundamental to earlier-life healthy development, and arts participation exemplifies the dynamic, reciprocal VI process, so arts participation can help to catalyze the ongoing development that underlies old age as a period of growth and possibility. Such ongoing growth and health promotion have been shown to be “healing” for multiple losses and deteriorations of old age, as well as health promoting for elders who still focus far more on “living a good life” than on “compensating for problems”.
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