Jeff Nachtigall: Enabling older adults to unleash their creativity through art by Marilynn Larkin, MA

Jeff Nachtigall is an established artist whose work has been exhibited in North America, Europe and China over the past 25 years. He is also a facilitator, speaker and social entrepreneur who has led dozens of artist residencies and workshops, lectured in communities across Canada and the United States, and keynoted at national conferences on the arts and aging. Importantly for readers of the Journal on Active Aging, Nachtigall also worked for eight years as a full-time artist-in-residence at Sherbrooke Community Centre, an assisted living residence in Saskatoon, Canada. There, he founded and developed Open Studio Projects, a model of artistic engagement that challenges traditional clinical and activity-based approaches to art in older-adult and long-term care settings.