A Story Box-Creative Aging Learning Resources

This Story Box is particularly designed to the elderly for creative learning.The creative aging movement advocates that everybody, in particular the elderly, continues to be creative. Aging doesn’t mean deteriorating or withering. With continuous learning, everybody can show their uniqueness through the expressions of creativity and arts as they age. With an aging society in Taiwan, museums not only begin to offer a more visitor-friendly environment but also use their resources to provide many creative aging services to vitalize the physical and mental health of the elderly.

National Museum of History has accumulated expertise on providing services through co-learning. Based on this, the theme of “Impression of Home” was set, utilizing the resources of the museum collections, with the participation of professional art therapists Wen-Fang Tsai and Shyueying Chiang from the Taiwan Art Therapy Association, to develop illustration cards and learning programs suitable for creative learning for the elderly. We hope to inspire creativity among elderly participants, enhance their self-worth and interpersonal interaction with the use of illustration cards and through engagement in activities. We aim to further enhance the quality of life as well as mental and physical wellbeing of the elderly.

This so called “a story box” creative learning resource includes illustration cards sourced from the museum collections and a user’s guide in both Chinese and English. This prototype concept was pioneered to be tested among our creative aging service projects. It has since been improved upon, based on the test results. We expect this can be used as a reference for individuals, groups and associations working on creative aging in the future. Together, we can strive to shape a creative aging society.