Reflections on Co-Designing: Minoritised Older Adults, Community Sector and Cultural Sector Partners, 2023

This research project tackled the complex problem of how to increase participation in social and cultural life for all as we age which has been shown to make a vital contribution to raising quality of life. The project addressed the fundamental issue that arts and cultural participation drops dramatically in older populations and that disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older people living in poverty are even less likely to participate. It tackled inequalities related to accessibility and content of digital arts and cultural provision, enabled vital R&D and established new business models to encourage digital innovation in the arts and cultural sector to support healthy ageing.

The project included exploration of the everyday lives of minoritized older adults. Throughout the project methods of doing co-design with minoritized older adults were designed. The project worked alongside older adults, creative industry players and community sector and cultural sector organisations to co-design digital arts and cultural experiences that support social connections and contribute to improved quality of life for older adults.

It supported creative industries to build a better understanding of diverse older audiences and to robustly evaluate their offer; and provided new evidence based policy making that sought to tackle inequalities in arts and cultural provision for healthy ageing outcomes.

This data set includes Interviews held towards the end of the Connecting through Culture as we Age research project. The interviews were a point of reflection on the participation of older adult co-researchers and partners reflecting on co-design in Connecting through Culture as we Age. The project recruited 20 minoritised older adults who identified as disabled, socioeconomically and/or racially minoritised and worked with them through the 3 years of the project which involved creative, participatory design based methods. The project funded 6 prototype teams that emerged during the project and included older adult co-researchers. We worked closely with community and cultural sector organisations throughout the co-design process.