James Clements Named Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA Artist-in-Residence

James Clements, a Scottish theatremaker and actor based between New York and Glasgow, has been announced as a SU-CASA Artist-in-Residence for the Brooklyn Arts Council for the second consecutive year.

Over the course of this upcoming residency, Clements will work with seniors at Crown Heights' Albany Older Adult Center through a program entitled "Looking Back/Looking Forward," an interview-based devising process to create a verbatim audio play. The documentary play, which will created entirely using the participating senior's own voices and words, will be built through these interviews, devising exercises and testimony, and allows these seniors to reflect on decades of life in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Arts Council's SU-CASA Creative Aging program, funded by the New York City Council, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the NYC Department for the Aging, provides opportunities for seniors to actively express themselves creatively, socialize with a culturally engaged collective of senior citizens, engage in cultural performances and master techniques in a variety of arts disciplines. This year, BAC is awarding just over $500,000 through our SU-CASA program which will be awarded to 47 artists for SU-CASA programming at 48 older adult centers throughout Brooklyn. A city-wide program, SU-CASA is the largest Creative Aging program in the country. For each SU-CASA site, artists receive a stipend as well as funding to cover costs for materials. Partnering senior centers will also receive a subsidy to support their participation in the initiative.

"My previous experience creating art with older folks in Brooklyn, mainly fellow immigrants, through this program last year was one of the most important and seminal creative experiences of my life so far," noted Clements. "I am thrilled to be returning to the SU-CASA program to build a new piece based on the lived experiences of another group of seniors in our amazing borough."

For more information of Clements' work, visit www.james-clements.com.

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