Interests
Brian Kennedy, BA, MA, PhD
Art Consultant
We need advocacy for arts organizations to address ageism, ableism, cognitive decline and dementia, by promoting creative arts practice, lifelong and long-life learning.
Current Work
Leadership consultant and adviser to philanthropists and arts organizations. Consultant adviser to E.A. Michelson Philanthropy on Vitality Arts, a major funding initiative to promote creative aging and address ageism in American art organizations.
Personal Hero
Family and friends
Words of Strength
Strategic leadership, team building, fundraising
Vision
We need advocacy for arts organizations to address ageism, ableism, cognitive decline and dementia, by promoting creative arts practice, lifelong and long-life learning, giving older people a sense of purpose and relieving social isolation.
Strategy
Brian advises a major philanthropic project enabling American art museums to address ageism and provide creative aging classes. Publications, colloquia, and data surveys have been funded about ageism in the arts, and the needs of older Americans.
Impact
Engaging the Atlantic Fellow network, Brian will work on how to best connect the arts sector successfully with health and social sectors to address ageism and ableism by promoting brain health and equity.
Motivation
Most American art museums provide programs for people living with dementia but make no provision for creative aging programs for older audiences to prevent, delay or address cognitive decline. Aging is both growth and senescence.
Education & Experience
Brian received his undergraduate (BA, 1982) and postgraduate degrees (MA, 1985 and PhD, 1989) in art history and history at University College Dublin. He worked as assistant director of the National Gallery of Ireland, and then director of the National Gallery of Australia, the Hood Museum of Art (Dartmouth College, New Hampshire), the Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, Ohio) and the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts). Since 2021 he has been an arts leadership consultant, and an adviser to E.A.Michelson Philanthropy.
Awards & Honors
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Brian
a NoteHave ideas for global brain health or a collaboration? I would love to hear from you. Feel free to send an introductory note.
