In an era where aging populations face increasing isolation and stigma, particularly those navigating cognitive changes like dementia, innovative programs at the intersection of arts and elder advocacy offer a powerful antidote. At Virginia Tech’s Engagement Center for Creative Aging (ECCA), The Beat Goes On—a community choir project—blends musical participation with intentional advocacy and accessibility.

The choir originated out of ECCA, where Interim Director & Therapeutic Program Manager, Joanna (Jo) Culligan, sought to fill a need where persons experiencing cognitive change and their caregivers could benefit from the psychological and physiological benefits of music-making. Culligan’s research team, Investigating Musical Approaches In Geriatrics In Neurological Exploration (IMAGINE) Lab, has also pioneered research on neurological effects related to music therapy interventions.

Throughout our conversation, I learned how The Beat Goes On advocates for arts as a prescribable pathway to dignity and quality of life, urging for broader policy support for sustainable funding and practices in elder-focused arts programs. Culligan enlightened me to the broader impact of the choir, where she sees it growing, and how other institutions can implement similar programming.

The interview excerpts appearing in this post have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Kasey: How does this project fit into the broader mission of the Engagement Center for Creative Aging at Virginia Tech?

Jo: The mission that we have at our center is to provide innovative programming for families aging in place while enhancing the education of future healthcare professionals. We have that through all these different programs that we do that really are related to the tripartite mission at Virginia Tech — teaching, research, and outreach. So, when it came to the Community Choir, it falls underneath our outreach component of the mission of the university and of our center, but also, we’ve infused all these different things into it as well. From an external perspective it looks like it’s just outreach, but it’s so much more than that.

We have students that are engaged [in the choir]. Some of them are engaged in my research lab; these are students that are learning about research and then they are participating in it, through enrollment in a research credit. So that’s the teaching part, and then we also have research that were doing related to the choir looking at how music can be associated with health outcomes for everyone who’s participating.

The choir was designed for persons with Dementia and their caregivers — with the eye of “how to we create an experience where we can invite these people to come and sing and make music and be comfortable in that?” And then, “how can we turn that into an opportunity to destigmatize Dementia with a public performance that doesn’t feel ‘icky’?”

Kasey: What inspired you to create The Beat Goes On and how did the idea evolve from concept to reality?

Jo: One thing that I struggle with a lot is how initiatives for people with dementia and their caregivers are portrayed and how there are so many things that, to me, feel very performative. The motivation behind anything that you do when it comes to a community program should be that it should be for the people, not about the press or the clicks or the views. If [the latter] is your motivation, then you probably shouldn’t be in human services.

At the same time, [we’re] recognizing how public performances can help humanize people and can help destigmatize. How do we do that in a way that then doesn’t make me a hypocrite? We have all these different things woven into the choir season that build on one another so that when we get to the performance it just feels like a natural extension of what was happening.

Kasey: In terms of arts advocacy, how do you see The Beat Goes On addressing cultural equity and access for older adults in Blacksburg?

Jo: There are less opportunities for people to engage in community music-making that is not related to church. A lot of people I know participate in church choirs, and of course Blacksburg has an amazing Master Chorale, but both of those opportunities aren’t as accessible as they might seem like they are. For instance, in order to participate in the Master Chorale, you have to audition — they don’t just accept anyone. There’s a level of expectation about the types of people that are going to be participating in [the Master Chorale]. And they’re still going to be benefiting from music-making, of course, but there’s barriers for people to participate. And the same with a church choir; not everyone attends church, and not everybody has opportunities to be able to engage in that type of setting, or they may not want to. That becomes more barriers.

When it comes to our choir, everything was thought through super intentionally, minus Virginia Tech parking, which continues to be a struggle. We have this great, open access community resource; it’s in a building that’s one of the most accessible buildings on campus. When we say we accept all, we’re not joking. People say, “Well, I can’t sing,” I say, “I don’t believe you.” If you say you can’t sing, I’m like, well why don’t you come meet some new people anyway?

We want people to be able to benefit from not just the action of [singing], but the community of it. Even when people might be showing up and maybe they can’t read the words on the song sheets, or maybe they don’t know the song, or maybe they’re not going to sing, but they’re going to be engaged and be able to benefit from music and wellness just by being there.

Kasey: What challenges or opportunities have emerged in engaging both students and older adults as equal cultural participants?

Jo: I would say that the only challenge that I feel we’ve experienced is that sometimes the students are a little bit insular—they clump. Before each rehearsal we have about 30-minutes of socialization and snack time. It’s not fancy, but we have it. During that time, I’m always encouraging people to talk to someone they’ve never met before. I don’t know if it’s a technology-culture thing that has evolved, but I find that the students seem to be more hesitant to approaching a stranger and striking up a conversation, especially if that person is outside of their age bracket. One of the challenges that I have is trying to promote that in a way that’s not like a dictator — trying to figure out how to support that and how to encourage that.

Kasey: The project emphasizes the town-gown relationship — how does choir singing create a bridge between university members and the local elder community?

Jo: There’s lots of members of the community that don’t come on campus…just because of whatever reasons that are either real or their own personal narrative about that.

Most of the folks are still connected to [Virginia Tech] by one way or another just by virtue of being here. But we have been able to invite more and more members of the community that live in the area and just found out about [the choir]. As the choir continues to exist and grow, my hope is that there will be more opportunities for that tie to be strengthened—specifically between the Town of Blacksburg and Virginia Tech. There are programs that happen in the town specifically for older adults. Nobody owns older adults; nobody owns the market of music; it should be collaborative. I’m mostly interested in trying to figure out ways for people to just have awareness and then participation so that they can build greater community regardless of if it’s [through] Virginia Tech or the town.

Kasey: How do you see this choir fostering intergenerational dialogue or reducing ageism?

Jo: It sort of goes back to the students, you know? Asking them to branch out more, really trying to create more instances where they start to develop kinship with older adults. The thing that I find that is the hardest about that is: people have to be willing to participate in that with their own motivation and volition. For some people, they’re just not going to and there’s nothing we can do about that.

We have had repeat students come back, too. When they come back a second or third time to choir, we have more opportunities for them to start to feel comfortable branching out—outside of their generation. But it’s hard for people to feel comfortable with that because we live in a pretty transient society. People don’t grow up around their grandparents anymore, and we just have less opportunities for people to engage in [intergenerational programming]. Which is why I think our center is so great, too, just because people get an opportunity to meet older adults that are pretty cool and pretty funny.

Kasey: From a health advocacy perspective, what role can music-making play in supporting dignity, agency, and quality of life for people experiencing cognitive change?

Jo: Music accesses health. Music can help someone become organized; in their movement, in their speech, in all of that. It can unlock things that are humanizing. If someone is lost in time, for instance, something that can happen is that all of a sudden you can access something that’s really joyful and gives people an opportunity to have a human connection. When people are humanized, people want to naturally advocate for them more. Music is a powerful pathway to be able to access that.

Kasey: How do caregivers respond to participating in this choir alongside their loved ones, and what benefits have you observed for them?

Jo: We hear reports from caregivers all the time about how they physically feel better after they’ve participated in choir. We collect data to support the choir, and one of them is asking people to choose how they feel on their way in and on their way out. When we do analysis on that, we’re seeing big changes in how people are feeling — reporting more ease, calmness. People seem to feel more relaxed and more grounded, and when you feel more relaxed, you’re just going to have a better day. You’re going to be a more effective caregiver than if you’re anxious about anything because that can cloud so many other things you’re experiencing.

Caregivers also have the opportunity to see how music accesses the health in their person. The music does its job, and when the music does its job, they see health being accessed; they see humor, they see joy, they see playfulness. My hope is that that will then strengthen their relationship with one another.

Kasey: How do you navigate the tension between qualitative impacts (stories, personal transformation) and quantitative impacts (health outcomes, participation data) in justifying the choir’s value?

Jo: I don’t feel any tension, personally. As a clinician and a researcher, I have both of these halves going on and I’ve never understood why they can’t get along better, you know? They can coexist! I don’t think that quantitative is better than qualitative and I don’t think that qualitative is better than quantitative—I think that they have to work together to tell a full story. We’re doing a real disservice to how we learn about humans if we remove all the human aspects of them, but we also do a disservice in our population if we don’t look for trends. They have to work together. So that means that we have to get a ton of data, and that’s okay! I know there’s other community choirs in the world, but the way that we’re doing it is a little bit different because that’s what works for our community.

One thing that I do struggle with is how do we try to learn more about a trend for something when its implementation is so different and fractured? Everyone has different intentions and goals for the way they run their own choirs. Some of them are just for pleasure, some of them aren’t looking at data. I think if there was a little bit more organization, we’d be able to tell the story better.

Kasey: What role do you think research and evidence-based practice should play in shaping cultural policy and arts funding for elder populations?

Jo: I think that the science is starting to catch up to how valuable the arts are. In theory, that should lead to greater funding for research on things that are naturally happening — learning more about why this culture engages in this specific type of art; how it benefits them; how that can be beneficial; how it translates to a different culture, setting, or population. Instead of thinking about research when it comes to developing pharmacological interventions, one of the things that I’m interested in is: how can we harness advances in research and technology to learn about what’s naturally occurring when somebody engages in something creative? And are we able to promote that in a way that helps to solve other problems? We know there’s all kinds of physiological things that happen [in music-making], but until recently we haven’t been able to measure any of that. Why can’t we prescribe music?

Kasey: This project was supported by a start-up grant — what challenges do you see in sustaining funding for arts-health initiatives, and how might policy better support them?

Jo: It is going to be a challenge. The choir received a “Best Practices Award,” which is going to fund it for probably another two seasons. The choir has also started to receive donations because people are seeing what we’re doing, and they like it and want to support it. [However], those cycles shift based on a lot of external factors that we have no control over—when some wells dry up, people pull back in other areas. Supporting arts is often an area where people pull back on.

I have zero interest in charging people to participate in this choir—talk about accessibility and creating barriers. If we’re creating something for the people, it should just be for the people. So, trying to figure out how policy can better support [us], that’s why we get the data. We want to do teaching, we want to do research, we want to do outreach — in order to feed the outreach, we need to feed the research. It’s all got to feed into each other. I would love for policies to just support community music, and there are lots of funding mechanisms, like the National Endowment for the Arts — a huge one! And guess what? They’ve got people knocking down their doors all the time to get their funding. It is a full-time job to just look for funding mechanisms and apply to them. Looking for funding for our choir, that’s my job. And I’m currently working two full-time jobs. For me, to try and find those things, it’s a real challenge.

One of my goals — not this year — is to have a greater intentional student-element to the choir that helps the choir continue to be sustaining on itself. I don’t know what that looks like yet, but some of it could be related to grant writing.

Kasey: How do you advocate for the arts as a public good, both personally and within the university/government system?

Jo: We are just trying to raise some general awareness that we exist, and one of those was through the award that we got this past spring through the Virginia Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services. Other ways that I personally advocate for the arts as a public good, it comes back to being human, building and maintaining relationships with people. It’s about staying connected and engaged with people who support your mission so that they can advocate for you because they understand it.

Our physical boundaries of our center, it’s like, we wonder why no one’s heard of us. We’re this tiny little space, you know? So, in order to raise awareness, these other programs [we have] are busting out! We’re playing mahjong in the atrium, we’re going over to the CID (Creativity and Innovation District) and having choir rehearsal, we’re doing all these different kinds of things with the hope that it is going to lead to a bigger payoff. But it’s not just because of the payoff — it’s because there’s a community need.

Kasey: What advice would you give to other communities or universities hoping to develop similar arts-based elder advocacy programs?

Jo: Just start. I think a lot of people have lots of great ideas, and ideas are great, but let’s see some action. It’s okay to not have it totally figured out when you start; don’t let that hold you back. You learn so much through the process that it just keeps getting better. There are things about it that you can’t anticipate because humans are wildly unpredictable. We put so many roadblocks up in our head, but the people that are going to stick to help you get off the ground, they’re going to stick no matter what. The people who say, “Well, that was weird. I’m not going to come back to that,” they weren’t going to come back anyway. So, just start. Nothing will happen if you don’t just do it.

Kasey: Our last question — an important one — how can students, faculty, and community members become advocates for the arts through participation in The Beat Goes On?

Jo: I know I just said the choir was too big but keep coming and bring your friends! Come to the concert just to experience it. It seems like I do a lot of work, but the truth of the matter is, once people are willing to take that risk to just step through the door or show up, I don’t have to do anything. It’s about people being open and willing to give it a shot. Just show up.

Closing Thoughts

The Beat Goes On is not just a choir — it’s an act of advocacy. The project models how cultural initiatives can be measured not only in artistic terms, but also in their impacts on public health and intergenerational engagement. It reframes aging not as decline, but as an opportunity for continued creating and connection.

For me, this conversation reinforced that advocating for the arts is inseparable from advocating for people. When we champion creative aging, we are lifting up older adults while also shaping a vision of community where the arts are understood as essential to human dignity at every stage of life.

In the wise words of Jo — just start.

Your community is waiting.

The Beat Goes On choir meets bi-monthly in the CID building (185 Kent Street, Blacksburg, VA) on Thursdays from 5:30-7 p.m. More information on how to get involved can be found here. 

Kasey Socks is the Assistant Director of Leadership Gifts at the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech and is working towards a graduate certificate in arts leadership.