The Conversation Book Tour

Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50

Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50 highlights the lives of 31 artists who have continued to create, contribute, and lead well beyond the age of 50. Many of these artists—often overlooked by the marketplace—offer powerful models of perseverance, adaptability, and creative integrity. Through decades of personal and professional challenges, they have built enduring practices and become mentors to others, illuminating pathways for artists at every stage of life.

By sharing their experiences, Last Artist Standing offers models of resilience, ingenuity, and pragmatic solutions—valuable for artists of all ages and for those both inside and outside the art world. This book amplifies their voices and celebrates the sustaining power of art across a lifetime.

Beginning in Fall 2025 and into 2027, we will be conducting more than 80 stops on the tour throughout the country and abroad.

Please visit this page for regular updates and changes to the programming and schedule below.

Institute of Sustained Creativity

Each event on the tour is produced by the Institute of Sustained Creativity (ISC), the umbrella organization under which we address and attempt to solve critical issues currently facing artists of all disciplines and ages.

“Last Artist Standing” book tour events help further the goal of supporting artists all across the country by:

• Connecting with community members in tangible, lasting ways.

• Listening deeply to their needs and aspirations to develop pragmatic, sustainable solutions that extend far beyond the event itself.

• Creating a brave space and support—so that artists leave feeling empowered to engage in public conversations, bolstered by the host venue, community leaders, and one another.

• Helping to position creative individuals to live and work freely, even amid today’s increasingly challenging political climate.

• Serving as catalysts for real, intergenerational connections that foster not only engagement, but meaningful, physical progress—concretely moving creative lives forward.

Tour events encompass many different formats:

• Town Hall forums

• Panel Discussions

• Professional Development Workshops

• Connections between organizations, artists and arts leaders

• Organizing and curating exhibitions

• Convening of arts leaders, nonprofits, and other venues where conversations that take place
  foster open, continued, and meaningful dialogue among all who attend

Tour events cover many essential details:

1. During our tour, we anticipate conversations that will center on critical issues such as retirement, financial security, healthcare, and the many “patchworked,” often precarious methods artists use to sustain their creative lives.

2. We will also underscore how artists contribute to the well-being of others—not just through the work they do, but through the way they think, live, and connect. Artists are powerful agents of change. Their presence is vital. The arts remain one of the last platforms for true freedom of expression, and this tour will reinforce that.

3. It is important to us that everyone leaves with tangible examples—clear, actionable pathways toward sustaining a creative life, not only to inform artists, but to raise the value of the arts today.

4. And through the range of visual vocabularies we share, we reaffirm that artists are not just makers. They are (and always have been) cultural stewards, civic leaders, and essential voices shaping the world we live in.

5. We believe these conversations are not only timely, but also urgent—and they must take place in brave, public spaces.

• September 26: Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland

• September 23-26: Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH

• September 29-October 1: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

• September 30: Global Education Center, Nashville, TN

• October 3: Tracey Morgan Gallery, Asheville, NC

• October 4-6: McColl Center, Charlotte, NC

• October 8-10: Southern Curators Summit, Lake City, SC

• October 26-28: International Sculpture Center Conference, Dallas, TX

• November 9: Al Held Foundation, Boiceville, NY

• November 11: Esse Purse Museum, Little Rock, AR (in partnership with Central Arkansas University, Conway, AR)

• November 12: The Studio Downtown, Conway, AR (in partnership with Central Arkansas University, Conway, AR)

• November 17: The Strand Bookstore, New York, NY (NEW YORK PREMIERE)

• November 19: Bates College, Lewinston, ME

• December 4-7: Museum of Art and Design Miami Dade College at the Freedom Tower, Miami, FL

• December 5: Dimensions Variable

note: Fall 2025 lineup only, updated weekly (2026 dates coming soon!)

Past Tour Events, Photos, and Supporting Material:

1. Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists tour (2013-2016):

   —> List of venues
   —> Photographs

2. Artist as Culture Producer: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life tour (2017-2018):

   —> List of venues
   —> Photographs
   —> Summary

3. In-depth report (pdf) from the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life & Artist as Culture Producer tours

4. Data collected from the Artist as Culture Producer tour including:

   —> Exhibition at Berea College
   —> Videos
   —> Questions and Answers

PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Every like-valued organization that creates brave, pragmatic, solution-based spaces for communal conversation becomes part of a broader, connected community. Through ISC’s mentorship, coaching, and both physical and virtual matchmaking, we help these organizations find one another—to share resources, amplify impact, and sustain momentum beyond a single event.

We actively follow up with host organizations, offering guidance and support toward solving ongoing challenges—contributing to urgent and necessary growth in their communities and beyond.

Benefits of Organizations Hosting a Tour Event:

1. Wide Publicity. Each event receives extensive promotion across national and local platforms, increasing visibility for the host organization and its mission.

2. Community Engagement. Hosting fosters meaningful, inclusive dialogue and strengthens relationships among community members, artists, and leaders. This includes extension of programming such as workshops, small conversations, studio visits and more.

3. Global Alignment. Participating venues are positioned alongside like-valued organizations around the world, reinforcing a shared commitment to creative resilience and societal well-being.

4. Strategic Connections. As part of the Institute for Sustained Creativity, we function as catalysts, connecting museums, academic institutions, nonprofits, artist-run spaces, galleries, and non-art organizations to build resource-sharing networks focused on how artists contribute to the greater good.

5. Book Signing. Each stop includes a book signing featuring Last Artist Standing and other volumes in the “Living and Sustaining a Creative Life” series. Participants usually include contributors to the book who will be available to sign books and meet attendees post-event.

6. We warmly welcome people of all ages to join us at any stop along the Last Artist Standing tour—to engage in meaningful conversation, connect with contributing artists and arts professionals, and take part in building a stronger, more inclusive creative community.

Partnerships, Collaboration and Sponsorship

We warmly welcome partnership and collaboration, and we honor the possibility of taking this journey together. “Togetherness” is especially important (and vital) now, when such connections are essential for artists to sustain their lives, and, in turn, to contribute to the well-being of society.

A vital part of ISC’s outreach is cross-collaborating with organizations—especially those who might not normally come together—who share a deep commitment to freedom of expression, creative aging, and arts education from K–12.

We build these connections through sponsorships, partnerships, and in-kind exchanges. We especially welcome working with individuals and groups who may not have deep knowledge of the arts, but who recognize their vital role in society.

Our goal is to expand the circle—bringing more voices, perspectives, and resources into the conversation around sustaining creative lives.

We believe deeply in the power of the arts to enhance well-being and support longevity, especially in communities of underserved artists. It is our hope that this book and its supporting conversation tour encourages readers and audience members to embrace creativity at any stage of life.

In an age increasingly defined by artificial intelligence, Last Artist Standing stands as a testament to the enduring value of human creativity, original thinking, and the many ways the arts are essential in continuing to enrich and extend our lives.

Contact Info:

Vinson Valega — Project Manager, Louden Studio
email: louden.studio@gmail.com
tel: (917) 604-8809

Last Artist Standing is now available now for purchase:

Thank you!

Last Artist Standing is the final publication of the “Living and Sustaining a Creative Life” trilogy. Essays by 40 Working Artists is the first and The Artist as Culture Producer is the second; all published by Intellect Books and distributed by University of Chicago Press.