Our Founder

Her books include Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Elder and Dementia Care (Harper), Penelope: An Arts-based Odyssey to Transform Eldercare (U of Iowa), and Forget Memory: Creating Better Lives for People with Dementia (Johns Hopkins). Internationally recognized for her speaking and her innovative work, Anne is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and numerous major awards and grants. She believes that creative engagement can and should be infused into every care system and has trained/consulted with Meals on Wheels, libraries, home care companies, senior centers, memory cafes, museums, adult day programs, and every level of long-term care.
Anne provides engaging and joyful keynote talks across a range of fields. She is currently at work on multiple projects including EMC2, an effort to sustainably grow the memory cafe infrastructure across the United States.
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Catch Basting’s new writing at her Substack.
Books
Videos
Select videos highlighting Anne’s work with the older generation
Recent Essays
Find Anne’s latest writing here at Substack, in what she’s calling the Little Caregiver Repair Shop of essays and musings, interviews and other wonderments.
Beautiful Questions: A Nursing Home Dream
Next Avenue, May 21, 2025
Arts Midwest, Nov 23, 2022.
How We Underestimate the Arts in Long-Term Care. Caring for the Ages, July 1, 2018
Nursing Homes as Cultural Centers? A collaboration is making it happen in rural Kentucky nursing homes. Next Avenue, April 10, 2018
Stealing Hope. ChangingAging.org, Dec 2017
Why We Need to Pour Creativity into our Elder-care Systems. Next Avenue, Dec. 14, 2016
The Odyssey in a Long-Term Care Community. Next Avenue, May 1, 2015
Why the Arts are Key to Dementia Care: This form of communication can engage intuition and imagination. Next Avenue, April 23, 2015
Learn more about Anne by visiting her website where you’ll find a complete bibliography, current and former projects, and a list of speaking engagements.