Using Art Against Ageism: GPNYC’s Meg LaPorte on Creative Activism and Building Across Generations
Ageism is often quiet. It shows up in a headline’s framing, in a policy nobody questions, in the assumption that an idea belongs to the young. Gray Panthers NYC board member Meg LaPorte has spent her career getting it into view, and lately she has been doing that through art.
Meg is co-founder and president of Art Against Ageism, a nonprofit that uses public art, interactive installations, and creative activism to challenge harmful stereotypes about older adults. In two recent interviews, one on the Build Your Own Boat podcast and one in CoGenerate's “4 Questions” series, she talks about how the organization came to be, why she keeps bringing it into eldercare settings, and what working across generations has taught her.
An idea that grew from a classroom
Meg’s roots in aging services run deep. She spent nine years as managing editor of Provider Magazine, a leading publication on long-term and post-acute care, and she holds a master’s degree in ageing services. In 2018, while teaching an undergraduate course on art and ageism, she began developing the idea that would become Art Against Ageism.
One of her students, Jordan Evans, became her co-founder. The two launched the organization in 2021, partly in response to the ageism the COVID-19 pandemic exposed, including a social media hashtag that treated the deaths of older adults as a desirable outcome.
On Build Your Own Boat, a podcast for women entrepreneurs in midlife and beyond hosted by Janine Vanderburg, Meg describes launching a nonprofit as an entrepreneurial venture in every sense. It demands the same creativity, risk tolerance, and resourcefulness as any startup. Her decades of experience in journalism, communications, and marketing let her build the organization without hiring outside help, and gave her an understanding of the field that a newcomer couldn’t replicate.
Partnership as proof
Meg and Jordan are 30 years apart in age, and Meg is candid that she might not have launched without Jordan beside her. Their collaboration models what Art Against Ageism advocates: connection across generations is one of the strongest tools for dismantling ageism, and it makes the work itself better.
That work has taken many forms. Art Against Ageism has wheat-pasted large-scale portraits onto the exteriors of nursing homes. It has invited people to add to Aging is Living, an interactive tree installation, and to step into the Own Your Age photo booth. Its “Rewrite the Ageist Headline” campaign spread widely on social media.
Shedding light inside eldercare
Much of the organization’s work happens in partnership with nursing homes, assisted living communities, and gatherings of aging services professionals. In her CoGenerate interview, Meg explains why. She describes the people who work in these settings as committed and compassionate. But ageist structures and policies create a negative feedback loop that reinforces stereotypes and, in her words, “suppresses the voices of those that should be the loudest.” Participatory art is how she brings those issues into the open.
Working across generations has also changed how Meg sees people. She has learned to check herself before assuming anything based on generational labels. She once expected Gen Zers to take naturally to social media, and then met some who avoid digital platforms altogether. Her advice to other civic leaders is simple: don’t be afraid to reach out to someone you want to work with. People are often more responsive than you expect.
Intergenerational action has been at the heart of the Gray Panthers since 1970. Meg is carrying it forward in paint, paste, and photographs, and in a partnership that demonstrates its own point.
