Welcome to Celebrate Ageing 

My name is Catherine Barrett and I am the Founder and Director of Celebrate Ageing. I love older people so much that I have dedicated my professional career to challenging ageism and building respect for older people. I established Celebrate Ageing in 2013 and began working on it full time in 2016. Celebrate Ageing brings together my experiences as a nurse working in residential aged care, an academic researching issues of concern to older people and as an artist exploring the ways in which art and story can create momentum for cultural change. 
PictureDr Catherine Barrett, Founder/Director

Since 2016 we have been using art and narrative based approaches to raise awareness of ageism and to promote respect for older people. 

We have established a number of programs,  focused on ageism broadly and also working directly with groups of older people experiencing ageism related injustices. This includes people living with dementia, older LGBTI people and older women who experience sexual assault. 



At the heart of our work is the Elder Leadership Academy. The Academy offers Fellowships to older people to co lead cultural change - we believe that older people have capacity to co lead change, beyond ideas of co-design and co-production. In 2021 Celebrate Ageing is drawing together the work of the past five years and launch a National strategy to challenge ageism and build respect for older people. Watch this space.

About the Founder

I started my professional career as a Registered Nurse working in aged care, including 10 years as a Nurse Unit Manager of a residential aged care unit. I loved aged care, I loved the residents and the challenge of making everyday something special.

​I left aged care when I enrolled in a PhD on organisational change. I wanted to understand more about how change happens. I spent a decade in academia and set up a Sexual Health and Ageing program at La Trobe University. I left academia in late 2015 because I wanted a closer relationship between the research I led - and cultural change. I am focused on research that is embedded in community issues and concerns, that is undertaken in partnership with grassroots community groups, that is owned by community and that translates directly into cultural change. 

I believe that the benchmark on respect for older people has been too low for too long. We have become numb to the disrespect. ​Celebrate Ageing sets a new benchmark, co-led by older people, that creates a new cultural value of respect in families, in services and in the broader community. 

Awards and achievements

  • 2022 Most Uplifting Facebook Group in the World
  • 2022 Probono Australia Impact 25 Award
  • 2020 Globe LGBTIQ Person of the Year 
  • 2019 GLOBE Award for Promoting Healthy Communities 
  • 2019 Australian Association of Gerontology Glenda Powell Travelling Fellow 
  • 2018 Australian Human Rights Medal Finalist
  • 57 partnerships and collaborations 
  • 22,000+ webviews annually
  • 560,000+ followers on social media 

In the media 

100+ media stories including Huffington Post (UK), Vanity Fair (Italy), Mashable, Buzz Feed, Elle, Today USA, The Drum (ABC TV), Women’s Hour (Dame Jenni Murray), Insight (SBS)

Our directors

Celebrate Ageing is a registered charity. More information coming about the Celebrate Ageing team soon ...

Programs

There are six programs under the Celebrate Ageing umbrella. Three focus on general approaches to addressing ageism (Tea Cosy Project, Projecting Beauty, Kindness Pandemic) and three focus on groups of older people who experience particular difficulties related to ageism, including: the Museum of Love (people with dementia), Alice's Garage (older LGBTI people) and OPAL Institute (older people's sexual rights and particularly older women's right to be free from sexual assault). 
TEA Cosy Project
TEA Cosy Project focuses on Transforming the Experience of Ageing by engaging individuals, families, communities, organisations and governments in arts based projects that challenge ageism. Projects include:
  • Love Cosies: stories about older people we love
  • Insulator Cosies: art protecting against internalised ageism – things we value about ageing
  • Place365: stories from older people about their sense of place and belonging
  • Kitchen Table: exploring kitchen table cultures and the role families play in building respect
  • Teaspoons for Respect: messages about respect for older people.
Museum of Love
The Museum of Love produces, collects and displays art highlighting the importance of love in the lives of people living with dementia. The collections challenge unhelpful myths of people with dementia as less than human. The Museum includes the following exhibits:
  • Dance: stories from people with dementia about what belonging means to them
  • Pulse of my Heart: a series of films tracing the journey of Edie Mayhew and her married partner Anne Tudor as they live with dementia
  • Bigger Hearts: creating momentum for a dementia friendly Ballarat in partnership with Alzheimer’s Australia Vic, City of Ballarat, Australian Unity, The Ballarat North Community House and Carers Respite Services at Ballarat Health Service. Produced a film challenging the stigma of dementia.
  • Small Acts of Love: Symposium on Dementia and Love in Ballarat, hosted in partnership with the Australian Association of Gerontology, The City of Ballarat, Ballarat North Neighbourhood Community House, Carers Respite Ballarat Health Service and was supported by Alzheimer’s Australia Vic. Symposium speakers were people living with dementia and their family and friends who addressed the importance of love in and their strategies for building connections
  • 100 stories: stories about the experiences of 100 Ballarat residents living with dementia. Project funded by the Helen MacPherson Smith Trust in partnership with the Wendouree Neighbourhood Centre, Ballarat North Community House and the City of Ballarat – and supported by Dementia Australia Vic
  • Letters of Love and Dementia: campaign calling community members to write letters to people with dementia, and for people with dementia to write to friends, family
  • The Kiss: portraits of people with dementia kissing someone they love
  • The Mirror: home snaps of people with dementia doing something they love
  • LoveFest: a festival of love and dementia where the Museum of Love is hosted in local communities to work with local people on raising community awareness and creating change.
The OPAL Institute
The Institute promotes the sexual rights of older people and includes co edited book on the Sexual Rights of older people. In a world first, the book takes the World Association for Sexology’s Charter of Sexual Rights and applies them to the lives of older people. OPAL Institute has focused predominately on preventing the sexual assault of older women. Projects include:
  • ​Policies: developed training and a policy for aged care service providers on addressing sexual rights of older people and on sexual boundaries in home services. Made the policies available free online and delivered the training
  • Power project: focused on preventing the sexual assault of older women
    • #InHerShoes: Coordinating a project in partnership with the Older Women’s Network of NSW to document the responses to older women and their families who report sexual assault
    • Round Table: addressed a Round Table in Parliament House on preventing sexual assault of older women. Event hosted by Senator Rachel Siewert
    • Workshop on Unlawful Sexual Contact - compliance, resourcing and prevention with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission prior to the Australian Association of Gerontology Conference in Sydney
    • Publication with the Australian Association of Gerontology of a paper outlining the outcomes of the November pre-conference workshop on sexual assault
    • Collaboration with 97 year old Margarita Solis to launch a social media campaign and online resource called #SheToo which raises awareness of the importance of listening to older women who report sexual assault and developed strategies to improve listening
    • Produced a film called Margarita which documents the experiences of Margarita Solis after her sexual assault, as a tool to educate service providers and community members.
Alice’s Garage
Alice’s Garage empowers older LGBTI people and promotes healthy LGBTI Ageing. The program strengthens the voices of older LGBTI people, drawing on their knowledge and skills to address the challenges they face and build communities where LGBTIphobia and ageism are addressed.
  • Royal Commission into Quality and Safety in Aged Care: participated in round t able with the Commission on issues for older LGBTI people, working with several older LGBTI people on submissions and developing a submission to the Commission
  • Rainbow Ageing: working with La Trobe University on an ARC funded project to build the first national evidence base on the health and well-being of older LGBTI Australians and utilise this information to stimulate and guide reforms to policy and service provision.
  • Kinfolk: working older TGD people, family relationship services and aged care services to improve older TGD people’s control over their gender identity and expression in the context of their own families and aged care services
  • Finding Strong: collaboration with an 84 year old lesbian to document her historical experiences of so called 'cures' and contemporary discrimination in guides for LGBTI culturally safe services. 
  • Never a Crime: art based workshops to heal the shame and stigma associated with LGBTIQphobic abuse and celebrate Pride
  • Abundance: a story pantry affirming TGD people as they age using text, photographs, film and preserves of fruit and vegetables
  • Hold Hands on a Tram: a project raising awareness of Lesbian Herstory and the resistance that got older lesbians through historical experiences of lesbophobia
  • Runway6: an older LGBTI person’s catwalk at the Embolden2018 Festival. The oldest model was 88 years old and the catwalk was an exploration of LGBTI Ageing and beauty 
  • Place: this ongoing project works to build a sense of Place for older LGBTI people within LGBTI communities and the broader community. Activities include an annual Tea Tent for older LGBTI people and Allies at Midsumma Carnival; an exhibition about older LGBTI people and Place at the National Elder Abuse Awareness Conference in 2019 
  • 100 years of Love: a project documenting the lives and loves of three lesbian couples living in Ballarat who have collectively been together for over 100 years
  • Strong House: a webpage of messages from older LGBTI people about getting through tough times, including the Marriage Equality postal vote
  • The REAL Big Hug: contracted to coordinate an event celebrating the achievements of allies who supported LGBTIQ Victorians through the Marriage Equality postal vote
  • Grateful Rainbow: a facebook group/web resource established on the one year anniversary of the Marriage Equality Postal Vote to build the mental wellbeing of LGBTIQ Australians. The page build over 850 members within a month and has been going for over a year
  • Pulse of My Heart: is an annual film documenting the journey of a lesbian couple living with dementia.
  • Pink Wolves: worked in partnership with Adam Pulford to host a vigil in solidarity for gay and bisexual men in Chechnya. The vigil was attended by around 800 people
  • Tango Project: Developed and coordinating a project documenting older LGBTI Victorian’s experiences of abuse and discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or sex. Gender and Sexuality Commissioner Ro Allen is project patron.
  • New Moves: In partnership with All The Queens Men hosted an event for Senior’s Festival which bought Victoria’s Commissioners and older LGBTI Victorians together for a High Tea. Produced a video with messages of support from the Commissioners to older LGBTI Victorians.
  • The Baroness of Balaclava: In partnership with Switchboard Victoria hosted an event for Port Phillip Council Senior’s Festival 2017 celebrating the life of gay activist Richard James, including production of a film.
  • Tscreen: worked with BreastScreen Victoria on consultation with TGD community members on how to create TGD inclusive services - the organisation achieved a Rainbow Tick in 2019
  • Beautiful Women: Developed and coordinated a campaign for BreastScreen Victoria to encourage LGBTI women to undertake a mammogram. The Campaign included photographs of LGBTI women from 26 -76 years of age and was picked up by Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Buzz Feed and Mashable
  • National LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care Strategy Review: part of a working group, working with the Department of Human Services reviewing the Strategy (2015 – 2017)
Projecting Beauty
Projecting Beauty, or Catwalks against ageism, is fashion based program that challenges the ageist misconception that beauty is limited to youth. The program works with older people to identify their cat walk attitude and take it to their everyday life as a protective factor against ageism. A Fashion Parade is hosted each year at the Embolden Festival.