Aging artists in New York City stay engaged and productive well past retirement age and would choose their profession again if they were starting over, according to a new study.

Seventy-seven percent communicate daily or weekly with other artists, according to the study, conducted by the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Teachers College Columbia University and supported by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging.

Joan Jeffri, director of the study, said the various artists were being looked at separately because she expected to find different results. "They behave very differently because of the kind of artists they are," she said. For example, many dancers' careers effectively are over at 35, while some opera singers might be just beginning their careers at that age. However, she said, the study was finding that even those artists whose careers end early transition into other jobs successfully.

This article appeared in the November 12, 2007 edition of the USA Today.