Intangible cultural heritage art education for older adults: A scoping review of empowerment frameworks, practice pathways and cross-cultural insights

Faced with the dual practical challenges of global population aging and the preservation of intangible cultural heritage, ICH art education has gradually emerged as an innovative path to empower older adults and advance sustainable cultural development. Adopting a scoping review approach, this study systematically collates Chinese and international literature alongside typical practical cases, constructs a multidimensional analytical framework, and explores the internal logic of synergistic empowerment between ICH art education and the elderly. Centered on older learners, this research establishes an individual – economic – social triple-value empowerment framework, clarifying the complete operational context of older adults’ ICH participation from motivation stimulation to diversified value formation. Combining three major practical models in China – community-endogenous development, industry-education integration, and institutional platform operation – the study further refines a stepwise implementation path framed as cultural tracing – craft inheritance – innovative application. By benchmarking mature international models, including the University of the Third Age in Europe, community-based lifelong learning in Japan, and creative aging practices in Britain and the United States, this paper verifies the strong adaptability and popularization potential of the above pathway. This study improves the interdisciplinary theoretical system covering ICH art education and later-life learning. It provides cross-cultural references for policy optimization, curriculum reform and practical improvement in elderly education, and facilitates the paradigm shift of this field from passive cultural conservation to active cultural empowerment. From the perspective of lifelong learning, it also effectively broadens the connotation, boundary and practical implementation paths of elderly education.