Discover inspiring articles and resources about museum programs, wellness initiatives, and cultural engagement for older adults and intergenerational dialogue.
In this short video, cultural mediator Nina Mayer shares her approach to working with people living with dementia through multisensory cultural mediation.
The session demonstrates how simple yet thoughtful methods—such as starting with everyday objects, engaging multiple senses, and creating a calm, respectful atmosphere—can open meaningful opportunities for participation, expression, and connection.
In this episode of the MeWell Cultural Mediation podcast, we explore the dynamic intersection of art and science and what happens when these two fields come together. Through examples of collaborations between artists, researchers, and cultural institutions, the episode reflects on how complex scientific ideas—such as artificial intelligence—can be made accessible, meaningful, and engaging for diverse audiences.
The conversation highlights the role of cultural mediation as a bridge between different ways of knowing. It looks at how mediation can move beyond explanation to create space for curiosity, imagination, and shared reflection. Special attention is given to working with adult audiences, including adults aged 50+, and how inclusive, thoughtful formats can support deeper engagement and wellbeing.
Drawing on real cases—from artistic residencies in scientific laboratories to innovative mediation formats in museums—the episode invites listeners to reconsider how knowledge is created, shared, and experienced.
Source: Science(s) en Occitanie
This MeWell podcast episode explores the meeting point between art, science, technology, and society. It reflects on how artists, researchers, and cultural mediators can work together to make complex scientific ideas more accessible, imaginative, and open to public dialogue.
The episode looks at examples of art-science collaborations, including projects involving artificial intelligence, robotics, sound mediation, and interdisciplinary residencies. It highlights how cultural mediation can create bridges between different forms of knowledge and support audiences in engaging with uncertainty, creativity, and critical reflection.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has a transformative impact on International Cultural Relations. On the other hand, International Cultural Relations affect AI development. Amidst growing geopolitical competition, AI presents both opportunities and challenges. How can we harness AI’s potential while mitigating its risks?
In this episode of Die Kulturmittler:innen Deep Dive delve into ethical, linguistic, creative, informational, and geopolitical issues with our guest, Octavio Kulesz. He discusses his new study, "Artificial Intelligence and International Cultural Relations: Challenges and Opportunities for Cross-Sector Collaboration", published by ifa’s "Culture and Foreign Policy" research programme.
Resource: The Art Engager Podcats
Claire Brown is talking to Sasha Igdalova about the exciting research she’s been conducting over the past few years around aesthetic experience, slow looking and social interaction in museums.
Aleksandra (Sasha) Igdalova is an interdisciplinary researcher in the final year of her Psychology PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London conducting large-scale, experimental studies on slow looking within exhibition spaces at Manchester Art Gallery.
When did you last spend more than 30 seconds looking at something in a museum? What if just three minutes could completely change what you see and feel?
This practice – called slow looking – has become the foundation of the most engaging museum discussions I’ve facilitated over the past decade. Here’s everything you need to know to start transforming your museum experiences today.
Source: https://thinkingmuseum.com/2025/06/25/the-complete-guide-to-slow-looking-in-museums/
Resource: The Art Engager
In this episode, Claire Bown is joined by Laurie Kilgour Walsh, Head of Programs and Learning at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, to explore what it takes to create meaningful, person-centred museum experiences with and for people living with dementia.
Cultural mediation can be understood through the lens of sociocultural theory, which emphasises that human thinking develops through social interaction and the use of cultural tools such as language, symbols, and artistic expression.
In the context of art and cultural mediation, these tools are not limited to words – they also include images, movement, storytelling, and shared experiences. Meaning is not created individually; it emerges through dialogue – between participants, artworks, and the mediator.
Rather than transmitting knowledge, the mediator creates conditions for reflection, interpretation, and connection. In this sense, cultural mediation supports processes similar to what has been described in research as internalisation – when shared experiences gradually become personal understanding.
Resource: MuseumMediatorsEU
This video features an interview recorded during the Lisbon Meeting in November 2012 as part of the Museum Mediators Europe project. Conducted by external evaluator Joaquim Jorge, the conversation with Cristina da Milano offers a critical reflection on the professional realities of museum educators and cultural mediators.
Resource: DAISSy Research Group
This video presents insights from the International Conference “Enhancing the Skills and Identity of a Cultural Mediator in a Multicultural Europe” (ESI-CM 2014), held at the Hellenic Open University in Patras, Greece.
When we speak about wellbeing, we often speak in simplified terms. We ask whether people feel happy, satisfied, positive, or emotionally balanced. These are important questions, but they may not be enough. Carol Ryff’s influential 1989 article challenged exactly this narrow understanding of wellbeing and argued that psychological wellbeing is much broader than happiness or life satisfaction alone .
For those of us working in cultural mediation and adult learning, this insight remains deeply relevant. If culture is to contribute to wellbeing, then its role cannot be limited to entertainment, distraction, or temporary emotional uplift. Cultural experiences can also support meaning, connection, growth, dignity, and agency.
Beyond Happiness
Loneliness among older men is a growing public health crisis, with research showing that men over 60 are particularly vulnerable to social isolation. But what if museums could offer more than just historical artefacts?
What if they could become spaces for connection, purpose, and creativity? At Beamish Museum, an ambitious collaboration known as the Dovetails Project has emerged as a powerful example of how museums can address loneliness through creativity, shared purpose, and meaningful relationships.
Led by Michelle Kindleysides, Head of Health and Wellbeing at Beamish Museum, Beth Marston, Health and Wellbeing Support Worker, and Dr Henry Collingham, Innovation Fellow from Northumbria University, the Dovetails Project brought together Beamish Museum’s Men’s Group and Kids Kabin, a children’s creativity charity based in one of Newcastle’s most deprived areas.
Synthetic Memories is a creative project that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to bring personal memories to life, especially those without photos or videos. By turning people’s detailed recollections into AI-generated images and short videos, this project helps recreate moments that might have faded with time.
One of the most meaningful uses of Synthetic Memories is in therapy for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. These AI-generated images can help spark forgotten emotions and encourage conversations about the past. Therapists have found that revisiting these recreated memories can improve emotional well-being and help slow cognitive decline.
Mending HeArts is a participatory arts and health programme designed to support people recovering from cardiac and stroke-related conditions. Through creative workshops led by professional artists, the programme offers a space for expression, connection, and emotional wellbeing during recovery across Galway City and County.
The project involved a core group of eight professional visual artists who worked in collaboration with healthcare professionals to deliver creative workshops in both hospital and community settings.
School of Generational Storytelling was a year-long interdisciplinary project by artist Eamon O’Kane, supported by artist Chelsea Canavan. Set within six care homes throughout Sligo, the project reflected on how we share knowledge across time, how creative practice can support wellbeing, and how relationships between individuals, disciplines, and institutions can be cared for through art.
A significant outcome of the project was a set of bespoke creative toolkits, which have been given to each of the care homes involved in the project.
School of Generational Storytelling was commissioned by The Model and supported by the Arts Council’s Arts Participation Project Award. The project was curated by Marie-Louise Blaney, Education Curator at The Model, and formed part of The Model’s broader arts and health programme.
Mapping the Space of Dementia brings together scientists, clinicians, care workers, care partners, people living with dementia and an artist, to explore how we position and locate ourselves in our world. Artist Mick O’Kelly uses brain imaging technology to capture cognitive difference, which is then mapped onto stained glass and installed in the home environments of participants.
The project was initiated by O’Kelly in 2022 following a Research Atlantic Fellowship with the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) at the University of California San Francisco.
Some Dance to Remember is an inclusive dance research project using adaptive Irish céilí dance and traditional Irish music for people living with dementia and their professional carers. The dance sessions took place in a dementia care day programme in the greater Midwest region of Ireland from October 2019 to February 2020.
The project was led by Séan Dónal O’Shea (postgrad researcher at Technological University of the Shannon Midwest) with a supervisory team of Jennifer Moran Stritch, TUS Midwest Loss and Grief group/Social Sciences ConneXions, and Carmel McKenna of Munster Academy of Dance/Social Sciences ConneXions. Dance participants included people living with dementia and their professional carers attending dementia day and respite care in the Midwest of Ireland.This research project aimed to investigate the psychosocial effects arising from the introduction of a pilot adaptive Irish céilí dance programme for people with dementia and their carers.
Irish Hospice Foundation launched the fourth round of its Seed Grant programme in 2024, this time focusing on creative exploration and responses to grief and loss in residential care. Awardees included activity co-ordinators, artists, clinicians, educators, and academics, aligned with nursing homes in Limerick, Louth, Clare, Cavan, Donegal and Dublin.
The programme took place in collaboration with Caru — a continuous learning programme for care and compassion at end of life in residential care.
House of Memories is a unique education programme created by National Museums Liverpool to help museums across the UK, and beyond, support people living with dementia. It’s our mission to help people live well with dementia and it’s a job I’m incredibly passionate about.
When House of Memories began in 2012, it was unusual for a museum to take a direct and active interest in the lives of people living with dementia, particularly with the goal of developing digital resources and training for families and care providers.
What do railways, forests, Eurovision, and old suitcases have in common? On the surface, not much. But for people living with dementia in Liverpool—and increasingly around the world—these seemingly ordinary touchpoints are proving to be extraordinary tools for connection, memory, and care.
This is the insight driving House of Memories, a dementia awareness programme from National Museums Liverpool. Since 2012, the initiative has turned museums into something more than repositories of the past: they have become engines of empathy, bridges between health and culture, and laboratories for testing what happens when you place personal history at the heart of care.
In many Western models of wellbeing, there’s a persistent idea that our needs follow a straight line—from survival to fulfillment. This belief, rooted in psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs,” suggests that we must secure “basic needs” like food, shelter, and safety before we can truly experience “higher needs” like belonging, creativity, or purpose. This hierarchy has been used by policymakers, funders, and health experts alike as a kind of priority list for deciding how to address individual and social problems.
In many ways, this pyramid framework is comforting, offering an orderly, clear starting point to build upon. But real life is rarely that linear. As we’ve seen in recent years, health and wellbeing are deeply interconnected. In reality, human life looks less like a hierarchical pyramid and more like a holistic pie. We live webs of relationships, conditions, and experiences that contribute to our overall wellbeing.
Consider the person juggling multiple jobs who lacks time for rest or connection, versus an entrepreneur embracing financial uncertainty in pursuit of a dream. Or someone living with chronic illness, whose life falls outside of conventional definitions of health and productivity. Are these lives less “actualized” because they don’t fit the pyramid? What about individuals living in poverty or navigating systematic barriers—are they less entitled to purpose, expression, or joy?
How can the Van Gogh Museum remain accessible for the growing group of elderly people in the Netherlands? This is the key question addressed by the Age Friendly Van Gogh Museum programme.
The Van Gogh Museum is dedicated to being accessible to everyone, and inclusion is the primary concern. The museum’s inclusion policy is geared towards young people, young residents of Amsterdam, people with a physical disability and the growing group of elderly people in the Netherlands. In addition to focusing on the group of active over-70s, in recent years, the museum has also turned its attention specifically to vulnerable elderly people. It can be difficult for this group of people to experience art independently.
This special day is designed for seniors who face challenges in experiencing art independently, connecting them with the work and life of Vincent van Gogh. Through this collaboration, Hyundai and the Van Gogh Museum aim to improve accessibility at the museum.
Connection Day is more than just a museum visit: it offers a meaningful moment of contact for seniors who are often sidelined due to physical or social limitations. Feelings of loneliness are particularly common during the summer months, when friends and family are often on holiday, and many community groups and clubs close their doors.
From Amsterdam to Liverpool and Brussels to Montreal, creative aging activities in cultural institutions are changing older adults’ relationships to art and to museums, and paving the way for wider recognition and support for older adult creativity.
Museum leaders the world over are realizing that creative aging’s intersection with public health, community planning, and participatory arts is a powerful and positive catalyst for change in the cultural sector.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington is setting an inspiring precedent for how museums can support people living with dementia.
In a recent conference presentation for the Museums, Health & Well-Being Summit, Abigail Perry, Polly Harknett and Holly Power—representing the learning, interpretation, and audience insights teams—shared the museum’s efforts to deliver meaningful dementia-friendly programming and redesign gallery spaces to be more accessible.
This initiative highlights the transformative role museums can play in fostering wellbeing and inclusivity.
Supporting the work of contemporary artists has always been integral to the mission of the V&A: to champion creativity and inspire makers, creators and innovators everywhere. Since 1869—when the V&A’s first Director Henry Cole offered an onsite studio to the pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron—the museum has hosted over 70 artists in residence.
The Adobe Creative Residency Programme at the V&A was initiated in 2024. Each year, three artists spend 12 months in residence in dedicated studios onsite at the V&A South Kensington. They take inspiration from the world-class collection and collaborate with the Learning Team to expand public programming with schools, young people, and families. The residencies bring making into the core of the museum, and gives artists and creators unprecedented access, with the opportunity to display their work at the V&A at the end of the programme.
Ciara (left) sitting on one of her ceramic stools. In the joyful form of a jelly mould, they provide a place for rest and conversation. Ciara’s work uses the ‘nerikomi’ technique of layering coloured clays to create vibrant patterns. Photos by Ciara Neufeldt.
Since 2006, the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taipei has extended its reach to serve Taiwan’s aging population, recognising the profound impact that art can have on the elderly. As Taiwan is expected to attain super-aged society status by 2025, senior citizens have emerged as a key audience for the museum. To address accessibility challenges, NPM has partnered with senior homes, libraries, and city district health centers, offering specialised courses that integrate its vast collection of ancient Chinese art with the lived experiences of individuals over 65. These courses foster engagement through a variety of approaches, including art-making, physical activities, replica handling and museum visits, creating a meaningful dialogue between the artefacts and seniors’ life stories.
In light of the World Health Organization’s 2019 report affirming the positive effects of the arts on health, well-being, and disease management, NPM explored how its collections could contribute to dementia care. Dementia is a growing concern in Taiwan due to the aging population, hence prompting a multidisciplinary collaboration between the museum and the Dementia Treatment and Research Center of Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) in 2021. This partnership resulted in ‘Live for Today: Cognitive Card Set’ (LFTCS), an innovative project that seeks to enhance cognitive function, communication, and social interaction for elderly individuals with mild dementia or cognitive impairment.
The ‘Live for Today: Cognitive Card Set’ Project
According to the latest review of data, there are some 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK. Globally, this devastating disease affects more than 55 million people worldwide, with almost 10 million new cases diagnosed every year according to the latest research from the World Health Organisation (WHO). And this figure is expected to increase dramatically in the coming years as more and more countries face the challenges that come with an ageing population.
Even in its mildest form, dementia can have a major impact on daily life, a fact that makes finding and accessing support early particularly important. While there’s no cure for dementia, therapy and self-care remain effective tools for managing the condition and supporting more independent lives. Indeed, awareness surrounding the benefits of social prescribing alongside traditional clinical care has grown rapidly in recent years.
With the right programmes in place, museums and galleries can reach out to ensure community engagement, accessibility and appropriate support for people with dementia. Often this involves the provision of tools, techniques and therapy aids that can be utilised by families and carers.
The issue of loneliness has been making headlines in recent years. More and more people are feeling isolated and alone. In fact, a recent study found that one in five Americans always or often feel lonely or socially isolated. Human beings are social creatures. Prolonged loneliness can have a host of negative effects. It has even been referred to as a silent killer. This is an issue which can affect anyone, at any age, although elderly people are sometimes more at risk.
Studies have shown that social isolation has a serious impact on physical health. One piece of research found that loneliness can cause a comparable amount of damage as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Social isolation affects mental health too. Loneliness can lead to an increased risk of depression. Lonely people have a 64% increased chance of developing clinical dementia. Making meaningful connections with other people is vital. Positive social interactions are a key part of health and wellbeing.
Lisa Hester is a visual artist and academic, drawn to how play and symbolic language can create space for wellbeing and emotional expression in community and care contexts. She is currently developing an arts practice with older people in residential care and lectures on the MA Art, Psyche and the Creative Imagination programme at TUS Limerick School of Art and Design.
Hester was awarded an artsandhealth.ie Emerging Artist Bursary in 2025, funded by the Arts Council and HSE, to reflect on her arts and health practice. She homed in on her own reflective habits – how she interprets situations and documents affective experiences – and their role in ethical decision-making.
In Reflections on Reflecting, Hester sets out the conceptual framing that guided her inquiry, summarises the development of her practice to date, and provides short overviews of the reflective episodes that shaped her learning.
What does it mean to be an artist working with people? To make art with people who may be at their most vulnerable? To foster connections in systems that weren’t built for art?
Artist Helen Keenan works at the intersection ‘where art and complicated lives are met.’ Collaborating with older adults in residential care through dance, poetry and art, Helen meets people who are making a life in a ‘home’ that is not their own, some of whom she notes are ‘operating within a different internal reality.’
Helen delves into the complexities of being an artist in this space in a new poetry collection, funded by the artsandhealth.ie Emerging Artist Bursary. The 13 poems and concluding reflective thoughts that form Arts & Health Practice – A Poetic Reflection are a rich exploration of artist identity, meaning-making and human connection.
There is a wide range of mediums, materials, techniques, and strategies that you can use within art-making programs. Projects will depend on the educator's areas of interest and expertise, as well as the interests and abilities of participants. This portion of the guide provides an outline for general planning and implementation of art-making programs both at your museum and off-site. For sample projects related to specific themes, see the Art Modules.
It is important to determine the participants' interest in making art. Some adults who have not made art regularly throughout their lives may not be comfortable with this type of expression, while others may be very keen to get involved. When determining whether you will offer art-making programs, take the following into consideration:
This guide details how to establish a museum program for individuals with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers. Educational programming is at the heart of a museum's public mission and serves as a gateway for exploring works of art and cultural history. Offerings should extend to all audiences, including individuals with cognitive disabilities. The program should focus on participants' abilities in order to create an accepting and engaging environment in which the disease is a nonissue.
Resource: MO Museum
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are,” – this idea by Anaïs Nin becomes the starting point of this video.
Karen, an educator at the MO Museum and curator of the children’s exhibition “A Lake Full of Stars,” introduces the Visual Thinking Strategies method – one of the core elements of MO’s educational practice. She shares how this approach helps not only to engage with art, but also to develop critical thinking, empathy, and the ability to listen to others.
Resource: Papasakok plačiau
Art educator Karen Vanhercke introduces the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) method. VTS is a dialogue-based teaching approach that brings educators and participants into active conversation. It was developed by cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen and museum educator Philip Yenawine.
Resource: GARAGEMCA
This video is part of a series of online seminars developed in connection with the Russian edition of Time for Cultural Mediation by Carmen Mörsch and colleagues. The series brings together educators, curators, and researchers from Switzerland and Russia to reflect on key questions of cultural mediation and to exchange perspectives on its meanings, goals, and possibilities.
Resource: Power | Gender and Power through and in Art
This video, presented by the French partner Élan Interculturel, introduces Werner Moron’s method of art mediation, focusing on the concepts of the “real path” and the “imaginary path.” It explains how this approach works in practice and how it can be used to guide participants through reflective and creative processes in art mediation settings.
Resource: Museums & Galleries of NSW
In this video, Marion Buchloh-Kollerbohm, Head of Cultural Mediation at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, shares how cultural mediation is understood and implemented within her institution. She reflects on how this practice has evolved through collaboration with artist Mel O’Callaghan, highlighting the ways in which artistic processes can shape and expand mediation approaches.
Resource: Museums & Galleries of NSW
In this video, contemporary Australian artist Mel O’Callaghan reflects on her experience of working with professional cultural mediators in European institutions. Drawing from her artistic practice, she offers valuable insights into how cultural mediation can shape not only audience engagement, but also the work of artists and cultural producers themselves.
Resource: Museums & Galleries of NSW
In this video, Lee Casey, Head of Communications and Engagement at Science Gallery Melbourne (University of Melbourne), explores how cultural mediation can be used as a powerful communication and participatory tool within a museum context. Drawing from institutional practice, he reflects on how mediation helps engage visitors with complex, thought-provoking ideas at the intersection of art, science, and society.
Resource: Museums & Galleries of NSW
In this video, Emily Sullivan, Curator at Kaldor Public Art Projects, reflects on a recent project developed with artist Asad Raza, focusing on the “cultivators” programme. She shares insights into how cultural mediation operates within the context of public art, where engagement extends beyond traditional exhibition formats into participatory, process-driven experiences.
Resource: Teacher Education About Multilingualism - TEAM
This screencast explores cultural mediation within social contexts, focusing on its role in enabling communication across languages and supporting equitable access to participation. It introduces key characteristics of mediation, while also reflecting on the roles, responsibilities, and limits of cultural mediators from both epistemological and ethical perspectives.
Resource: IntercultureTV
This video offers a clear and practical introduction to mediation and intercultural mediation, explaining how conflicts arise, why they escalate, and how they can be constructively resolved through dialogue.
Starting from everyday conflict situations—both private and professional—the video presents mediation as a structured, solution-oriented process that helps parties move beyond emotional reactions toward mutual understanding and agreement. It highlights mediation as an alternative to formal legal procedures, emphasizing collaboration rather than competition.
Source: Culture Days – Fête de la culture
In this short interview, Alexis Andrew from the Canada Council for the Arts shares her perspective on cultural mediation and its role in connecting people with art.
She describes cultural mediation as a process that supports the public in engaging with artworks and artists more deeply—through tools that help bridge understanding and create richer, more meaningful experiences.
Resource: Power | Gender and Power through and in Art
This video introduces a creative and reflective method titled “Real Journey / Imagined Journey”, inspired by Belgian artist Werner Moron. The exercise is designed to explore questions of gender, identity, and personal experience through writing, imagination, and artistic thinking.
⚠️ Note: This video is in French, with English subtitles available.
Source: The Munch Museum
This video offers a personal and reflective perspective on art mediation, inviting viewers to rethink how they experience and interpret art.
At its core is a simple but powerful idea: your way of seeing matters. Rather than adapting to a single “correct” way of looking, you are encouraged to trust your own voice, your presence, and your perspective within the exhibition space.
Resource: REACT Culture
In this presentation, Gina Popa, cultural mediator at the “Moldova” National Museum Complex of Iași, explores the evolving role of digital cultural mediation and how it differs from traditional, on-site approaches in museums.
In our example, a daughter (D.) and her father (F.) plan to go to the The Museum of Modern Art together. F. has always had a passing interest in art, but has a hard time "appreciating" contemporary art because, he says, "I don't really understand much of what's going on in the works."
D. and F. had previously attended a Meet Me at MoMA program and received passes that allowed them to come to MoMA for free with three other family members (up to five people). D's husband and his sister are also interested in attending and making the Museum visit a meaningful and enriching family experience. They decide to go to MoMA later in the afternoon, around 3:00 P.M. They commit to leaving to leaving at 5:00 P.M. at the latest, in order to prevent fatigue from setting in, and plan an early dinner to complete the outing. Luckily, D.'s sister-in-law has a car, so they decide to drive on a Wednesday afternoon and park in one of the parking lots that provide discounts to MoMA visitors.
Engaging with art at home can also be enriching and rewarding. Because this experience is between the caregiver and the person with dementia, there is plenty of leeway to adjust and adapt the parameters and the components set forth in this section. Since there is a deep intimacy between you and the person you will be sharing these experiences with, feel free to transform the guidelines to best serve the psychological, emotional, and intellectual needs of both of you.
Visits to art museums and galleries can be rich and rewarding experiences. Viewing original works of art in quiet, contemplative spaces that allow for social interaction can be beneficial for everyone involved and provide an opportunity for self-reflection and self-expression. There are many ways to visit a museum or gallery, and you can involve a variety of people in your experience.
To create a multiweek program for participants in your organization, refer to the Art Modules. You have the option of sequencing multiple existing modules to create a multipart program that includes both art-looking and art-making components, or you can mix images from the Images section. If possible, you may incorporate trips to a museum into the program.
The following example features a four-part program at a care organization that includes both art-looking and art-making sessions. This program was conducted by a MoMA educator with a group of individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
The program was divided into separate art-looking and art-making, or studio, sessions. At the beginning of each studio session, the educator introduced reproductions of images from the previous art-looking session to incorporate the ideas discussed then into the art-making process. Although some participants who are in the early stages of the disease may be able to recall the artworks from the earlier discussion with little difficulty, it is always useful to reintroduce the images.
This guide focuses on the structure and set-up of off-site programs at museums or art galleries and on-site programs at your facility. Programs at your facility can be a source of pleasure and pride for participants. They also allow everyone to engage with art in a safe and familiar environment and might allow for greater participation, as some individuals may not be physically capable of making a trip off-site. Museum visits can also provide intellectual stimulation brief primer on issues to consider when planning a trip to a museum.
This example shows how educators can design a structured yet flexible museum session around a clear theme, combining art discussion with personal reflection. The approach can be adapted to any museum collection or cultural context.
1. Choosing a Theme
Select a theme that is both accessible and meaningful across cultures. In this case, the theme “The City” was chosen because most participants have personal experiences of urban life—whether through living, working, or visiting cities. This creates immediate entry points for conversation.
Engagement with art can have significant benefits for people with dementia and their caregivers. This is true whether the experience involves looking at and discussing art or creating art. In both cases, art can be used as a vehicle for meaningful self-expression. Indeed, engagement with art, through close looking and discussion, offers a person with Alzheimer's disease the chance to:
In addition to the above benefits, caregivers also gain from art experiences by exploring their own interests in art while the person in their care is present, safe, and engaged. In some settings, such as museums and care organizations, they can interact socially with other caregivers, share stories, and learn in a supportive environment where they are relaxed both physically and mentally.
Resource: Proko
In this engaging session, artist and instructor Tim Gula introduces a powerful drawing exercise based on spontaneity, intuition, and creative freedom. Drawing from his experiences working alongside legendary artists such as Frank Frazetta, Moebius, and Jack Kirby, he shares insights into how great artists develop imagination and maintain creative energy.
Dementia results from diseases like Alzheimer’s or a series of strokes that cause brain damage. It presents as memory loss, confusion, difficulties with thinking, problem-solving, or language, and can lead to changes in mood and behaviour. Since dementia’s manifestation varies from person to person, it often goes unnoticed in public spaces, leading to individuals with dementia sometimes being misunderstood.
Cultural institutions such as museums are becoming important pillars in enhancing dementia awareness and education. They serve as safe spaces and run various activities tailored to the needs of people with dementia, emphasizing the crucial role of museums in reaching out to people with dementia.
People are now living longer than ever before. The average life expectancy around the globe is rising year on year. Although it is levelling off or even dropping by a fraction in some developed countries, they are still facing an ageing population. Men in the US can expect to live to an average age of 76.1. For women, the age rises to 81.
There are many challenges associated with an ageing population. One of these is the increased pressure on medical services. A key way for people to ensure better health as they head into retirement age is by staying active.
Active ageing means being active and engaged before and during retirement. This can include physical activity such as fitness classes. But it also encompasses mental exercises and lifelong learning. Active ageing can be key to staying healthy, both physically and mentally.
Museums have long been recognized as spaces of connection, discovery, and reflection. The National Museum of Singapore is amplifying that role with Reunion, a groundbreaking social space that reimagines how museums can engage with seniors. More than just a venue for exhibitions, Reunion is an innovative hub for memory, creativity, and community—designed specifically to support the well-being of an aging population.
Opened in April 2023, Reunion is Singapore’s first dedicated museum space for seniors, including those living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment. It exemplifies the museum’s commitment to inclusion and demonstrates how cultural institutions can play an active role in addressing social challenges like aging populations and cognitive health.
Resource: GARAGEMCA
In the second session on the theme “What does art mediation do?” hosts Susanne Kudorfer and Alexander Ivanov will talk about their practice and share their experience of creating educational projects and art mediation programs in cultural institutions in Switzerland and Russia. This seminar will focus on putting together a multilingual Reader on Art Mediation collectively with the participants.
Resource: GARAGEMCA
In the opening session of "Who does art mediation?" Charlotte Laubard and Alexey Boyko look at the figure of the art mediator and explore their agency within different institutional and social contexts. What stance does the art mediator take and to what extent do they identify themselves with the institution on behalf of which they speak? Is their practice research-based, and what kind of research is it, scientific or artistic?
Imagine you’re in a care home. Days blend together. Conversations, when they happen, feel repetitive. The outside world feels distant. Imagine a museum coming to you—its stories, artefacts, and cultural weight arriving right at your doorstep.
That’s the idea behind “Museum in Your Care Home,” an initiative by Tees Valley Museums in England. But beyond the heartwarming premise, what if this wasn’t just a nice-to-have but an actual, measurable intervention against loneliness?
Resource: Museums & Galleries of NSW
Widely recognised as an invaluable tool by institutions across Europe, cultural mediation generally refers to the process of gaining and negotiating knowledge about the arts and social or scientific phenomena through exchange, reaction and creative response. Cultural mediators work within organisations to improve the quality of the public’s visit to the museum or gallery and to broaden the possible ways of experiencing and interacting with an object and its context.