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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Worldwide, the general population is getting older. In EU countries, for example, 19.2 per cent of the population was over the age of 65 in 2016. This is an increase of 2.4 per cent since 2006. There are also more people living over the age of 80, as life expectancy rates rise higher than before. People are choosing to have children later in life. Also, the number of children being born is decreasing in developed countries. This means that the old age dependency ratio is changing. Quality of life has also increased, of course. Many of these older adults are enjoying active, healthy lives. But others are experiencing a variety of deteriorating health conditions, such as dementia.
In 2018, the World Alzheimer’s Report found that there were 50 million people globally living with dementia. One person develops dementia every three seconds. This number is expected to rise as the population continues to age. Helping these people to continue living an active life is a key part of their health and wellbeing.
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.
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.
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.
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?