Art and Culture as Therapy for Alzheimer’s at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, 18 March 2019

Meeting with museum educators at the National Museum of Korea, to introduce and exchange ideas of how culture can connect to people’s life history, for those who suffer the Alzheimer disease. 

Spain, Iceland, South Korea – very different cultures yet the methodology is the same to approach the citizen!

Social inclusion and Well-being through the Arts and Interdisciplinary Practices (SWAIP)

Art and Culture as Therapy for Alzheimer’s is one of the basic columns in the European partner project Social inclusion and Well-being through the Arts and Interdisciplinary Practices (SWAIP),led by Iceland University of the Arts, and whichaim it to modernise curricula and learning environment in higher arts education in relation to the arts and interdisciplinary practices.

During the two years of the project, the goal is to develop a study programme that will prepare students for working with social inclusion in their artistic projects, being aware of art’s abilities to make connections and reach out to people, increasing participants’ well-being, empowerment and strengthening self-confidence.

The first workshop took place at the University of Alicante 4-8 March 2019: “Architecture and Dementia” with the participant countries from Iceland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, England and Finland.

Lecture, "Art and Culture as Therapy" in a Nordic Expert meeting in Stockholm

The Center for Arts and Culture in Healthcare, at Stockholm County Council, invites all of you to attend the conference Culture and health across the lifespan – a broad and promising field of knowledge in Stockholm, 4^thof May 2018. 

The conference is a Nordic expert meeting, part of the official program of the Swedish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2018. Its objective is to incite a broad knowledge and experience exchange within a field with potential to complement and contribute in current healthcare’s efforts towards enhanced sustainability.

See: Culture and Health

Hopefully our project can propose and offer new ideas :)

Art and Culture as Therapy in Icelandic Museums

Now there are three museums in Iceland which offer special programs for individuals with Alzheimer and their caregivers! They offer guided visits once a month in collaboration with specific Day Centres in Reykjavík and vicinity. These are the National Gallery of Art, Reykjavík Art Museum and National Museum of Iceland, all different in character and thus serve as a reference for others around the country. And more are in the pipeline... :)

Art and Culture as Therapy: Icelandic museums and Alzheimer

It was an extraordinary experience to see the apparent energy during the two days presentation of the book, Art and Culture as Therapy: Icelandic museums and Alzheimer, 19th and 20th September 2017. Below are some images from Francesca Rosenberg‘s lecture in Salurinn Kópavogur where she explained MoMA‘s Alzheimer program "Meet me at MoMA". In the following posts are images from the workshops at the National Gallery of Iceland. There we worked from the exhibition Nation‘s Treasures, ‘ways of seeing’ through the arts, literature, music and architecture incollaboration with artists and students from Iceland Academy of the Arts.

With Francesca Rosenberg: Ways of looking into the art of painting

For her workshop Ways of looking into the art of painting, Francesca Rosenberg chose the painting ‘Bassabáturinn’(‘Leader’s boat’)(1930) by Gunnlaugur Scheving (1904 – 1972) to observe. She was able to detect strong links with Icelandic general culture but which also could call upon themes and personal experiences in relation to the sea, family relationships and communication, labour and weather.

With Andri Snær Magnason: Words, freedom and imagination

In his workshop Words, freedom and imagination, the writer Andri Snær Magnason chose the paintings, ‘Fjall’ (Mountain) (1998) by Georg Guðni(1961-2011) and ‘Attending’ (1973) by Hreinn Friðfinnsson (b.1943). Andri Snær constructed a dialogue between the two by asking the participants to describe their impressions with the first word that came to their minds when looking at the artwork. 

With Kristín Valsdóttir: Musical narratives

For her workshop Musical narratives, Kristín Valsdóttir had chosenNervescapes VII by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir / Shoplifter (b.1969), an impressive emotional landscape where the musicians would lead the participants into new atmospheres and connect to each other.

With Javier Sánchez Merina: Making the museum more familiar

The day before the symposium, the architect Javier Sánchez Merina had prepared his workshop Making the museum more familiar, togetherwith a group of architecture students, and in collaboration with a day centre and volunteers who suffer the Alzheimer disease. The architecture students brought familiar furniture from their homes in order to create ‘natural settings’ that the participants could identify with and react to as they were at home with different artworks as a centre piece depending on the atmosphere.

Closing session: Evaluating the day!