Living Each Season: Making a dementia-friendly museum for all ages
Date of project: 2013 – present
About Living Each Season
The age-friendly programme at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) offers multisensory object-handling and creative activities to spark relaxed conversations. Bookable outreach seasons at care homes, community centres, hospitals and memory cafes are themed around the changing seasons.
Eclectic museum collections and exhibitions inspire the seasonal handling selections. RAMM – which is 150 years old – showcases Victorian pickled sea creatures, fine art and contemporary art, costume and local archaeology, as well as world cultures.
A Summer session might examine wartime jam recipes and a Victorian bathing suit; Ugandan barkcloth and a stuffed fox could be appropriate for Autumn; Winter can focus on a woollen blanket and a 1920s party tune. In Spring the group might listen to birdsong and look closely at a landscape painting.
The nature focus and the mix of artefacts is engaging for people of any age and cultural background. Objects sometimes trigger memories from the past, but the emphasis is on the moment.
“Living Each Season” follows the ethos of 19th-century American philosopher and nature writer Henry David Thoreau, who wrote,
Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
Participants and partners
RAMM provided 18 sessions in the 2023-24 financial year, reaching 261 people through care homes, Age UK, Exeter City Council social housing, NHS Franklyn Hospital and Wellbeing Exeter.
RAMM’s dementia-friendly programme was initially inspired by groundbreaking methodology from the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. It has been shaped since 2013 by people with dementia and their caregivers, experimenting with gallery tours, animation, clay, collage, photography, meeting artists and making talking photo albums. Discussions have touched on climate change, colonial acquisition of museum objects, and the first Glastonbury festival.
Collaboration with the NHS Franklyn Hospital created a useful summary of the best elements in dementia-friendly object-handling (LINK TO REPORT). RAMM documented the project’s development on a blog at rammlivingeachseason.wordpress.com
Valuable partners have included the Alzheimers Society, Exeter Dementia Action Alliance, Innovations in Dementia, NHS services and the University of Exeter.
Feedback
“People ask me why enjoy myself, if I’m only going to forget it. I say why not enjoy myself, even if I forget it… I’ve loved every minute.” Participant
“It’s about tapping into what people can do rather than what they can’t.” Carrie Clarke, former occupational therapist, NHS Franklyn Hospital
“In Winter, I love the reflection of lights on puddles outside shops.” Participant
“It was such an enjoyable experience, and… has given [us] much to discuss at home.” Wife of participant
“It made me feel proud and honoured, to make someone happy. I was surprised to see how much energy the old people had!” School choir member
“Being close to real objects is wonderful. It makes you think about the people who made them.” Participant
What next?
Care homes pay for outreach activities led by an experienced facilitator. The museum uses Arts Council funding to subsidise occasional sessions for non-profit groups,
The multisensory experience is enjoyable and yet stimulating. It sparks conversations which reinforce the personal identity of people with dementia for themselves and those around them.
The museum hosts occasional public dementia-friendly events, often combining an easy craft activity and a visit from a local school choir. Carers are invited too, and the museum visit provides a rare opportunity for couples to experience something on an equal level, in an uplifting and supportive atmosphere.
Look out for a dementia-friendly Christmas event in December 2024 and our next Spring cream tea in 2025.
More information and book a session:
Ruth Gidley, Engagement Officer
[email protected] 01392 265305
