Dulwich Picture Gallery has recently carried out a successful new research project,Viewing Together, through its award-winning Good Times: Art for Older Peopleprogramme, part of the Gallery’s commitment to Community Engagement.
The research programme is supported by the Department of Applied Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University running in parallel with one conducted at the Nottingham Contemporary Gallery supported by the University of Nottingham Medical School.
Viewing Together is an exploration into methods for viewing art and creative arts practice in Galleries, not only to enhance wellbeing for the individual, but also to build the relationship between the person with dementia and their family care-giver.
Participants in this project, most of whom suffer from mild to moderate memory loss, took part in a series of art-viewing and art-making sessions, with their family carer. The group began each weekly session by first viewing art, guided by trained Gallery professionals, before engaging in sketching and art making sessions. This programme of social interaction, creative expression and discussion stimulates engagement, increases concentration and allows opportunities for new learning to improve the quality of life.
Participants were regularly interviewed and audio recorded, to track changes in engagement and overall well-being. In addition, the project also measured care-giver burden and stress. The research results will help improve understanding of how group art viewing and most essentially the active-process of art making can have an important impact on the wellbeing of people with memory difficulties and improve the quality of life for them and their carers.
Research confirms that regular cultural expeditions, such as trips to public art galleries, museums or theatrical performances can provide psychological stimulation and social integration. This creates new relationships between participants and nurtures the existing relationship between the older individual and their carer. Research bodies, such as the Department of Applied Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University, have found that this aesthetic experience is beneficial because it triggers emotional arousal and the opportunity to share this personal reaction with others.
Professor Paul Camic, the lead researcher of Viewing Together and Professor of Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University, said: “We are very fortunate to be able to partner with the Dulwich Picture Gallery and Nottingham Contemporary to undertake a programme of gallery-based research to help identify how art-viewing and art-making, within this setting, can help contribute to the nation’s dementia care strategy.”
This project is one of several research programmes at Dulwich Picture Gallery. All Community Engagement Programmes at the Gallery are entirely free.
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