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Newsletter
Summer 2015
We believe that museums and older people enrich each other. We
aim to develop innovative and collaborative opportunities by
bringing people together. As well as museum, galleries and arts
professionals, the Network includes those from health and social
care, voluntary sector, research professionals and older people
themselves.
The Age Friendly Museums Network is supported by the Baring
Foundation and offers free workshops and training, explores and
shares good practice and encourages creativity and new initiatives.
Committed to working in partnership, the Network seeks to support
organisations and individuals to become leaders in their respective
fields and to represent older voices and a positive experience of
age.
Luminate workshops Andy McGregor National Galleries of Scotland,
National Portrait Gallery of Scotland. The annual Luminate Festival
spotlights arts activities with, by and for older people as well as
a programme for audiences and participants across the
generations.
Do you have a case study, blog, article or opportunity that you
would like to share with the Age Friendly Museums Network?
Sign up to the Age of Creativity website,upload your item or
link, and send the URL to Jane Turner, Co-ordinator at the Age
Friendly Museums Network,for the opportunity to have your item
shared in our next e-newsletter.
ThisIntroduction to Age of Creativityis a great startingpoint
for learning more about using and contributing to the website.
Upcoming Training
The Age Friendly Museums Network will be organisingworkshops
across the UK over the coming 2 years the next training is
Cross-sectorworkshop
Working with older audiences:exploring diversityand
sustainablepartnerships
Thursday 25th June9.30am 4pm
1. Meet colleagues from health and social care and the museums
sector to share ideas
1. Explore how partnership working can benefit your clients
through inspirational case studies
1. Gain a greater understanding of what museums might have to
offer
1. Find out how museums can improve the lives of older
people.
1. Have all your practical questions answered
At the British MuseumTo request a booking form please email Jane
Turner,Community PartnershipsCo-ordinator at theAge Friendly
Museums Network.Closing date 4th June 2015
Museums reaching out to older audiences
Dementia Friendly Reminiscence
The Winding House museumin New Tredegar is working with the
Alzheimers Society and Caerphilly 50+ Positive Action to develop
the museums exhibitions and create new integrated displays that
encourage reminiscence with the aim of becoming a Dementia Friendly
reminiscence centre. To support these changes, the museum is also
hosting a rolling display of RemPods (which can usually be seen at
local care homes) which are interactive displays that evoke places
of the past such as the local pub or a 1950's living room enhanced
with the museums own collections which relate to each theme.
Award winning Memory Wall - update
Stobhill Hospitals Elderly Mental Health wards supported by
Glasgow museums won the 2014 NHS Scotland Design Award. The award
was for two state-of-the-art wards, for older people with dementia
and adults with mental health problems and includes a Memory Wall
of museum objects.A final evaluation report is now availableand
includes comments from staff, visitors and patients giving a
rounded impression of how the Memory Wall is used and the subtle
but important differences it makes to not only patients, but
patients families and visitorsReminds you of all the years gone by
and my time living in Duke Street happy memories.The next stage is
to develop content for a second Memory Wall at Stobhill over the
summer. Further details on this project are available from Crawfor
MrGugan,Curator, Open Museum.
Horniman Museum celebrate 'Action on Stroke' month
The Stroke Association in Lewisham and Horniman Museum and
Gardens is hosting a Family Day to mark Action on Stroke Month
during May. The free event takes place at Horniman Museum and
Gardens on Saturday 30th May. The day brings together activities
and advice on stroke prevention, blood pressure checks, a
communication trail and interactive mime workshops.The event will
run from 11am to 3pm, and will celebrate the stroke survivors work
with the Horniman Museum and Gardens from their monthly Stroke
Association communication group.Domenico Sergi from the Horniman
Museum said: I am very glad that the Stroke Association in Lewisham
has chosen to hold the celebration at the Horniman. This is a great
opportunity to let all members of the public know about the
fantastic work we have been doing in the last couple of years.
Beautiful dancing at the British Museum
Defining Our Beauty is a project that invites older people to
explore their own beauty in the context of the special
exhibitionDefining Beauty, the body in ancient Greek art, at the
British Museum.
Coming from local Age UK organisations, the group was formed
especially for this project and has been working together for three
months.The project culminates in a final performance on the
28thJune at the British Museum during a special evening for invited
community guests and local partners.The British Museum would like
to thank the creative team and community partnersThe Place, Londons
leading centre for contemporary dance, for their invaluable
input.
Third Sector reaching out to Museums
The University of the Third Age (U3A) movement is an
organisation of retired and semi-retired people who come together
and share their skills and life experiences: the learners teach and
the teachers learn, and there is no distinction between them. Our
members often visit museums and galleries and would welcome a
closer relationship with their local ones. They would be
particularly interested in programmes for older people and maybe
they could even assist you with setting up such initiatives. If you
are looking for volunteers or just audiences, why don't you contact
your local U3A? Go to: www.u3a.org.uk and click on Find a
U3A.Shared Learning Projects: U3A welcomes opportunities to get
involved with new projects. If you have some research that we could
carry out for you, a group of 10/12 members drawn from local U3As
would love to assist you. To find your local U3Aor call National
Office: 020 8466 6139 and ask for Jennifer Anning National SLP
Co-ordinator
Contact the Elderly
This National charity is ideally placed to work in partnership
with local museums, and have tea parties (combined with object
handling) across Wales, Scotland and England.Contact the Elderly
aims to tackle loneliness and social isolation among older people.
They organise monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for small groups
of older people aged 75+ who live alone, and volunteers within
their local community. It is a regular and vital friendship link
every month and a real lifeline of friendship for older
participants who have little or no contact with any family or
friends.Glasgow Museums offer monthly Sunday sessions in their
venues as a gathering and learning place for one of the Contact the
Elderly groups. They have since established a second group, with a
third, male only group to start later this year. The British Museum
hold tea parties with a local group from time to time, the November
2014 tea party included a visit to the exhibition: Ming, 50 years
that changed China
Take a walk down 'Sensory Street'
BCOP is an innovative and progressive charity in Birmingham
providing services for older people and also manages a number of
supported housing and independent living schemes across the
region.Theyaim to broaden choices for older people by providing a
service that puts vulnerable elderly people at the heart of
everything it does.One of BCOPs nursing homes, Robert Harvey House,
located in the Handsworth Wood area of North Birmingham, is a
registered Nursing Care Home . Within the grounds of, there was a
space of approximately 1800sq feet which were identified to use for
a Sensory Street project. The street consists of a range of
buildings such as a post office, sweetshop, butchers and garage, in
addition to a greenhouse and tea room. Other street furniture
includes postbox, telephone box, bus stop, street lights and
benches positioned close to raised flower beds, hanging baskets and
artificial grass areas.The Sensory Street has been designed
specifically not only to create memories for our residents,
visiting family members and friends or indeed external visiting
groups, but to also stimulate fond memories of days gone by. With
the working street set in the 1950s & 1960s it will encourage a
higher level of interaction and socialisation with others, in
addition to increased exercise both physically and mentally within
a safe and familiar environment and is an excellent extension to
the hugely successful and popular adjoining Pet-Farm. For further
information contact Sean ODonnell:[email protected]
Every word counts with older audiencesDoes your museum offer
talks, lectures and tours? Have your older audiences ever
experienced difficulty hearing or fully understanding the talk or
tour?Ten million people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing -
that's 1 in 6 of the population. 40% of people over 50 and 70% over
70's have an age - related hearing loss.Stagetext provide live
subtitling for public events in museums and galleries to give deaf,
deafened and hard of hearing people access to what speakers are
saying and to deepen their understanding and engagement with a
particular topic."The subtitles enable me to catch information I
had missed, particularlyname/dates. I found it really useful" (hard
of hearing visitor)"Remote live subtitles with tablets are
brilliant. This was the first tour I could fully follow"(hard of
hearing visitor)
If you would like to find out more about the service, Deepa
Shastri, our Talks Programme Manager, would be happy to meet with
you and run a session explaining more about age-related deafness;
outlining ways you can make your pubic events accessible to hard of
hearing visitors, and at the same time increase your audiences. To
contact Deepa email [email protected].
Research and Publications
The Creative Dementia Arts Network(CDAN) is an Oxford based
organisation with a national reach that aims to enable people with
dementia and their carers to remain active and involved in their
lives wherever they are living by educating, informing and
supporting artists, arts organisations, arts venues who provide
creative arts.We are currently producingthe state of the arts in
dementia a report that draws on our recent annual conference in
Oxford, when over 150 practitioners, professionals, and care staff
from across the arts, health and social care sectors came together
to learn, share and network. Ongoing work includes developing more
arts cafes for older people including those with dementia, and,
following an award from the British Film Institute, collaborating
with the Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford to organise once monthly
film showings for people with dementia and their carers. CDAN is
also a member of an Alzheimer's Society Arts and Dementia working
group who are writing new guidance for museums, galleries and
theatres about how to make arts venues dementia friendly. For more
[email protected]
Introducing the National Alliance, for Museums, Health and
Wellbeing.A consortium to develop a new National Alliance for
Museums, Health and Wellbeing has been funded by the ACE Museum
Resilience Fund. Led by University College Londons(UCL) Public and
Cultural Engagement department, the consortium includes National
Museums Liverpool, The British Museum, Manchester Museums and
Galleries, Tyne and Wear Museums, Thackeray Medical Museum
representing the UK Medical Collections Group, the National
Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing and the London Arts and
Health Forum, the School of Museum Studies at the University of
Leicester and the Museums Association.The Alliance will support the
museum sectors work around health and wellbeing, and will create
opportunities where information can be shared, to improve best
practice, help build resilience and provide resources for those
individuals and organisations working in this area of activity. The
Alliance will be launched at this years Museums Association
conference and will offer a series of workshops for those working
in the museums sector, as well as those interested in arts, culture
and health, including health and social care workers, third sector
workers, artists and art-therapy practitioners. To find out more
watch this space.Museums on PrescriptionThis is the first project
of its kind internationally to explore the role of social
prescribing in museums and is funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council. Social prescribing links patients in primary care
with local sources of support within the community which can
improve their health and wellbeing. The project will connect
socially isolated, vulnerable and lonely older adults, referred
through the NHS, Local Authority Adult Social Care services and
charities such as Age UK, to partner museums in Central London and
Kent including: The British Museum, Central Saint Martins
Collection, Islington Museum, UCL Museums, Tunbridge Wells Museum
& Art Gallery and the, Beaney House of Art and Knowledge. We
are also working with organisations such as Arts Council England,
the New Economics Foundation and the Royal Society for Public
Health to look at the wider social value and cost-benefit of
museums on prescription referral schemes.
Artful AccessDr Hannah Zeilig
Dr Hannah Zeilig is a senior research fellow at the University
of the Arts, London (UAL) and also a visiting research fellow at
the University of East Anglia. She is a fellow at the Institute of
Gerontology, Kings College London. She was also part of the
steering group for Dementia Friendly arts venues with Alzheimers
UK.In July 2014, Hannah completed an AHRC funded national
reviewWhat is the value of arts and culture for people living with
a dementia? The methods used to investigate this question are
qualitative. These comprise a conceptual and critical review of
existing evidence concerning the impact of arts and culture on
people living with a dementia -Mark Making'
Hannah is proposing further researchwhich is still at the
planning stages and takes a deeper look at what it means for people
with dementia to have access to arts venues
Brief SummaryThe overall aim of the project is to consider the
ways that art and culture venues in the UK can be dementia friendly
in terms of the access (both online and offline) that they provide
for people with dementia and their carers. We will concentrate on
both the physical and digital journeys that are integral to
accessing the offerings of arts and cultural venues. The research
team will work closely with a number of iconic arts venues
examining with them what access means for people with dementia,
exploring their policies on this and determining how to ensure that
arts venues can be genuinely inclusive for people with cognitive
impairments.
Interested in getting involved? Contact Dr Hannah Zeilig
Is old age a disability? If not - why do older people feel the
need to be heard or be a part of any decision making process that
affects their lives?In April 2014, a one-day conference took place
"Portraying Ageing: Cultural Assumptions and Practical
Implications". The aim was to discuss and give examples of the way
in which ageing is portrayed in modern day Britain along with the
practical implications it has on individuals and society as a
whole. The response to the conference from ordinary members of the
public, researchers and service providers from the debates that
followed each talk proved to the organisers this topic should be
pursued.With this in mind, Emerald has published a special issue
ofWorking with Older People "Ageing and Representation" which
contains revised versions of the talks by some of the original
conference speakers, plus contributions from Sheila Gewold and the
Guest Editors; Simone Bacchini and Gillian Crosby.Below are the
article titles:
Portraying ageing: its contradictions and paradoxes
What do we mean when we talk about dementia? Exploring cultural
representations of "dementia"
Have older generations overplayed their hands?
Working towards successful retirement: older workers and
retirees speaking about ageing, change and later life
Stories of creative ageing
Financing later life: why financial capability agendas may be
problematic
Ageing and representation
Clickherefor the full table of contents.Working with Older
Peopleis one of the 32 titles in the Health and Social Care
collection published by Emerald Group
Publishing:www.emeraldinsight.com/products/collections/hsc.htm.
Get access to this researchAnnual subscriptions to the journal
include unlimited online access for all users within an
institution/organization plus print copies. You can also purchase
this special issue individually, without taking out a yearly
subscription.If you require any further information, wish to
purchase the special issue or enquire about an annual subscription
please contact me on +44 (0)1274 515616 orclick hereto submit your
details.
The Institute of Ageing and Health (IAH) was originally founded
in 1971 as the West Midlands Institute of Geriatric Medicine and
Gerontology, to provide a focus for good multidisciplinary practice
and further education in the medical problems of older people.The
IAH now holds regular conferences and seminars on a wide variety of
topics, attracting eminent speakers from across the British Isles.
In recent years the focus of our educational work has broadened to
include and attract many other organisations with an interest in
the social care and health of older people.Initial publications
were in the form of research papers and this progressed to a more
formal journal in which staff in the region was encouraged to
provide articles for publication. Our journal Ageing & Health
enables us to share research, reflections and stories to improve
ageing and health in the West Midlands.Since 1981 we have
established the Excellent Care Award to identify good practice in
the West Midlands. This continues to attract a large number of high
quality entries and is an example of the Institutes wish to link
its educational roots to the development of good practice in health
and social care.Membership of the IAH is available to anyone who is
working (or has worked) for older people in a health, social care
or related field. As the emphasis of the IAH is on
inter-disciplinary working, our membership is particularly
appropriate for people who wish to share their skills and knowledge
with others. Whilst the geographical focus of the IAH is the West
Midlands, our membership is open to anyone who shares our
objective.For more information please contact Jeanette Lane on 0121
466 4070 or email [email protected]
If you have been sent this but are not signed up to the Age
Friendly Museum Network then you can sign up here
The Autumn Newsletter is out in September. The deadline for copy
is 24th August. The focus will be on diversity and sustainable
partnerships. We particularly welcome case studies, community
groups interested in working with museums or up to date research or
publications.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Jane TurnerCommunity Partnerships Co-ordinator: Age Friendly
Museums Network
Supported by