The arts and dementia: Emerging directions for theory, research and practice

This is a Special Issue of the Journal Dementia that I was responsible for co-editing.

This special issue includes papers that are empirical, theoretical and review-based, exploring the visual arts, music, theatre and the spoken word. A variety of cultural contexts and settings are covered (including a UK hospital, a US long-term care facility, closed wards in a Dutch nursing home and a German Museum). A systematic review by Curtis et al. sets the tone for this collection by providing high-level evidence about the effectiveness of a range of arts for health activities on the health, well-being and quality of life for older people in care homes.

Music in dementia care has predominantly been considered in community settings and amongst groups of people with mild to moderate dementia. A unique international overview of the most current research into the impacts of music in healthy ageing for people living with strokes and also with a dementia is given by Särkämö, and Daykin et al.’s original study contributes to understanding about how live, participatory music sessions can ameliorate hospital-based care for those with dementia.

The importance of confronting the theoretical basis of visual art programmes is tackled by Windle et al., and the study by Schall et al. contributes to the growing evidence base concerning the value of museum-based projects for people with a dementia. There is also a more personal, reflective account by Harrison exploring the transformative effects on an artists’ practice of working with people with a dementia. In a similarly reflective vein, Basting outlines the development of ‘The Penelope Project’ and explores how a creative, community building approach can engage people living with dementias as equals in culture-making projects. Using one of Bastings’ innovations, Swinnen and de Medeiros, in their study, demonstrate the ways in which spoken word projects can support the linguistic agency of people with a dementia in long-term care settings.