The ‘Moving Art’ project is a creative arts project
The ‘Moving Art’ project is a creative arts project The project is being facilitated by Cooinda Village in partnership with Benalla Health and Alkoomi Nursing home. The project is being funded through the Australian Government’s Dementia Community Support Grants and consists of workshops in expressive arts therapy, dance movement therapy, puppetry and digital story telling.
The aims of Moving Art are:
To increase social inclusion of people living with dementia in Benalla and regional area
To increase awareness of dementia amongst broader community in Benalla
To allow residents living with dementia for whom expression is often so difficult the opportunity to express themselves through creative arts
To improve the emotional, psychological and physical well being of residents living with dementia though creative arts
To connect young people with people living with dementia and provide them with an increased understanding of the challenges of dementia
To provide leadership in dementia care in Benalla and surrounding regions and encourage new ways of working with people living with dementia
To increase quantity and quality of volunteer support for people who are living with dementia
To include and support carers and family/friends of people living with dementia
The Workshops
The workshops have commenced and are running in three, eight week blocks held at Cooinda Village between October 2011 and February 2012. The first 2 workshop series feature art and movement while the 3rd series will include a puppetry performance skills component. The workshop series is run one day per week and consists of a morning session of art therapy followed by lunch and a dance movement therapy session in the afternoon. . As well as this 8 sessions of individual dance movement therapy for 3 participants, with later stage dementia, is held during the mornings at one of the Aged Care Facilities.Participants - Eight participants have been invited from the Benalla Aged Care Facilities and the Benalla community for each of the 8 week block. Each participant is supported by a volunteer who also participates in the art and movement activities.
Digital Story Telling
During several of the group sessions we have had the attendance of the two young film makers who, in an unobtrusive way gather film footage and stories in the form of conversations and memories that have been stimulated by the art and movement activities. This footage combined with more formal interviews will be edited into 2-3 minute digital stories of 6 of the participants. Digital story telling is a great way tell stories because it combines different art forms such as painting, movement, photos, sound, video and music interwoven with the narrative.
Bringing the community together
The Moving Art project will culminate with an exhibition to showcase participants art work, plus a puppetry performance and a screening of the digital stories. The exhibition will be held in the foyer of the Benalla Performing Arts and Convention Centre (BPACC) during April 2012. A social dance will also be held, bringing the dementia community and wider community together for an enjoyable afternoon of dancing to complete the project.
Evaluation
The project is being evaluated throughout with before and after participant surveys and evaluations to assess such things as a sense of fun and enjoyment, social inclusion, creativity, level of involvement and movement range After each session participants also give feedback about what they have enjoyed and what has stood out to them. Even though we are still in the early phase of the project we have seen positive results such as one participant who was highly distracted at the beginning of the session, becoming involved and focused on the art work. Another example has been the modifying of mood through playful interactions in the dance movement sessions. We have found that most people have chosen to participate in either the art therapy or the dance movement therapy, with a few people electing to stay for the whole day and try both. Because there are 2 sessions per day, participants have the choice, depending on their energy levels plus their interests whether they attend both sessions or only one.