Art Program for People with Dementia

Memories in the Making® for people living at home.  Join a community group.  Learn more about the sessions starting in October 2009.

Read what local media is saying about this program:

•Fort Worth Star-Telegram

•Generations News

•Fort Worth Business Press

Mount Arkansas Painting by Mae, James L. West Senior Adult Day Program   “My husband was raised in Arkansas so I’ve been there a lot. Brinkley is right across the border from Memphis, Tennessee.  It is some beautiful country down there.”

In the spring of 2009, this chapter launched Memories in the Making®, an art program for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia. 

Creativity stimulates the mind in uniqe and beneficial ways. As individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia lose the ability to communicate with words, they may discover a means to communicate through art.  Art is as individual as the people who make it.  For many with dementia, art becomes a means of telling stories, communicating emotions and recalling lost memories. For some, the pleasure comes from participating in an entertaining group activity. Others enjoy the sensation of expressing themselves in paint and seeing the shapes, lines and colors flow from the brush.

Memories in the Making® is a weekly, one hour art session conducted in an assisted living facility, nursing home or community site.  An artist facilitator specially trained in the Memories in the Making® method conducts the sessions with the help of care staff and volunteers.  Each participant receives individual attention and encouragement in his or her journey toward self expression. There is no right or wrong, failure or success, only the pleasure of making something.

Artists often create beautiful paintings that are included in exhibitions and fundraising auctions or reproduced as calendars or note cards, helping the Alzheimer’s Association promote awareness of the disease.  More important than the finished product, however, is the process of finding a means of self-expression through art and enhancing the quality of life for those suffering from dementia.

For more information about Memories in the Making®, to host the program at your site or to volunteer to assist with the classes, contact Lisa Buck at 817.336.4949 or 800.272.3900.  The Summer 2009 newsletter highlights Memories in the Making®.  Read the article here.

Facilities currently participating in this program are:

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