Hello, my name is Gemma Moore and I am currently researching how people living with dementia can experience mark making in Meeting Centres. My website can be found here and my Linked in blog here.
Recently, I was accepted to participate in the Thriving Together Symposium – A symposium discussing ideas and experiences of couple hood, arts participation, and dementia. The event was hosted at The University of Sheffield and there was about 50-100 people in attendance (online and in person over the two days).
It was such a fantastic experience because I was able to represent the Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester at the conference.
When I came across the callout to submit an abstract, I was fascinated by how many ideas of the symposium were relevant to my research study which is exploring: how can people living with dementia experience mark making in Meeting Centres? I have previously completed some work already in this area, which you can learn more about here. Visual responses created from this body of work have also been exhibited widely and gained national attention including an exhibition titled Marginalised Represented (2023) which you can find out more about here.
I was able to engage with academics, artists, organisations, carers and people with lived experience of dementia who were interested in learning more about how others have approached using the arts as a successful research method, as a tool to better understand couple hood, arts participation, and dementia.
There was a wide variety of speakers from all over the world representing various creative organisations who work with people living with dementia in different capacities. One organisation I was excited by was led by Dr Katey Warren at the University of Edinburgh and the talk was titled Evaluating the arts in dementia care: What is the role of meaning-making? I found this talk particularly interesting because I am part of the research group’s 2-year co-production group, find out more about this here.
I was also able to learn more about how others have previously or plan to approach embodied research practices.
I had some interesting discussions with academics around Meeting Centres, their origin and what creative ‘activities’ are pursued in these spaces. I also referenced the importance of the original Heritage Pathfinders project that I was involved in which helped to contextualise my PhD journey and mark making.
I found the conference beneficial because not only am I learning about how other PhD students are approaching their studies and are processing their results, but also how others are adopting creative approaches to research, which is what I am interested in, as my background is in Fine Art.
In result of the conference, it has inspired me to think deeper into how the practices of music and art are interlined through the ideas of movement and gesture.
Thanks Gemma, it sounds like you had a great experience at the conference.
To start off 2024 we’re handing over to one of our new PhD students to introduce themselves and tell you about their studies. Here’s Gemma…
Hello! My name is Gemma Moore, I am a new PhD student at the University of Worcester. Very broadly, my PhD study is going to be investigating mark making in Meeting Centres. I am so pleased to now be a part of the Association for Dementia Studies (ADS).
I thought that I could write an introduction to my work as I am aware that I have taken an interesting route to the PhD, which I thought others might be interested in reading about.
When I was in the final year of my Fine Art BA (Hons) Degree at the Hereford College of Arts, I digitally stumbled across a PDF titled ‘Heritage Pathfinders’ on Google. I think I had only typed in Herefordshire artist opportunities when this had come up – I thought this looks interesting, I will see if I can apply. I was thinking ahead for the summer, post Degree, and probably considering what other opportunities there may be out there in my local area. I knew during my Degree that I wanted to pursue a Masters Degree (MA) afterwards, but at this stage little did I know I’d find a link to such an eye opening, rewarding and fascinating project that would hugely enrich the beginning of my academic career.
As I looked through the application form and the document outlining the brief, I couldn’t help but be really intrigued by what was written around dementia, the arts, my local town Leominster, and a curious place called the Leominster Meeting Centre. I was instantly intrigued, and I organised a call with Dr Timothy Senior, who was one of the leaders for the project. He encouraged me to apply, and I did so – that afternoon.
In my application, I thought through all the different modules that I had completed up to that date on my Degree programme. One module that sprang into my mind was one called Drawing Visual Language. From what I could remember from this module (it was the first one I completed on the BA(Hons)) the lecturer for this module was so enlightening, genuinely so interesting and had such a deep passion for contemporary mark making which she enthusiastically conveyed through her teaching and workshops.
I really enjoyed this module, and whenever I thought about it reminded me of how liberating many of its concepts, processes and practices were, and I was really keen to involve it in some way. Prior to this point, I had only ever perceived drawing to be a process whereby only a substrate, like a canvas, and a marker, like a pencil or piece of charcoal, could be involved in producing a drawing. But when I realised that suddenly drawing could be expanded to so much more including thinking, being in the air, demonstrated through objects and arrangements and materiality, I became so excited. I was liberated from the thought process that drawing means producing painstakingly ‘accurate’ representations of life which can feel so generic and irksome, which is the ritual that is unfortunately and continuously drummed into so many GCSE and A Level students. Many students at this point read art as this pursuit that only the very small few can ascertain, which irritates me when I contemplate how powerful art can be, once removed from the restrictive context of lower levels of the academic ladder.
I couldn’t believe how many links I could make to drawing, painting, mark making and dementia. In the application I also needed to reference past experiences where I had worked with older persons/people living with dementia, and for this element I referred to a series of experiences I had in relation to an award I won whilst at school.
At the time, I saw the 15 hours of community service as part of the Wigmore Gold Award as a ‘tickbox’ exercise. But when my community service led to working in the local residential care home it gave me such an invaluable experience – I spent my time talking about art and how much I enjoyed drawing and painting in my spare time (outside of school) to many of residents, which they really enjoyed. I told them all about the current school projects that I had been pursuing, and that the word I had been responding to was ‘Majestic’. I think some of the residents enjoyed their chats so much so that a couple of weeks later, it just so happened that when I went into the local hospital with my parents, I ended up bumping into one of the ladies who I had really connected with during my 15 hours at the care home. We recognised each other whilst waiting in a ward and she told my parents all about how much she had enjoyed her ‘art chats’ with me. Back then I was taken aback that she remembered to such an extent of what we talked about including every little detail of my current school projects.
It was this exchange that permeated my sense of how powerful art could be. It was also this point I suddenly realised the agency art making possessed and that the action of ‘just’ talking about art was tremendously powerful. So powerful that it characterised the experience that I had with the lady who I had met. This experience stayed with me; and it was this particular example I used in my application to participate in the Heritage Pathfinders project.
At the start of the Heritage Pathfinders project, I was simultaneously investigating in the last year of my Degree feminist performance photography, the creation of personas and time based media. The two lines of enquiry do seem very different – but conceptually, both link as they aim to deal with and represent human based issues from an altruistic perspective. It took me a while to forge the links between these two ideas. But this ultimately is the beauty of Fine Art; it can be so massively varied and diverse, but simultaneously connected through ideas and process led practice.
Whilst I finished and graduated with a First Class Degree in Fine Art and applied for a Masters Degree in Fine Art at the Birmingham School of Art, I was accepted and started to pursue the Heritage Pathfinders Artist Residency programme held at the Leominster Meeting Centre. It was a busy but such a rewarding time. I juggled starting my MA in Birmingham with trips to Leominster once a week to start off the project, beginning in September 2021 through to December 2021. I started off by just visiting the Centre and getting to know the Members at the Leominster Meeting Centre.
It was in the summer of 2022 when I presented my work and drawings made by Leominster Meeting Centre Members as part of an ADS webinar [a recording of the webinar is available in two parts, and Gemma presents in the second part]. It was held online but myself and the rest of the Heritage Pathfinders group presented live from the Tourist Information Centre in Leominster. It was at this point that the seed of thought of doing a PhD was planted.
A year later I was invited by Dr Shirley Evans to present my ideas and work at the UK Dementia Congress, which was really interesting and insightful. I made some invaluable connections who I know will help to guide and critique my ideas as the PhD journey progresses. I am so thankful for this opportunity, I am looking forward to seeing how my PhD unfolds and witnessing how many people living with dementia my research is going to help and benefit.
If you would like to discuss with me further about my research inquiry or any collaborative ideas, please do not hesitate to contact me: moog1_23@worc.ac.uk
Gemma presenting at UK Dementia Congress
Thanks Gemma, great to have you as part of the ADS team and we look forward to seeing how your studies progress.
Leominster Meeting Centre Heritage Project: working both sides of the door
This month’s webinar was a true hybrid affair, with some people attending and presenting online while others had assembled in the Town Council Chambers in Leominster. The webinar was planned as a showcase of the Heritage Pathfinders project which has taken place at the Leominster Meeting Centre. A lot of information was shared during the webinar and this blog will never do it justice, but we hope it gives a flavour of what was presented and encourage you to watch the recordings to hear it directly from those involved.
You can find the recordings of the two parts of the webinar here and here.
Hosting the webinar was Tim Senior from supersum, one of the project partners, who gave a bit of background to the programme. Twelve projects from individual Heritage Pathfinders were proposed and taken forward during the programme, looking at a wide variety of different avenues for engaging members and carers at Leominster Meeting Centre with heritage. The programme was funded by the Tudor Trust and Herefordshire Community Foundation.
Before Christmas, instead of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ we thought we’d tell everyone about a different resource each day. This was done on both our Twitter (@DementiaStudies) and Facebook (@adsuow) accounts, but in case you missed it or you’re not on social media we’ve pulled it all together here. We also think the resources are worth shouting about, so we make no apology for trying to let everyone know about them!
Resource 1
First off, the CHARM Manual, our newest resource. A FREE interactive, downloadable, step-by-step manual for conducting research in care homes. You can get a copy here.
Resource 2
Our second resource to bring to your attention is the gardens assessment tool ‘Is your garden dementia friendly?’ It’s the latest in the suite of assessment tools and you can download it for free via our website.
Kirriemuir, birthplace of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, is home to Kirrie Connections Meeting Centre which is based in the centre of the town. Kirrie Connections is a dementia friendly community hub which is open five days a week and has been operating as a Meeting Centre on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays since May 2019.
For the ‘Bring Your Own Lunch’ seminar on 28th February Graham Galloway, manager at Kirrie Connections Meeting Centre, told us about some of the arts-based projects that have taken place there. (Many thanks to Graham for sharing the photographs with us, and any mistakes in the following are ours and not Graham’s!)
On 10th December a group of interested parties gathered at The Hive in Worcester for an event hosted by the TAnDem (The Arts and Dementia) PhD students to share their research from the TAnDem Doctoral Training Centre. Following a welcome by Professor Dawn Brooker and PhD student Karen Gray, we had an elephant-based ice-breaking exercise with the premise being to consider how difficult it is to eat an elephant. By dividing an elephant into a few key areas – health, care, arts, education, research and advocacy – and getting us all to consider where our individual skills fit, we quickly discovered that we were a very diverse group covering all areas. Hopefully this indicated that if we all work together eating an elephant isn’t quite as daunting a task as it would initially seem.
Last week the Association for Dementia Studies (ADS) travelled to Doncaster for UK Dementia Congress 2019 which was held at the racecourse.
The event was opened with Professor Dawn Brooker introducing two of our TAnDem PhD students, Ruby Swift and Karen Gray, who talked about their work. They were followed by a relatively intense debate around the role of ‘environmental lies’ in care homes (e.g. fake bus stops, murals).
The My Musical Memories Reminiscence Programme is a project we worked on a few years ago, making it a perfect subject for this week’s Throwback Thursday post.
What was the project about?
The My Musical Memories Reminiscence Programme was devised by the Alzheimer’s Society and provided a music reminiscence programme exclusively for people living with dementia, comprising personalised, hour-long, weekly group sessions.
It aimed to empower people living with dementia to engage within their community through participation and enjoyment of specially tailored music, artefacts (LP covers, photos, and personal photos), and percussion instruments.
As part of the Namaste Care Intervention UK project we really wanted to capture the views and experiences of people with dementia, but from previous projects we know that this can sometimes be quite a tricky area – especially when people have more advanced dementia.
We’ve been lucky enough to work with renowned poet and author John Killick, who has a strong background and experience in working closely with people with dementia and their families, and creatively engaging them in feedback and evaluation. John is skilled in using innovative communication with people with advanced dementia and at end of life, even when they may have difficulties communicating their thoughts through words. He has previously used a wide array of stimuli including pictures, words, puppets and photographs to elicit feedback.
One of the underlying elements within Meeting Centres is the intention to provide movement-based activity sessions using the principles of psychomotor therapy. However, many people are unsure what psychomotor therapy actually is and what it means in practice. This blog post by Nicola Jacobson-Wright will hopefully help you understand a bit more about psychomotor therapy and why we feel it is important in the context of dementia.
Association for Dementia Studies Blog 