Attacking Alzheimer’s Disease. New Non-Profit Uses Art to Fight Dementia
Author: Laura Childers
Reference: World Journalism Institute. The Times Observer
Link: https://archive.md/20130209234824/http://www.wjitimesobserver.com/2.17545/third-stories/attacking-alzheimer-s-disease-1.2578403%23.UEbjPWglouh#selection-535.9-535.21
MANHATTAN — On this Tuesday afternoon in a gallery at the Studio Museum in Harlem, a group of adults with dementia and their caretakers are listening to a lecture on the work of abstract expressionist Alvin Loving.
“Loving is particularly know for His vibrant counterpoint,” says the energetic teaching artist while making sweeping motions with her hands. “The collage is almost caught in the act of moving.”
The participants discuss the color and texture of Loving’s collage. Just for a moment they are no longer Alzheimer’s patients and caretakers. They are art critics.
The afternoon gallery talk is a part of the programming of Arts and Minds, a new non-profit in New York City that partners with local museums to sponsor arts programs for adults suffering from memory disorders. Today the Harlem museum program offers a gallery conversation and a hands-on art activity. It encourages people with Alzheimer’s and their caretakers to engage with works of art and with each other.
“The prevailing cultural narrative about Alzheimer’s is very dark—it’s about shutting down and not knowing people,” says Carolyn Halpin-Healy, program director and co-founder. “But our program is about emotion and imagination.”
Halpin-Healy worked for 20 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as an educator. Three years ago, she met a neurologist from Columbia University, James M. Noble, who attended her workshop for people with dementia. “I went out of curiosity,” Noble said. “I was wondering, ‘How does an Alzheimer’s patient go to an arts program? What do they even get out of it?'”
By watching the workshop participants interact with their caregivers, Noble learned the arts program was about the experience of art rather than the creation of art. “I really got the sense that people who were there with their loved ones got a lot out of it,” he added.
Noble envisioned a similar program in the Harlem community near the local hospital where he worked. Soon after, he and Halpin-Healy conceived a new idea: Arts and Minds. A year later, the program received a grant from the Friends of Harlem Hospital, and in 2010 they launched a pilot series at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Both Noble and Haplin-Healy explained that the program was vital for caregivers as well as participants. They say that caregiver burnout is a significant public health problem. Noble said Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects the whole family, not just the individual. “The major role of a neurologist is to support the family,” he said. “Suggesting medication changes is only a small component of the job.” However, he admits that many still consider art therapy a “fringe” idea. “A lot of people lump holistic medicine in with chiropractics and quackery,” Noble said. “But the people who go tend to be sold.”
Sometimes when you are there in the moment at the museum, you’ll see a caregiver’s eyebrows raise and face light up as they watch their mother or grandmother or husband. That’s when you realize you are doing the right thing.”
Back in front of Loving’s collage at the museum, a woman timidly raises her hand to respond to the teaching artist. “I’m not sure it’s the painting that’s moving,” she observed. “When you look at it, there is movement in your mind.” The connection was made.