Together with Bie Hinnekint from The Courage to Grow Old, S.M.A.K. organises special workshops for people with dementia and their carers.
Contemporary art makes a valuable contribution to strengthening the bond between people with dementia and those close to them. The museum is a safe, free space in which the works of art can provide support and the shared experience of art can provide a different understanding of dementia.
DEMO-MEMO invites people with dementia and their carers to experience works of art together in S.M.A.K. Together with a guide, you visit the museum in an informal way. Various senses are stimulated with, among other things, music and in-depth conversations. The participants with dementia express their thoughts about two works of art while their partners listen. Bie Hinnekint, of The Courage to Grow Old, turns these thoughts into poetry.
Bie Hinnekint: "The situation of people with dementia is always defined by the loss of skills. The aspect of failing memory, in particular, is a recurring one. The Courage to Grow Old aims at a different vision: dementia is a process of evolution of consciousness. This process of reversal, which is seen as a loss for the environment, deserves our full attention and should be witnessed in a direct way like a work of art and not 'understood' if necessary. By experiencing art together, a different understanding of dementia announces itself."
