Abstract
MAPArts is an interdisciplinary research program that teaches the fundamentals of design and basic art-making skills to seniors who are concerned about changes in their memory. It was created as a collaboration between myself, a professor in the faculty of Animation, Art & Design, and Dr. Dupuis, a professor and clinical neuroscientist, from Sheridan College in Canada. Our participants had no formal art training and no formal diagnosis of cognitive impairment, as determined by a screening questionnaire. The program integrates embodied art-making with an existing, clinically proven “Memory and Aging Program” (MAP), developed by Baycrest Heath Sciences in Toronto, Canada. The goal of our research was to discover if adding visual interpretation and art-making, linked to Baycrest’s teachings, would enhance participants’ retention of memory-enhancing skills. We used pre and post intervention surveys as well as a six-week follow-up session to test our program’s results, which were then compared to Baycrest’s, which were collected in similar surveys. Our participants’ memory and continuing adoption of the skills taught six weeks after the program ended were significantly higher (by about 19%) than Baycrest’s own data for their program. Given the number of aging baby boomers, this research suggests potential benefits for an enormous number of seniors. However, additional funding has proven difficult, so far.
Presenters
Elaine BrodieProfessor, Faculty of Animation, Art & Design, Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology, Ontario, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Art, Design, Memory Skills, Mental Health, Aging
