Using art for public engagement: reflections on the Dementia and Imagination project

ABSTRACT

Creative outputs engage the public and can be used to share research. This paper reports on public engagement activities that were part of the research project Dementia and Imagination (D&I). We found that artwork and creative activities effectively engaged a range of audiences and challenged negative ideas about dementia. For the project team, public engagement developed relationships with collaborators and connected the research to different community settings, influencing future programmes of work. Further work could explore public engagement in diverse settings to assess which approaches are effective in maximising research value and wider community benefit.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual arts
• Dementia; psychology
• public health
• inter-disciplinary research

Acknowledgments

Dementia and Imagination was funded as ‘Dementia and imagination: Connecting communities and developing well-being through socially engaged visual arts practice’, grant ref: AH/K00333X/1, by the AHRC and ESRC as a part of the Cross-Council Connected Communities Programme. ‘The Imagination Café’ was funded by the AHRC, follow-on funding grant ref: AH/R004900/1.

Regional and national collaborating partners in Dementia and Imagination: Age Watch, Alzheimer’s Society, the Arts Council of Wales, Denbighshire County Council, Engage Cymru, Derbyshire Community Health Service NHS, Equal Arts, the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums and Nottingham Contemporary Ltd.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/K00333X/1,AH/R004900/1].