Carnegie Museum combats dementia

When the idea of art therapy became popular, its proponents probably didn’t have dementia… When the idea of art therapy became popular, its proponents probably didn’t have dementia victims in mind. Recently, however, programs like the one at the Carnegie Museum of Art have been redefining the boundaries of artistic healing.

Because of the success of “Meet me at MoMA” — the Museum of Modern Art tour program for people with dementia and specifically Alzheimer’s — many other museums around the world are now implementing tours directed at people who have been diagnosed with the conditions.

Yesterday, the Carnegie Museum hosted an informational conference about its own program, “In the Moment,” modeled after MoMA’s. The conference, composed of free public presentations on the disease in the morning and a training session for members of the museum and various medical professionals in the afternoon, lasted from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Mary Ann Perkins, Docent Program Coordinator at the Carnegie Museum, said the program began two and a half years ago when Woodside Place, an Alzheimer’s center in suburban Oakmont, asked her if she could accommodate a tour for their patients.

“The rest of the story, as they say, is history,” Perkins said.

The tours conducted for patients are very much like the tours conducted for people without dementia: They’re discussion based and intended to stimulate audiences’ intellects. Docents — staff members trained to give tours within the museum — provide audiences with backgrounds on the works of art and then open the discussion for opinions.

“I like to believe it’s a calming environment that is nonthreatening for patients with Alzheimer’s. You are reading the art with other people, and it’s a sensory thing where people with dementia feel relaxed — more so than in perhaps other forms of social activity,” Perkins said. “What I hope this program can give the caregiver of a patient with Alzheimer’s and the patient themselves is a fond memory that they can look back on amid the pain and stress of the disease.”

Perkins labeled the local program “In the Moment” because it gives Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers a moment of peace in which the disease’s repercussions on family, friends and the patients themselves can be forgotten amid the vivid artwork.

Jennifer Lingler, who has a Ph.D. in nursing from Pitt and is conducting research on the disease as director of education and information core at Pitt’s Alzheimer Disease Research Center, spoke in the morning lecture, which roughly 75 people attended.

“If we think more broadly about potential outcomes that are relevant for Alzheimer’s disease, if we think beyond just cognitive functioning as measured by a standardized test, if we think a little more broadly about quality of life, social well-being and psychological well-being, we can definitely start to develop hypotheses about how artistic engagement might be beneficial for patients with Alzheimer’s,” said Lingler in an interview prior to the event.

Art might not have the ability to magically reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, but it does serve to create an avenue of respite. Lingler said her research does not focus on art and its effects on Alzheimer’s, but there is a deeper, more important reason that these tours are so powerful for those suffering from this disease.

“The ability to appreciate art is a distinctively human attribute,” Lingler said, “and I think because art is a distinctively human attribute, it’s one of the reasons why we are all so passionate about art in the field of Alzheimer’s disease, because this is a disease that can rob people of their very personhood, and we want to encourage people to participate in those activities that are most uniquely human.”

From 1 to 3 p.m., Amir Parsa, the manager of MoMA’s Alzheimer’s Project, led a crowd of about 25 people — comprised of Carnegie staff members, medical professionals, journalists and others — through a training session. Using as an example the painting “A Vision of Antiquity — Symbol of Form” by Pierre–Cecile Puvis de Chavannes, which depicts an idyllic coastline attended by a few leisurely figures, he encouraged his audience to “pick a figure in the painting” and ask their future attendees, “Who fascinates you the most?”

Marilyn Russell, the Carnegie Museum of Art’s curator of education, noted that both MoMA’s program and research at Pitt have found that art — in particular, visual imagery — inspires mental associations.

“[Dementia victims] might connect with something from their past, become more observant, more social, have conversation,” Russell said. “Really it’s as though being in the museum opens some pathways for dementia sufferers.”

Russell said the Carnegie tours use each painting as a means of engaging with the victim — an experience that can hopefully reawaken past experiences.

“People with dementia who maybe have lost touch with their distant memory might see a location that reminds them of a place they liked to visit many years ago,” Russell said. “It’s about being patient and giving people time and provoking association between what they see and something in their past. It becomes uplifting for people.”

Hopefully, the feeling is shared between the dementia victim and their caregiver.

“It’s a chance for the two of them to share something together,” she said. “In this way, they can both look at a work of art. It’s new for both of them, and they can both talk about what they see.”

Currently, the Carnegie only offers the program to organizations by request. However, Russell said the museum plans to conduct tours on a monthly basis by April and to accommodate individuals unaffiliated with any group.

Alzheimer’s is a crippling disease, and the Carnegie Museum isn’t promising a miracle cure. For those that long for a return to normalcy for their dementia-stricken loved ones — if only fleetingly — Russell said the tour is a blessing.

“It’s a moment away from the disease,” she said.