The Museum as an Action Space - Artistic and Aesthetic Practice and Dementia

“Museum as an Action Space” is an educational project by the Weltkulturen Museum in cooperation with the “Alten- und Pflegewohnheim Anlagenring” (residential care and nursing home) in Frankfurt am Main. The project is generously funded by the Stiftungsfonds Diadem.

Claudia Gaida and Silke Wagner – two Frankfurt artists – are conducting the project, which seeks to promote the participation of people with dementia in cultural and social life within the realms of their possibilities and interests, and in doing so to enhance their general quality of life. The artists’ and participants’ aesthetic and artistic work is based on their understanding of dementia – not as a deficit or flaw but as an alternative way of living one’s life, which has its own value whilst undergoing several stages of development. Art therapy can offer valuable support during those stages of development.

The project was constructed around the time span of one year with a total of 40 meetings and started in February 2017. There were weekly two-hour workshops during this time with visits to the Weltkulturen Museum once a month, during which the participants had the opportunity to discuss certain objects and topics while working closely with – and within – the exhibition.

The long period of time is a crucial factor, because familiarity and recognition developed within the group – despite the missing short-term memory and the progressing dementia –, which enabled the participants to work together in a trusting, safe, and comfortable setting.

Enabling people with dementia to engage with (art) objects and their own creative activities rekindles and fosters their skills and abilities, helping them to find their own individual access to memories, emotions and creativity.

Guided tours and workshops at the Weltkulturen Museum
The monthly guided tours were of dialogical structure – the current exhibitions would offer a link to certain biographic aspects of the participants (like family, ancestry, children, food, occupation, and travel) which would be discussed and later during the workshop-phase deepened using haptic perception of certain materials. The museums hands-on collection of over 2.000 objects from several countries was used during those phases of the workshop.

Creative workshops at the residential care and nursing home
The group would meet three times a month at the nursing home, where they were given illustrative material in the form of pictures, catalogues or objects from the hands-on collection of the Weltkulturen Museum. Referring to the topics of the current exhibition, the participants were encouraged to use certain creative techniques that could easily be altered to individual needs and wishes.

Completion of the project
The end of January also marks the end of the project, which will result in a presentation of the participants’ artwork at the Weltkulturen Museum and the “Alten- und Pflegeheim Anlagenring”. In addition, a 20 parts postcard edition has been produced in order to document the project and artwork of the participants.

The project is generously funded by the Stiftungsfonds Diadem.

Artistic direction:
Claudia Gaida studied graphic design and interdisciplinary art at the “Städelschule – Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste”, as well as philosophy at the “Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität”, Frankfurt/Main. She has a lectureship in creative media and social education at the “Internationale Berufsakamdemie Darmstadt und Heidelberg”, and at the “Pädagogisches Zentrum der Bistümer im Lande Hessen”. Since 2004 she has given lectures and developed participatory projects with a focus on philosophy and social-aesthetic principles in practice and theory at the “Städel Museum”, Frankfurt/Main. In 2014 she completed her training in art therapy at the “Institut für Allgemeinmedizin Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität”, Frankfurt/Main.

Silke Wagner
In 2001, four years after completing her training in nursing at the “Bürgerhospital Stuttgart”, she started studying graphic design at the “Städelschule – Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste”, Frankfurt/Main. In 2007 she was awarded the “Maria Sybilla Merian-Preis” from the “Hessisches Ministerium für Wirtschaft und Kunst”. She works as a course instructor in printing workshops for photoshop, silkscreen and lithography at the “Städelschule”, Frankfurt/Main. Since 2012 she has been supporting residents suffering from dementia of the “AGAPLESION Wohnen & Pflegen im Schwanthaler Carrée”, which she also started doing in 2014 at the “Alten- und Pflegeheim Anlagenring”, Frankfurt/Main.

Project direction:
Stephanie Endter, Curator Education Weltkulturen Museum

Project assistance:
Rosa Aumiller and Aiden Gölzhäuser, Voluntary Social Year Culture Weltkulturen Museum

The Stiftungsfonds DiaDem is an endowment fund under the Stiftung Diakonie Hessen, part of the social welfare organisation of Germany’s Protestant churches. The Stiftung Diakonie Hessen’s main office is in Frankfurt. The fund is dedicated to applying the principle of “dignity despite dementia” to improve the quality of life of people with dementia. Since it was founded, the fund has provided a total of over €847,000 to support 90 projects.

The Stiftung Diakonie Hessen was founded in 2005 in the area of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN) with an endowment capital of €250,000. In 2013, the Foundation was then expanded to include the area under the Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck. The endowment capital presently totals €7.66 million. Since it was founded, the Stiftung Diakonie Hessen has supported social welfare projects with a total amount of over €2.48 million. The Stiftung Diakonie Hessen is responsible for four endowment funds, and in its capacity as a trustee also presently manages 21 regional endowment sub-funds.