Art Focus
Art Focus is an arts program led by Philbrook for peoples with early-stage Alzheimer's disease or dementia and their caregivers who are interested in learning about art and developing relationships with other's in their community. Every month participants are invited to the Philbrook Museum to have in-gallery conversations that draws on observation and imagination and then complete a hands-on art project through creatively exploring art materials together. |
Visual art asks our minds to identify objects recognized in art. If our mind cannot translate an object seen in an artwork into a recognizable image then at its very basic state, visual art evokes emotion(s). The emotion(s) stimulated through art, through guided conversation, has the ability to awaken imagination that circles back to some kind of recognition, whether that is visual or cognitive. It is my personal hope for this arts program to encourage that process of recognition circled through our minds by looking at and talking about art so that it reaches out far enough to touch a long-term or short-term memory stored in our minds of an experience once lived.