Beyond Culture Box: using creative practice to support people living with dementia, staff, and family supporters
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Surrey
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Beyond Culture Box will extend and enhance the impact of the Culture Box (CB) pandemic-responsive project. Culture Box used interactive creative resources to alleviate some of the negative impacts of the pandemic on people living with dementia in care homes, particularly rates of social isolation and loneliness. Culture Box resulted in a wide array of commissioned and co-designed creative resources that have not been fully utilised and that Beyond Culture Box will use to support diverse communities who were not involved in the original study.
Beyond Culture Box will achieve this by using the project findings and materials created to develop training activities and exhibitions that improve dementia care and reach new audiences. These will be developed via a series of participatory stakeholder workshops. The Beyond Culture Box stakeholder workshops will facilitate knowledge exchange with a range of non-academic stakeholders, including Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) community groups, care staff, arts and heritage organisations, people with lived experience of dementia and their supporters, and creative practitioners. To maximise the success of these workshops, the team will work closely with project partners: Arts4Dementia, Arts and Culture Exeter, and The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, and our subcontractors Culture& and NAPA.
The workshops will be participative and guided by the CB research findings and resources, whilst also learning from participants with lived experience or other expertise e.g. via delivering training and supporting creative events for those with dementia. The Beyond Culture Box workshops will inform 2 key outputs:
1. A training course for care staff and other stakeholders (e.g. family supporters). This will address the need for arts training provision for care staff, artists, and family supporters to build their confidence and skills in using evidence-based creative materials with older people with dementia. The course will take place alongside the touring exhibition, run by our sub-contractors NAPA and in partnership with Arts4Dementia. There will be 2 events in the locations where each exhibition will be hosted (Exeter and Stoke on Trent) with a hybrid option available to ensure accessibility. The Beyond Culture Box team will work closely with NAPA and Arts4Dementia to learn from their expertise in providing training to ensure that the offer is relevant and useful for a wide audience.
2. A multi-media exhibition: 'Culture Box Live'. The exhibition will showcase the outcomes of the CB project using engaging and interactive displays, devised in the stakeholder workshops. The exhibition will tour 2 accessible and contrasting venues in different parts of England to ensure the project reaches new audiences, the locations are Positive Light Projects in Exeter and Mitchell Arts Centre in Stoke-on-Trent. We will collaborate with partner The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum to include some of their resources, including their work on the "memory box" in collaboration with local Exeter organisations. Alongside this, our collaboration with Arts and Culture Exeter and Culture& will facilitate wide and diverse attendance, including those from BAME communities.
Beyond Culture Box will be documented in a final report and practice paper that will be widely disseminated, supported by the project collaborators.
Beyond Culture Box will achieve this by using the project findings and materials created to develop training activities and exhibitions that improve dementia care and reach new audiences. These will be developed via a series of participatory stakeholder workshops. The Beyond Culture Box stakeholder workshops will facilitate knowledge exchange with a range of non-academic stakeholders, including Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) community groups, care staff, arts and heritage organisations, people with lived experience of dementia and their supporters, and creative practitioners. To maximise the success of these workshops, the team will work closely with project partners: Arts4Dementia, Arts and Culture Exeter, and The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, and our subcontractors Culture& and NAPA.
The workshops will be participative and guided by the CB research findings and resources, whilst also learning from participants with lived experience or other expertise e.g. via delivering training and supporting creative events for those with dementia. The Beyond Culture Box workshops will inform 2 key outputs:
1. A training course for care staff and other stakeholders (e.g. family supporters). This will address the need for arts training provision for care staff, artists, and family supporters to build their confidence and skills in using evidence-based creative materials with older people with dementia. The course will take place alongside the touring exhibition, run by our sub-contractors NAPA and in partnership with Arts4Dementia. There will be 2 events in the locations where each exhibition will be hosted (Exeter and Stoke on Trent) with a hybrid option available to ensure accessibility. The Beyond Culture Box team will work closely with NAPA and Arts4Dementia to learn from their expertise in providing training to ensure that the offer is relevant and useful for a wide audience.
2. A multi-media exhibition: 'Culture Box Live'. The exhibition will showcase the outcomes of the CB project using engaging and interactive displays, devised in the stakeholder workshops. The exhibition will tour 2 accessible and contrasting venues in different parts of England to ensure the project reaches new audiences, the locations are Positive Light Projects in Exeter and Mitchell Arts Centre in Stoke-on-Trent. We will collaborate with partner The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum to include some of their resources, including their work on the "memory box" in collaboration with local Exeter organisations. Alongside this, our collaboration with Arts and Culture Exeter and Culture& will facilitate wide and diverse attendance, including those from BAME communities.
Beyond Culture Box will be documented in a final report and practice paper that will be widely disseminated, supported by the project collaborators.
| Title | Culture Box Live |
| Description | Exhibitions in Exeter and Stoke- art commisions based on research findings and artwork made by people with dementia |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Ninety visitors attended exhibitions across both sites. |
| URL | https://www.cultureboxstudy.org/exhibition |
| Description | A best practice case study for arts and health research impact and engagement projects has been developed. Evaluation of the activities involved collecting participant and attendee feedback, alongside reflections from the project team. This has been submitted for peer review publicatIon as a practice report to Arts & Health (March 2024). The exhibitions engaged cultural organisations from the different regions, including Arts and Culture Exeter, Art UK, British Ceramic Biennial, Stoke Creates, and Appetite, which allowed us to exchange knowledge, ideas, and projects - creating new connections in these regions. The project also forged new connections with local artists and creative practitioners - sharing best practice regarding creative activity provision with and for people with dementia. The training course equipped participants with new skills and knowledge regarding the practicalities of activity provision in care settings, including setting up creative activities, resources available to download and use, person-centred approaches, the suitability of resources for different capacities and capabilities, new artistic and creative techniques (e.g. watercolour), ideas for activities (e.g. sound art), and a being-in-the-moment approach that places importance on process rather than outcome. Additionally, in each course, there were participants who were particularly interested in Culture Box's research activities - taking away peer reviewed journal articles mentioned by the facilitators. Several attendees stated that they would pay for the training and were pleasantly surprised that it was offered free of charge. |
| Exploitation Route | The research team are preparing a bid (with National Activity Providers Association and Culture&) for a project grant (Alzheimer's Society) to operationalise and accredit (if applicable) creative training for care staff that can be rolled out nationally. The outline will be submitted in March 2024. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy Healthcare Culture Heritage Museums and Collections Other |
| Description | The findings have been used to develop a bid for further funding, to formulate and accredit (if applicable) a course for social care staff that offers training in using evidence-based creative activities to support the care of those with dementia. The outline bid will be submitted in March 2024. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
| Description | Exhibitions and training workshops in Exeter and Stoke |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | A multi-media and multi-sensory exhibition contained research information, illustrations and data visualisations representing research findings from Camille Aubry (illustrator), along with new artist commissions from Culture Box, featuring artwork, responding to project findings from Hat Porter and Rianna Patterson, and loaned artwork by people living with dementia from Arts4Dementia.There were also screenings of short films (from the original project and those created by care staff and artists involved in BCB), and interactive activities and experiences such as a multi-sensory nature room with real plants, bird sounds and nature-scapes via video. Two half-day courses were held. These trained stakeholders on creative approaches to dementia care, supported by an participatory artist with expertise in working with a range of different community groups, including those with dementia (Chris Lewis-Jones), NAPA, and Culture& (porject sub contractors). The project included activity providers, artists, creative health practitioners, social care workers, people with lived experience of dementia, care workers, carers, and anyone interested in dementia and arts-based activities to attend. The two training events were attended by 35 people across both sites, in Exeter and Stoke. The attendees included artists, activity coordinators, therapists and students. These took place in 2 community venues: Positive Lights Projects (Exeter) and Air Space gallery (Stoke on Trent) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |