“When I found out I was pregnant with my first daughter we were living in Leichhardt. I used to watch women getting on and off the bus with prams and I thought, there is no way I want to be doing that. So 25 years ago we moved to Kingscliff. We’ve lived on the North Coast in different areas since then. I have four children who are all out in the world now. I’m very proud of them and they are delightful humans. It’s been lovely to watch them grow up.
I guess for me now I’m at that third stage in a woman’s life where you have your time back to yourself and your focus changes so I’m getting used to that. It’s pretty exciting.
When the kids were younger I went back to SCU in 2009 to do a Bachelor in Visual Arts. That lifelong dream thing. I’d started years before in Sydney and dropped out. I regretted that for a long time. I left my job which was working as a Community Liaison Officer in the school system. I needed an income so I lifted up the garage door and started teaching art to kids. It snowballed and it’s been 10 years now. I’ve had different studios in different towns and my last studio of 3 years was downstairs here in the Lismore Conservatorium. I closed at the end of last year to work at the Gallery.
I got to know Claudie at the Lismore Regional Gallery who has this really great ability to find out what people are good at and then place them where they need to be. We had a conversation and she knew I had worked with Dementia groups in Ballina. She had an idea to run something similar at the gallery and asked me if I wanted to run it. We had a lot of training. People came up from the National Gallery of Australia. They have an outreach program at all the different regional and community galleries. It’s quite a thing, arts and Dementia and music and Dementia. There’s a lot of research happening about Dementia because it’s such an increasing thing in our communities.
There’s a couple of different target audiences so there’s people with Dementia living in facilities like aged care homes and there’s some who live at home with carers who go to day programs. There are some who are living at home with carers that don’t get much social interaction or stimulation at all because they’re not getting out into the community. Dementia affects everyone very differently so for everyone living with Dementia, it’s a very different experience.
Claudie organised 3 aged care facilities in the area to participate in the pilot program. We call it the Arts and Dementia Tour. The tour is in 3 sections. We choose 2 artworks from the exhibitions that are on display at that time. A lot of thought goes into it. Things like size, access, colour etc. We need a lot of room around for wheelchairs and us which includes 2 volunteers, myself and a group of 5. We then come downstairs and have tea with scones, jam and cream. They are always a winner. After morning tea we do an art making activity that relates to the work we’ve seen. It’s a 2 hour program all up. We aim for one on one.
We are trying to focus on getting the message out to the community for people living at home with Dementia and their carers. Those that may feel a bit isolated or just love art. This is a free program and we would love to see some people come from home. We are finding it hard to access people outside the institutions. It would involve the person living with Dementia and their carer to come along once a month.
We’ve had some lovely feedback. It is a very personal, nuanced experience. It’s very low key. We can’t tick boxes, it’s just about the joy of the moment. One lady came and during the tour she was very unfocused and unable to concentrate. As soon as we got down to the art making she was onto it, so engaged and interested. At the end of the hour she didn’t want to stop. The feedback came that the aged care facility knew that this lady had a background in visual arts but they didn’t think to give her art making materials in her room. As a group we helped this one person have a better quality of life. She ended up drawing and painting all the time. Sadly she passed away but it felt good that the last few months of her life were spent creating and doing what she loved.
Another gentleman who comes regularly has Alzheimers and lot of physical restrictions. He draws in his room all the time now and never had done so before coming to the group. He brings his drawings in to show us. We talked to the carers and now he has a great selection of art materials in his room. One of the things that people with Dementia need is to still feel like they are a part of their community.”
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