DEMEDARTS. Dementia.Empathy.Education.Arts.
Project lead: Ruth Mateus-Berr
Institute of Art Sciences and Art Education
Duration: 01.02.2020 - 31.01.2023
Austrian Science Fund (FWF): AR
609 Programm zur Entwicklung und Erschließung der Künste (PEEK)
https://base.uni-ak.ac.at/recherche/e:LWQc3nxaXU7G54jVsiPR4o
Artistic Research on Patterns of Perception and Action in the Context of an Aging
Society
125 million people worldwide live with dementia, 10 million in Europe alone. The number
of people affected increases every three seconds and will have doubled by 2050. Personal and social challenges are the result.
When tasks such grocery shopping, money transactions and travelling to unknown places become difficult and people with dementia
withdraw from society for fear of rejection and embarrassment, it is not only those affected who need support, but above all
society must be sensitized. DEMEDARTS, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) A-609 PEEK, addresses these challenges. DEMEDARTS
is located at the Center for Didactics in Art and Interdisciplinary Teaching at the University of Applied Arts, in collaboration
with national cooperation partners: mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna: W. Aigner for music education; University
of Vienna: F. Kayali digitalization in schools; Alzheimer Austria: A. Croy, president of Alzheimer Austria; Haus der Barmherzigkeit:
B. Hobl, psychiatry for the elderly; M.C. Gambal, Dep. Director of the nursing staff; Schulschiff: H.Schwarz, for education
and international cooperation partners: S. McNiff (US), for artistic research and health, Cambridge; V.F. Gould (GB), President
at Arts4Dementia; T. von Eca (PT), President of INSEA, society of art educators of the world; R. Smilde (NL), for Meaningful
Music in Healthcare;
The team of researchers led by R. Mateus-Berr: W. Aigner, L. Al-Mousli, C. Carli, N.
Gharanshir, L. Girotto, V. Gruber, S. Guserl, S. Muzler, J. Schaitl, P. Scharler consists of
art & music & dance educators, artists, teachers, musicians, multimedial art therapists, authors, designers, performers
is now developing the first art-based teaching concept to sensitize young people in schools and universities, since there
is no school strategy for dementia education (through art). The questions of how art and design strategies can help secondary
school students to develop more empathy for people with dementia and how artistic research can affect the cross-generational
well-being of people with dementia are addressed. Following the principle of phenomenon based learning, artistic
interventions to change the sensory perception of healthy people and the general society are being developed to empathetically
raise social awareness of the situation of people with dementia. This will be achieved through art-based methods and collaboration
between people with mild cognitive impairment, artists, people with moderate dementia, teachers, people without dementia,
therapists, university and secondary students. DEMEDARTS comprises all arts and aims at the development and integration of
empathic skills for dementia in schools in Austria, institutions and workshops for people living with dementia & relatives.
Although it is not yet possible to medically completely cure dementia, art and design can help to improve the attitude towards
and for people living with it.