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Initiated in 2012, Azure is an exploratory partnership project between Age & Opportunity, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Butler Gallery and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. The Azure project aims to actively engage people with dementia in public galleries and other arts and cultural venues, thereby contributing to the removal of barriers to their greater participation within communities.
Azure has been inspired by the ‘Meet Me at MoMA’ project from New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which provides facilitated interactive sessions in the museum for people with dementia, their families and carers. In 2012, the Azure project initiated the successful piloting of a number of facilitated sessions for people with dementia, their families and carers in the Butler Gallery, Kilkenny. Subsequently an evaluation of the pilot was presented at a roundtable held at the Irish Museum of Modern Art that brought international experts together with key Irish professionals and practitioners from the fields of medicine, social care, arts and culture. This was followed by a masterclass for arts practitioners led by Carrie McGee from MoMA.
The evaluation of the pilot project can be viewed here: https://www.artsandhealth.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Azure-Evaluation-2012-Layout-final.pdf
During the 2013 Bealtaine Festival, the Butler Gallery will be inviting people with dementia and their families to a tailored event, where participants will view and discuss highlights of Bridget O’Gorman’s exhibition at the Butler Gallery with a trained facilitator. This event will be held on Wednesday 29 May at 2pm as part of the Azure project. The programme is free of charge, but booking is essential as places are limited. For more information or to reserve a place, please contact Bairbre-Ann Harkin at 056-7761106.
In 2013, the Azure Steering Group is exploring how to develop the project further. To find out more about the Azure project, contact Rebecca McLaughlin, Age & Opportunity on 01-8057709.
