This paper documents a novel combination of art therapy and reminiscence therapy for people living with dementia and their carers. The Art and Object Engagement program was a collaborative community engagement project between two campus museums involving art and social history collections for a group of people with limited opportunities for cultural engagement. The open-ended, exploratory structure of the program and the rationale for this approach is articulated. A qualitative analysis of the positive impact of the program on participants is outlined. It is also argued that programs such as this, enabling the creative use of material collections in higher education, supports all three missions of the university through a complex ecology of teaching, research and engagement interrelationships.

Purpose Emerging data suggest that students’ attitudes toward older patients may be positively affected by geriatric experiences that are not clinically based, but no known interventions have used creative arts to integrate humanistic experiences into medical student geriatric education. This 2012 study evaluated whether participating in TimeSlips, a creative group-based storytelling program involving persons with dementia, improved medical students’ attitudes toward such patients. Method The authors administered the Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS) to 22 fourth-year medical students to evaluate the mean change in their self-reported attitudes toward persons with dementia. The authors used paired t tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to analyze pre- and post-program scores on the individual items of the DAS, on the subdomains of “comfort” and “knowledge,” and on the overall scale. They used Cronbach alpha to evaluate the internal consistency and reliability of the “comfort” and “knowledge” subdomains and of the overall scale. Results Medical students’ attitudes, as measured by the significantly higher scores on 12 of the 20 items, on each of the two subdomains, and on the overall scale, showed improvement after the TimeSlips sessions. The DAS showed acceptable to good internal consistency on both subdomains and on the overall scale both pre and post session; however, the internal consistency analysis is preliminary because of small sample size. Conclusions The authors’ findings provide preliminary evidence that participation in a creative storytelling program at a nursing home improves medical students’ attitudes toward persons with dementia and adds to evidence

Art education for older adults is steadily gaining recognition as a specialized field requiring a discrete pedagogy adapted to an appreciation of the aging process. As such, its theoretical framework evolved in great part from the field of adult education. Within a Western cultural perspective, the growing knowledge is related specifically to art education for older adults, which borrows its insights from diverse disciplines beyond the boundaries of fine arts, visual arts, and crafts. In practice, art education for older adults forms part of the diverse educational practices acknowledged as " lifelong learning, " a term that suggests a voluntary and self-motivated continued pursuit of knowledge for leisure or professional purposes, emphasizing the personal growth made possible through commitment to learning. This chapter attempts to illuminate findings of current research associated with aging and learning, anchoring this interdisciplinary knowledge to the practices and models of art education for older adults today. It examines how the diverse contexts for engaging older adults in beneficial artistic development build on distinct and often contrasting traditions, practices, and models, consistent with the organizations where these learning activities are offered. Institutions of formal education, community centers, assisted-living residences, clubs, and communities of practice all influence how learning takes place, while adapting their model of delivery to the population enrolled in their program. In exploring the field of art pedagogy for older adults, important theoretical contributors and luminaries can be identified from an array of interdisciplinary sources.

In this article, we explore how social work students cultivated a deeper understanding and community connection with older adults through personal engagement with artistic practices. We begin with an exploration of gerontological social work, noting the trends and challenges in this specialization. Guided by extended epistemology as a conceptual framework, we consider the role of the arts within critical pedagogy and describe an undergraduate course taken concurrently during student eld-placements. As part of the curriculum, students designed artifacts about their experience working with older adults, which supported critical re ection and student-led learning. As an exemplar of a creative teaching model, further considerations for implementation are also discussed.

El poder del ahora es un libro para releer una y otra vez, y cada vez que lo haga usted logrará profundizar más y encontrar nuevos significados. Muchas personas querrán estudiarlo toda la vida, pues es una guía, un curso completo de meditación y realización. Es un libro con el poder de cambiar vidas de despertarnos para comprender plenamente quiénes somos. El mensaje de Tolle es el mismo que Cristo y Buda enseñaron: se puede alcanzar un estado de iluminación, de realización espiritual, aquí y ahora. Es posible liberarnos del sufrimiento, de la ansiedad y la neurosis de la vida diaria. Para lograrlo sólo tenemos que llegar a comprender que la causa de nuestros problemas no son los demás, ni «el mundo de allá afuera», sino nuestra propia mente, aparentemente incapaz de concentrarse en el ahora por estar siempre pensando en el pasado y preocupándose por el futuro. Como dice Marc Allen, el editor de la edición norteamericana, en el Prefacio, «sin estar alineado con ninguna religión, doctrina o gurú particular, la enseñanza de Tolle proviene del corazón. De la esencia de todas las demás traducciones y no contradice a ninguna de ellas. (Tolle) es capaz de hacer lo que todos los grandes maestros han hecho: mostrarnos con un lenguaje simple y claro que el camino, la verdad y la luz están dentro de nosotros». Escrito en un formato de preguntas y respuestas que lo hace muy accesible, El poder del ahora es una invitación a la reflexión, que le abrirá las puertas a la plenitud espiritual y le permitirá ver la vida con nuevos ojos y empezar a disfrutar del verdadero poder del ahora.

Interactive Aerospace Engineering and Design Dava Newman