IMAGINED

IMAGINED stands for Investigating Meaning-making and the cocreation of Guidelines for Evaluation IN participatory Arts for Dementia. It is a 2-year project seeking to explore meaning-making and evaluation processes in participatory arts and dementia, drawing on theories from cultural sociology.

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Through the IMAGINED project, we are aiming to explore four key research questions:

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1. What are the meaning-making processes of engagement with the arts in community and social care (non-clinical) settings for people living with dementia, and their families and carers, and how do these processes connect to health and wellbeing?

 

2. What do arts and charitable organisations delivering arts and dementia programmes to support health and wellbeing for people living with dementia feel are the benefits and challenges of current evaluation processes in relation to ‘capturing’ and articulating meaning-making?

 

3. What role do professional artists who are embedded within arts and charitable organisational practices play in cocreating meaningful engagements with people living with dementia?

 

4. How can evaluation processes utilised by artists and organisations be improved to incorporate an understanding of ‘meaning-making’ to support with articulating their work to stakeholders, thereby optimising future implementation and delivery of programmes?

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The IMAGINED project is led by the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia (ECRED) in partnership with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, University of Florida, Queen Margaret University, St Columba’s Hospice Care, Music in Hospitals and Care and Scottish Ballet. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). To find out more, visit the ECRED website.