Dementia access in museums and galleries

Museums and galleries are places for curiosity, creativity, and learning. They often have distinctive architecture and display objects and stories with historical importance and personal significance. But they can also sometimes be difficult for people living with dementia to access. Physical adjustments and staff training can help make them welcoming and enabling places for people visiting independently or with others. In this chapter we look at guidance and examples of good practice for this in the UK and internationally, highlighting what is important and unique about museums as spaces of leisure. We then take a closer look at the programme at Tyneand Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) in the UK, where the focus is on people’screative capabilities not their deficits. This programme also demonstrates how museums can provide opportunities for cultural engagement inside and outside of the museum. For example, activity loans boxes mean people engage with museum objects and creative activities in care homes and in hospitals. TWAM has also developed training and resources for health and social care professionals to use museum activities in their own practice. Examples like this show the importance of physical access and welcoming environments, and of celebrating everyone’s creativity. They also show that dementia-friendly cultural leisure provision can be created both inside museums and in the community through outreach activities.