A truly inspiring week at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC! Museum Leaders from around the U.S., Greece, Italy, Spain, Australia and Iceland met to drink coffee and share practices for bringing people in cognitive decline to museums.
I loved sharing a passion with these folks for using art to create community, belonging, and self-care for care givers. There is surprising crossover in the goals of the fine arts and performing arts when this is your mission! Thoughts I'm taking back to LA:
"Most of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, but we are actually feeling creatures that think." Jill Bolte Taylor
From a man caring for his father on what it means to be at MoMa with a group of dementia care partners: "No one knows what you're going through and everyone knows what you're going through."
Halldora Anardottir, from Iceland University of the Arts, noted that in their programs, they don't call what they do "art." "It's too intimidating, too big a word for people and it can shut them down. We just say we are going to work with some materials."
This reminded me of the pressure people feel to be funny when me and the Laughter On Call team shows up. Not at all. What we really want you to be is authentic and vulnerable, and in order to do either, courageous. If you do all this, you'll probably make some people laugh. And you'll definitely create connection!
