The Racine Art Museum is proud to introduce SPARK – a pilot program series that provides cultural programming for people with memory loss along with caregivers. RAM was one of five museums to receive a grant from the Helen Bader Foundation to fund the planning portion of this new initiative through its Alzheimer’s and Aging program. The program is modeled after "Meet Me at MOMA", a successful outreach effort at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
The Helen Bader Foundation’s Alzheimer’s and Aging program area aims to make Wisconsin a leader, not just in how challenges posed by this disease are addressed, but in how growing older and the later stages of life are viewed. Through an emphasis on program development, applied research, and public policy, the Foundation strives to offer hope to families struggling with Alzheimer’s.
The SPARK pilot program will provide enriching experiences at both museums, including monthly hands-on art activities, art conversations, poetry, dance and movement. The goal is to make RAM’s collections and exhibitions more accessible to non-institutionalized people with early to mid stage Alzheimer’s disease, as well as to their caregivers.
Five to seven couples (caregivers/
The implementation phase, beginning in July 2010, will continue to offer monthly programs at both locations. At that time, SPARK will provide additional activities and events in partnership with other cultural institutions, such as the Racine Public Library, the Racine Arts Council and the Racine Heritage Museum.
For more information about the SPARK Program Series, please contact RAM Curator of Education Tricia Blasko at 262.636.9573.
