This program is designed to create meaningful art experiences for aging individuals who struggle with dementia and aphasia.

Creative Aging Programs

MAM’s Creative Aging Program is designed to create meaningful art experiences for aging individuals who struggle with dementia and aphasia. This program aims to provide therapeutic benefits of processing emotions and sparking associations and memories for elders experiencing memory loss. MAM provides spaces in its galleries that are emotionally and physically safe. These programs use creative approaches to interacting with and experiencing art using communication modalities such as gestures, visuals, humor, sound, rhythm, open-face expression, and eye contact. The Creative Aging Programs instill hope and empower individuals through contemporary art. What is good for the heart is good for the brain!

Art In The Moment

A Program for Those With Dementia and Their Caregivers

IN-PERSON! Led by Bev Beck Glueckert and Kay Grissom-Kiely.

This FREE program at MAM provides a comforting art-viewing and art-making experience for those in the early stages of dementia and their caregivers. Based on the Museum of Modern Art’s "Meet Me" program, Art in the Moment creates a dementia-friendly learning community and provides an opportunity for caregivers and those with dementia to be together in a creative and relaxed environment. This program is generously sponsored by the Montana Geriatric Education Center and Dementia Friendly Missoula. For more information, contact Kay Grissom-Kiely, curator of education, for more information.

Once per month on Mondays, from 1:30 to 3 PM

Upcoming 2024 sessions: Feb. 12, Mar. 4, Apr. 1, May 6, Jun. 3

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Aphasia Program

Helping Those with Stroke and TBI

In partnership with the University of Montana’s Big Sky Aphasia Institute, MAM hosts people experiencing Aphasia and associated deficits resulting from a stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI) for exhibition tours and hands-on art-making. Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder resulting from injury to the parts of the brain that control language (usually the left hemisphere of the brain). This program is designed to offer participants an opportunity to view and create art using various modalities to benefit speech and language retrieval.

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