National Grant Helps Expand Local Program for Adults With Cognitive Impairment

According to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA), there are 152,000 people in Arizona living with Alzheimer’s disease—and that number is expected to increase significantly in the next few years.

Scottsdale Arts was recently awarded a $6,000 biannual national grant by AFA to support its Memory Lounge, an innovative arts therapy program for older adults living with early to moderate stages of Alzheimer’s disease or related forms of memory loss, and their care partners.

The grant will help Scottsdale Arts continue to expand the program and serve additional families.

Memory Lounge seeks to improve participants’ quality of life through hands-on artistic workshops that foster social, mental, and physical wellness and are rooted in self-expression, creativity, and social interaction. The program engages participants in creative and innovative ways, inspiring them to create new and meaningful memories together. Each workshop introduces a new professional artist who works in visual art, music, dance, or drama and is experienced in teaching and memory care.

Workshops are provided free of charge. 

“Therapeutic creative arts programs such as Memory Lounge provide valuable opportunities for cognitive stimulation, socialization, and expression, all of which enhance quality of life for individuals living with dementia and their care partners,” says Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., AFA’s president and chief executive officer.

The arts are important for brain health—according to Scottsdale Arts, engaging in art reduces stress levels, increases immunity, and activates brain systems important for language and memory.

“Creativity and artistic expression are such an important part of the human experience,” says Dr. Gerd Wuestemann, president and CEO of Scottsdale Arts. “We are passionate about leveraging creative workshops and art classes in our engagement with senior populations suffering from Alzheimer’s and their loved ones. Seeing individuals in the workshops reconnecting to their inner lives and making beautiful things together with big smiles on their faces fills us with joy and a sense of what is possible. The arts may not provide a cure for this disease, but they do provide respite and relief.”