MUSEUM TOUR ENLIVENS INDIVIDUALS WITH ALZHEIMER’S.

MUSEUM TOUR ENLIVENS INDIVIDUALS WITH ALZHEIMER’S. Ideas, emotions, humor and reminisces spread up and down the massive corridors and through the maze of rooms of the Crocker Art Museum. Like a creative, healthy contagion. First to be infected was the tour group of six residents from Eskaton’s Memory Care community, who remarkably seemed to forget their disease and its cognitive limitations. Then, as if through direct contact, the team leading the tour -- the museum’s docents, Eskaton staff and the ARTZ: Artists for Alzheimer’s director -- forgot about their charges’ disease as well.

“All of us were completely engaged by the beauty surrounding us,” observed Tiffany Paige with ARTZ. “The Alzheimer’s seemed to go away while we were in the gallery. It’s as if their minds weren’t so busy and hurried like the rest of the world that they were able see things in a different way. Their enthusiasm was infectious. We got to experience a deeper beauty because of them.”

The April museum visit is an extension of Eskaton’s partnership with the Sacramento Chapter of ARTZ: Artists for Alzheimer’s, whose ARTZ Delivers program brings artwork to Memory Care communities to share with residents. Fieldtrips to Crocker and The California Museum, scheduled through June, then provide the residents an opportunity to enjoy public art exhibitions.

Carolyn, one of the Eskaton participants, said the tour “makes me think at a higher level.” Another participant, Fernando, joked “nature and nature,” about two adjacent painting, a woodsy landscape and a nude woman. It was definitely a memorable experience for everyone.