Reimagining Dementia @ The Phillips Collection

The Joy of Dementia (You Gotta Be Kidding) is an experiential interactive workshop that uses improvisational games, creative exercises and philosophical/performed conversation to explore what it means to create an environment which supports everyone involved in the “dementia ensemble” to enjoy the “non-knowing growing” that is possible with improvisational play. Creator and Facilitator Mary Fridley is a faculty member of the East Side Institute in NYC and coordinator of Reimagining Dementia: A Creative Coalition for Justice.

Reserve your spot by emailing Donna Jonte: djonte@phillipscollection.org

Participants should come to the main entrance of the Phillips Collection, where they will be greeted, will sign in and be directed/escorted to the space where the program is taking place. After the program, participants are free to visit other galleries in other parts of the museum. The program is fully funded and there is no cost to participate.

The Workshop is part of Reframing Care: Mindfulness + Art at The Phillips Collection which offers resources, support, and artful engagement for care partners and their loved ones living with memory loss.

This Art + Wellness series is designed to support care partners and their loved ones living with dementia. Every other month, we will gather around the table with food and conversation, sharing experiences and resources, and connecting wellness with art. Through arts engagement—conversation, storytelling, improvisational play, art-making, and guided meditation—we will reimagine our relationship to dementia in positive, hopeful, and practical ways.

Additional Reframing Care programs are scheduled for July 7 (Meditation + Art) and September 8 (Reframing Care) with two recently added special sessions: an extra "open studio" art making session on June 22nd so that folks can continue working on art project in process, or drop in to work on a project and a performance on July 21 of Sam Simon's play, Dementia Man, followed by a community conversation.

The Phillips Collection is grateful to the Dosal Family Foundation for funding Reframing Care: Mindfulness + Art