Module 5: Understanding Activity

Welcome to Artful Moments: Shared Learning Module 5: Understanding Activity. In this module we will take a close look at the different activities we offer in our programs, and how to adapt them to our participants.

The goal for this Module is for you to be able to plan and facilitate museum-based conversations about your exhibitions and collections as well as meaningful hands-on activities that support and adapt to the abilities of participants.

For Conversations, by the end of Module 5 you will be able to: 

• Describe the most important elements of a museum conversation to ensure the participation and engagement of participants.
• Compare and contrast a ‘typical’ tour with a conversation planned using your knowledge of dementia and what you have learned in this program.
• Plan a conversation that is designed to support the abilities and needs of a person with dementia, including accommodations for different levels of ability

And for Hands-On Activities, you will be able to:

• Describe the most important elements of a hands-on activity to ensure the participation and engagement of participants.
• Compare and contrast a ‘typical’ hands-on activity with one planned using your knowledge of dementia and what you have learned in this program.
• Plan a hands-on activity inspired by your exhibitions or collections that supports the abilities and needs of a person with dementia, including accommodations for different levels of ability.

The activities are the heart of our work as museum educators and facilitators. Through our activities we bridge the participants’ experience from the objects and exhibitions to the individual connections that each participant will make. In this module more than any other, the final product of your learning and planning will be uniquely yours based on the type of museum you work in, and the ways that you connect people and objects. As we have said many times already, Artful Moments is about adapting your work, the activities you already offer, to suit your audience – in this case, people living with dementia. We’ll present our examples and advice, but this is where you can take our experience and be creative in how you apply it to your own work.

Click “Start Module” below to begin.