The Spruill Center for the Arts is pleased to begin Arts for Alzheimer’s, a pilot art education program aimed at increasing the well-being of individuals living with memory loss and their care partners through engagement in the arts. The program is being offered this fall at no charge to participants and is now open for registration via Spruill’s website.

Each month, teaching artist Amanda Williams will guide participants through an examination of a prominent artist and their works. Individuals and their care partners will explore a variety of mediums designed to engage and connect them to the monthly class theme and they will create a work of art inspired by that month’s featured artist. In this pilot program, those artists include: Henry Ossawa Tanner, Henri Mattise, Hanna Hoch and Claes Oldenburg.

An estimated 6.5 million Americans age 65 and older have some form of dementia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than 3000 studies show that the arts play a significant role in promoting health and wellness. The Alzheimer’s Association endorses the arts as a way to enrich the lives of people with the Alzheimer’s disease by allowing for self-expression and engagement which elevates mood, self-esteem and social interaction.

“This first pilot program is part of a larger series of community-based engagements that Spruill intends to bring forward in the coming year,” said Alan Mothner, Spruill CEO. “With no other current type of programming of a similar nature being offered in the Perimeter area, we felt it important to be able to extend the healing power of the arts to our senior community and others suffering from memory loss. We hope to expand the program even further in 2023 to fulfill the needs of the community.”

Amanda Williams will oversee an exploration of art history and artistic media in this four-part course offered monthly from September through December. Williams has spent more than 15 years working with individuals who have memory loss and their care partners, most recently helping to establish a program at the High Museum of Art in partnership with the Georgia Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Arts for Alzheimer’s begins September 14 and will be held every 2nd Wednesday through December 14. To enroll, go to spruillarts.org/classes.