National Portrait Gallery tour uses art and music to stimulate the senses of dementia patients

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A newly developed interactive tour at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is giving people with dementia something to smile about.

The tailor-made tours see small groups of people with early stages of dementia view works featuring famous Australian musicians, composers, actors, sportspeople and poets.

Of the 274 portraits on display at the gallery, groups on the Art and Dementia tour spend time viewing and discussing just three or four.

Visitor services coordinator Pauline McCreath said the tour also included a musical experience.

"We play music as we look at some of the paintings because people living with dementia often respond really well to music," she said.

"We have a lot of musicians in the collection and so we often choose one of our musicians to look at and discuss."

The tour gives people living with dementia an opportunity to stimulate their senses.

"Looking at artworks evokes people's memories and they share their own stories," Ms McCreath said.

She said resurfacing memories for people living with such a cruel illness as dementia was a special part of the gallery tour.

"Last year there was a group of women who came and we were looking at the portrait of jazz musician James Morrison," she said.

"I played some of his music and one of the ladies in the group was a former singer and a member of a vocals backing group in Sydney in the days of Chequers nightclub.

"She had lovely memories of singing for people like Shirley Bassey and some international stars that used to come to Chequers.

"She sang a bit of a song, and other ladies in the group remembered learning to play musical instruments."

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