An open invitation to charities, practitioners and organisations working in, or connected to the arts, health and ageism sectors to discuss the impact that ageism plays in arts and health.

Facilitated by Moving Memory Dance Theatre and chaired by Professor Roy Sandbach, Professor of Population Health at Newcastle University, this round table event will discuss:

– What is ageism and how is it real in arts and health?
– The levels of awareness of ageism within the sector
– The resources needed by the sector to raise awareness of ageism
and work to prevent it
– National campaigns and examples of best practice

This round table discussion, complete with breakout sessions and networking opportunities will enable delegates to:

– Become more aware of what ageism is and how to spot it on a daily basis
– Feel empowered to lobby for change
– Learn how to tap into national campaigns that will support your own work
– Connect with other professionals to share resources, skill sets and expertise

During the session delegates will contribute to the creation of a national stakeholder map that illustrates the network of charities, organisations and practitioners with expertise in arts, health and ageism across the country.

Sign up for your free place here https://mailchi.mp/bec8350567e0/mm-round-table-sign-up

MEET THE PANEL

Sian Stevenson
Sian has worked in theatre, opera and participatory arts for over 35 years and is the Creative Director of Moving Memory Dance Theatre Company. As a director, performer and choreographer, she has worked with many companies including Bobby Baker Daily Life Limited, English Touring Opera, Plain Clothes, Gloria, Grange Opera and Actors Touring Company. She has extensive experience in applied theatre, with specialist knowledge in movement, inclusivity and disability, and a long track-record of creating new performance in a wide range of educational and community settings.  Sian is currently an Emeritus Reader in Theatre Studies at the University of Kent.

Sian’s work with Moving Memory is focused on challenging ageism via the creation and promotion of a distinctive, movement-based, peer-led, collaborative, creative practice which enables people (especially women aged 50+) to tell their own stories and express their individual identity, placing the work , and the older body, centre stage.

Veronica Franklin Gould
Veronica is president of Arts 4 Dementia, the charity she founded in 2011 to develop weekly learning and participation programmes at cultural venues, to re-energise and inspire people above the strains of early-stage dementia. She helped design a website to signpost arts opportunities for dementia in the community nationwide and worked with Dementia UK to devise training and insight for arts facilitators, and with a range of universities to provide best-practice conferences and reports. Her inaugural programme, Reawakening the Mind (2012-13), won the London 2012 Inspire Mark and Positive Breakthrough in Mental Health Dementia Award 2013.

Veronica was named finalist in The Sunday Times Changemaker competition and on publication of Music Reawakening (2015), she was appointed A4D president. Her regional guide, Reawakening Integrated: Arts & Heritage (2017) maps arts opportunities for dementia and aligns arts within NHS England’s Well Pathway for Dementia. Her social prescribing campaign (2019-23) encourages professionals to empower people to access wide-ranging arts from the outset of symptoms – to preserve their Brain Health – with practice disseminated in A.R.T.S. for Brain Health: Social Prescribing as Peri-Diagnostic Practice for Dementia (2021) and to 40 countries around the world through Global Social Prescribing: The A4D Arts for Brain Health Debates.

Arti Prashar OBE
she/her
Arti stepped down as Spare Tyre’s Artistic Director/CEO in August 2019 after inspirational and acclaimed leadership for 19 years.

Her inclusive creative practice champions diverse voices. She is at the forefront of immersive sensory theatre practice for people living with dementia and learning disabled people. She has a strong commitment to collaborative theatre with values based on fundamental human rights.

She is currently lead artist on The Chatter Project with Chichester Festival Theatre, co-producing an audio piece with older people with and without memory loss.

She received an OBE in 2022 for services to Arts and Dementia and a Tonic Award 2020 (inclusion and diversity). She is a Churchill Fellow 2013 (spirituality, dementia and ageing) and Research Fellow at the Centre of Contemporary Theatre at Birkbeck University.Her publications include:

1. Full report of Visionaries: a South Asian creative ageing counter narrative https://cada657445711.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/visionaries-south-asian-arts-full-report.pdf

2. Arts and Dementia in UK South Asian Diaspora commissioned by Baring Foundation and researched with Elizabeth Lynch. https://baringfoundation.org.uk/resources/page/2/

3. Indian online publication LILA: Article: https://lilainteractions.in/theatre-spirituality-and-dementiathe-soul-still-knows-who-they-are/

ROUND TABLE CHAIR:
Professor Roy Sandbach OBE FRSC
Professor of Population Health at Newcastle University, Roy is heavily involved in policy & practice relating to healthy ageing. He chairs the Dunhill Medical funded national inquiry into the use of Technology for our Ageing Population. It is developing a practical framework for what ‘good’ looks like in technology for housing and care.

Until September 2018, Roy was Director of the National Innovation Centre for Ageing at Newcastle University and is currently a Professor of Practice in Population Health. He is vice-Chair of Sunderland Ageing Well Board. Roy is a board member for Sunderland Culture, which runs four cultural venues in the city. He was on the board for the Great Exhibition of the North, which ran across cultural and science venues in the north of England in 2018.

Roy chairs Northern Accelerator, the research commercialisation programme of the five North East Universities. Roy spent 31 years with the Procter & Gamble Company holding global R&D positions in Europe and Asia, leading innovation programmes across the world. One of his patented inventions is a $150 million business in the US. He was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2017 for services to science, innovation & skills.

Claire Shelton
Claire is a committed VCSE professional with extensive strategic experience in project management and performance improvement in both the community and public sector. She is passionate about supporting grassroot groups to grow and thrive, developing responses to the issues that they face.

Claire has led on the development of a Men’s Shed in East Kent as well as working nationally for the UK Mens Shed Association developing their ambassador programme.

She currently leads a number of multi partner programmes across East Kent focusing on community health and wellbeing for older people.

Sign up for your free place here https://mailchi.mp/bec8350567e0/mm-round-table-sign-up