Frankfurt’s Städel Museum and the Department for Geriatric Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt are developing an app for people with dementia
So far, there is no cure for dementia, but it is possible to decelerate disease progression, and the well-being of people with dementia plays a very important role. How engaging with art affects this well-being is the subject of research conducted by Dr. Valentina Tesky and Dr. Arthur Schall from the Department for Geriatric Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt’s Faculty of Medicine.
The idea in fact originated back in 2012, when psychologists Dr. Valentina Tesky and Dr. Arthur Schall attended a congress in Vancouver on Alzheimer’s disease. In one of the talks, they learned about a project at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on art education for people with dementia. “It was new and very inspiring,” recalls Tesky, who, like her colleague Arthur Schall, was already working at the Institute of General Medicine’s Department for Geriatric Medicine at the time. After returning to Frankfurt, they started working on their own idea and soon found a partner: The city’s Städel Museum already ran programs for people with cancer and projects for families and children. It was more than willing to offer something for people with dementia, too.
As part of the first practice-oriented research project of its kind in Germany, the renowned art museum and Goethe University Frankfurt organized guided tours especially for people with dementia and their relatives. To decide which pictures were suitable and what information could be conveyed about them in which way, Schall and Tesky developed a concept together with the museum’s Education and Communication Department. “People with dementia can best engage with art via biographical or emotional points of reference,” explains Arthur Schall, who is not only a psychologist but also a musicologist and art historian. The project is called ARTEMIS (ART Encounters: Museum Intervention Study), and the team has designed six different art tours on topics such as “The City of Frankfurt”, “Family and Children”, “The Color Blue” and “Abstract”. The model project from New York had already shown that people not only want to hear and talk about art but also create it themselves, which is why every guided tour at the Städel Museum also includes a workshop in the studio. The resulting pictures have even been exhibited at one of the city’s special service centers, its Town Hall for Senior Citizens.
It is now almost ten years since the guided tours entered the trial phase. During this period, the project has been accompanied and supported by scientists from the Department for Geriatric Medicine at Goethe University Frankfurt, which is headed by Professor Johannes Pantel. Their comprehensive study on the effect that visiting the museum together with others and engaging with art has on the well-being and quality of life of those affected by dementia delivered positive results: “Negative moods such as apathy and depression were ameliorated, and participants’ relationships with their caregivers improved. The workshops enable them to engage with art in a non-verbal manner, which enhances their feeling of self-efficacy,” explains Valentina Tesky. Städel Museum made the tours a permanent offer. Since then, similar programs have “sprung up like mushrooms,” report Tesky and Schall – although mostly without scientific support. The team from the Department for Geriatric Medicine was, however, involved in training art educators at the university’s Giersch Museum and advised the Grimmwelt Museum in Kassel. The basic rules for communicating with people affected by dementia include not overwhelming them or showing them any depictions of violence and linking art to things they already know and are familiar with.
The coronavirus pandemic sparked a new idea: ARTEMIS Digital was created for people unable to visit museums for various reasons. The offer is slightly condensed but contains short introductory videos and music instead. The app allows users to explore the various themes in a fun and engaging manner and offers many ways for those affected by dementia and their caregivers to share ideas. People with dementia were involved in the app’s development: They could help decide which speaker’s voice was the most pleasant and which font size was the easiest to read.
“We were very happy to do our bit,” says Helmut Krapf, who came especially to the Liebieghaus from Darmstadt to test the preparatory work for the app on the screen with his wife – Sigrid Krapf was diagnosed with dementia in 2022. They have already taken part in the analog tours at Städel Museum several times, he says, and it always made for a pleasant change from everyday routine: “I think it’s very important with this disease to cultivate your social contacts for as long as possible, even if it’s a bit difficult from time to time for the person affected. That’s why I want to take advantage of such opportunities for as long as possible,” says Helmut Krapf. As hairdressers with their own salon, in the past they had scarcely had enough free time to visit the museum. Sigrid Krapf, 79, also enjoys the workshops after the tours, and the couple from Darmstadt always takes home pictures and sculptures they have produced themselves. “She has always been very creative,” says Helmut Krapf about his wife. They will also be happy, he says, to take part in a study to test the digital ARTEMIS app, which will be ready in the autumn.
The app developers are currently seeking additional participants for the trial phase: people with mild to moderate dementia and their caregivers. Fifty pairs can try out ARTEMIS Digital prior to its official launch at Städel Museum. The project has been funded since the start by the Schambach Family Foundation in Frankfurt.
About / Arthur Schall earned his doctoral degree in theoretical medicine with a dissertation on the ARTEMIS project. He is a psychologist, musicologist, art historian and research associate in the Department for Geriatric Medicine’s Institute of General Medicine, part of Goethe University Frankfurt’s Medicine Faculty. His current research interests lie in creative therapy interventions in psychogeriatric diseases (particularly through music and art), communication and quality of life in dementia, prevention of dementia-related illnesses, depressive disorders in old age, and psychosocial treatment and training concepts.
schall@allgemeinmedizin.uni-frankfurt.de
About / Valentina Tesky Tesky is a psychologist and systemic therapist. In 2010, she earned her doctoral degree in theoretical medicine. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with dementia prevention: She developed, ran and evaluated a training program to prevent decline in cognitive performance in old age. As deputy head of the Department for Geriatric Medicine at the Institute of General Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt, her research interests lie in the prevention of cognitive decline in old age, psychosocial and creative therapy interventions for dementia, communication and informed consent in people with dementia, and depression in old age.
tesky@allgemeinmedizin.uni-frankfurt.de
The author / Dr. Anke Sauter, born in 1968, is a science communication officer and editor of Forschung Frankfurt.
sauter@pvw.uni-frankfurt.de
