Welcome to Culture Box

Hello - welcome to Culture Box. Thank you for being part of this project - we are looking forward to sharing some ideas and resources with you over the next twelve months.

Who are we?

The Culture Boxes are being put together by a small team of five people. We are part of a bigger team that is being led by Dr Victoria Tischler, Professor of Arts and Health. The team also includes other researchers and people with experience and passion for working with care homes and those living with dementia.  

The team who are putting together the resources are:

Julian West

I am a musician by training - I play the oboe. I spent the early part of my career playing in orchestras and teaching music. About twenty years ago I was first introduced to a project called Music for Life, that brought professional musicians into care homes to make music with people living with dementia and staff. Since then, I have chosen to specialise in this area, and I research the ways in which music and other creative activities can support our wellbeing. I also work with music students who are interested in this area, and I am a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Emma Barnard

I’ve always loved making art and in 1998 I made the decision to study this, eight years later I was still studying, finishing with an MA from the Royal College of Art. I really enjoy working with communities and as a lecturer I taught in Further Education for several years meeting a variety of people from lots of different communities and backgrounds. Throughout my career as an artist and educator I've witnessed the benefits that being creative offers people from all walks of life and I’m really excited to be part of a creative team that has researched and will be offering you activities that I hope will bring some sunshine and laughter into your day!

Errol Francis

I am trained in fine art and photography and I have worked in the voluntary sector and NHS to promote diversity and inclusion. I strongly believe in the power of the arts to promote wellbeing and ask questions about the world in which we live. I have explored these themes in a number of festivals that I have directed such as the Anxiety Festival 2014 and Hysteria 2018. I am currently the Artistic Director of London-based arts charity Culture& and I am content producer for Culture Box.

Vanessa Otim

I believe that the arts are a tool that allow us to relate to the world around us and can help us feel more connected. I believe everyone should have access to the arts and our shared cultural heritage no matter their age, ability or background. From a young age I have been exploring my own art practices through painting with a particular interest in portraiture as well as playing alto saxophone.  After studying English Literature and Philosophy at university, I started my career journey with a traineeship at the Royal Collections Trust as part of the New Museum School which solidified my love for visual art and art history.

Lynne Phair

Hello! I am an Independent Consultant Nurse and Expert Witness for Older People and do reports for the Police, Coroners and the Court of Protection, with a focus on neglect. I’ve worked in the NHS, at the Department of Health and in care homes for over 40 years and I’m currently the professional advisor to Milford Care in Derbyshire and Quality & Service Director for Abbeyfield South Downs.

My recent practice development has focussed on the use of Montessori approaches for people with dementia. I was also able to study the work of Gail Elliot’s DementiAbility methods and learned about how to enable people living with dementia to read if information is presented in the correct format.

It has been an honour for me to work with Gail Elliot and Milford Care to produce the public health material for the Culture Box project, in a format designed to enable people living with dementia to read and understand the current pandemic.

Aims and intentions of the resources

It has become widely recognised that people living with dementia in care homes are some of those who are most seriously affected by the measures that we all need to follow as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The need to maintain distance, and to potentially isolate can result in increased experiences of loneliness for people, as well as being challenging to communicate. The resources and ideas that we share with you will aim to support you in engaging creatively with people, and also provide you with ways that can assist you in communicating public health information.

About the resources

Alongside public health material, we will be sharing a range of resources and ideas with you, including music and sound, visual arts and crafts, poetry, and dance or movement. There are 200 pairs of people with dementia and staff  taking part in this project, and of course there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’; some people will get on well with  a particular resource or activity and others won’t. You should feel free to choose what you feel works well for you in your setting, and you can build upon and develop those things as you see best. You should also feel free not to persist with things that you don’t  think work so well for a person. You are the person who is there in the moment, and your knowledge of someone and your experience is something that we can’t have. However, we hope that there might also be some nice surprises in your explorations with people!

Thank you

We want to thank you for being part of this project. We know how hard you work, and that you have faced so many additional challenges this year. We hope that the resources we share with you will be nourishing not only for the people you work with, but for you too.