Playing it forward: Changing Attitudes Towards Dementia
In June 2024, Citizen Artist Gill Ashington and Communications and Data Manager, Rebecca Truscott-Elves, shared Bright Shadow’s vision for changing attitudes towards people living with dementia through building innovative, playful and creative spaces together at Canterbury Christ Church University’s Impact Kent Conference.
Joining researchers, advocates and representatives from across Kent, including Abbey Physic Garden, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury Food Bank, Kent Wildlife Trust and University of Kent, we took part in talks and workshops built around address local challenges in building just, fair and sustainable communities.
“Finding creative communities helps people to cherish every moment and realise there’s every point in going on. At Bright Shadow, we’re saying that people should be included and still have things to offer and deserve those opportunities. When people to work together, it makes a huge difference in outcomes, because everybody matters.” Gill Ashington, Citizen Artist
At Bright Shadow, we work to shift attitudes by co-creating joyful artistic spaces full of possibility. By cherishing life experiences and skills, we can make a difference to everybody in our communities. A key example is Gill’s journey to presenting her own exhibition, ‘Refocus: Out of the Shadows’, at The Beaney, Canterbury in 2023.
Having just marked 15 years at the forefront of developing creative practice with and for people living with dementia, we understand the real-life challenges facing our local communities. As Gill, who first received a diagnosis of Frontotemporal Dementia via a video call during a COVID-19 lockdown, aged 48, shared, an issue at the core of these challenges is attitudes encountered which shut down opportunities for people living with dementia. This can be compounded by difficulty navigating complicated information landscapes, which makes it even harder to try new things.
“When I started taking pictures, and then had the exhibition, it allowed me to share something: yes, they’ve given me this diagnosis, but we’ve gone and done this.”- Gill Ashington
Building on our core creative programme, our inclusive governance and Open Forum we are seeking to expand our collaborations with researchers and health, social and arts organisations to take this vision to the next level.