Culture& is excited to announce the publication of an open access peer-reviewed article in Arts & Health that reflects on an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded exhibition and training course, connected to previous work undertaken with Culture Box.
Dr Errol Francis collaborated with colleagues at the University of Surrey (Dr Chloe Asker and Professor Victoria Tischler) to support the curation and production of a touring exhibition, Culture Box Live! (Exeter and Stoke-on-Trent), and training course, Lessons from Culture Box, in 2024. The project took research findings and materials created by the research project to new audiences in the two cities, and partnered with organisations to increase the reach of the project (e.g. National Activity Providers Association, Arts for Dementia, Arts & Culture Exeter, and the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum).
Culture Box was a pandemic responsive study that aimed to improve dementia care during the pandemic through creative and arts-based approaches. Dr Errol Francis (Culture&) led the curation and production of the arts-based activities for Culture Box, in which monthly physical and digital boxes were sent to care homes over 12 months. You can read more about the published findings from Culture Box in Geriatric Nursing.
The new paper, co-authored by Culture&’s CEO and Artistic Director, Dr Errol Francis, and led by Dr Chloe Asker (ANTITHESES Research Fellow), reflects on and evaluates the impact of the exhibition and training course – exploring the opportunities afforded by this work, but also some of the challenges. The paper is an excellent resource for academics planning on undertaking similar activities and offers some key recommendations to support future projects in this area.
You can read the full paper online here.