Hello!

Thank you for your responses to my query last week about reminiscence therapy and museum programming. I heard from several people and was really pleased to hear about other efforts "out there!"

The reason for my query arises out some recent work at Glenbow and a motivation to continue that work. On October 3,1997, Glenbow introduced a Reminiscence Kit program to Calgary and area . We now have 12 different Reminiscence Kits available for loan to continuing care facilities. Although anyone is welcome to borrow the kits, we designed them particularly for senior seniors (David K. Foot's term referring to older seniors generally in their 80s or older, David K. Foot with Daniel Stoffman, Boom, Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift. Macfarlane Walter & Ross, Toronto, 1996.). 

Kit development took place through 1996 and 1997 with a team which included myself, Sherry Anne Chapman, Frances Roback (Curator of Cultural History), Diane Osberg (seniors programmer), Bev Hillman (private consultant recreation therapist), Valerie Romanzin (registered recreation therapist, member of Alberta Therapeutic Recreation Association) and Bonnie Martyn, R.N., Patient Manager of the Alzheimer's Unit, Foothills Hospital, Calgary.

The 12 Glenbow Reminiscence Kits include the following themes:
Kit #1:  Sugar and Spice: Memories of Baking
Kit #2:  Salad Days: Cooking Up Memories
Kit #3:  A Little Dab 'll Do Ya: Accessories for Men
Kit #4:  In the Pink: Grooming Memories for Women
Kit #5:  On the Town: Dress-Up for Men
Kit #6:  Dressed to the Nines: Dress-Up for Women
Kit #7:  School Spirit  
Kit #8:  Remembering the War
Kit #9:  Music, Games, and Fun
Kit #10:  Baby of Mine
Kit #11:  Girls' Play
Kit #12:  Toys for Boys

Each kit has a unique theme and objects, images, scents, textures, and sometimes sounds related to the theme. A binder also goes into each kit offering suggestions for using the kit, a listing of the kit contents, drymounted images that can be taken out of the binder and passed around, and an evalution form.

We are receiving positive and constructive feedback from borrowers and are trying to refine the kits accordingly. At this point we would like to create another 6 kits through the next year or so. Glenbow has just learned about the Education Resource Centre for Continuing Care which is a resource in Alberta that aims to support continuing care staff in their work towards improving the quality of care in continuing care facilities. I hope to do some research through the centre and to let staff through the province know about Glenbow's program as a resource.

At this point, I understand that reminiscence therapy may be a relatively new field within gerontology. The idea behind it is to use memories to help people to focus their thoughts to adapt to their present. Again, my understanding is very preliminary but I want to learn. If you have any thoughts about what I am presenting here, please let me know!!!!

In a museum context, we can use objects, images, sounds, related smells, and textures to open the door of the past to people's memories. Sometimes those memories can be painful; sometimes they can be full of joy. Part of the experience may entail dealing with the painful past and finding "a place" to put it, ie., to deal with a part of the past that an individual may have previously chosen to bury. You can imagine that a reminiscence program must have supportive facilitators to help the participants if very strong emotions are brought to the surface with the memories. Be they positive or painful, memories help to focus the mind, particularly in cases of dementia as with Alzheimer's. Or, If an individual has moved to a continuing care facility (in Alberta, that may mean moving from a rural, home environment to an urban facility), reminiscence therapy may also help to adapt to the new environment.

The responses to my posted question about reminiscence therapy and museum theatre are quite telling, I think. Thus far, I have not yet heard from any other Canadian museum which makes me think that no other formal RemKit museum program may exist in a Canadian museum. I have not yet heard of an American RemKit museum program either although I have had several responses which I'll include below. 

I have heard about a well-establised Reminiscence Kit program at the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. The person who responded to me was Bronwyn Thompson:

From:   "Thompson, Bronwyn" <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Knight.GWIA("[log in to unmask]","bthomp...
Date:   12/3/97 12:48am
Subject:        Re: Reminiscence Therapy and Museum Theatre

Hi Sherry Anne
At the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia we have been operating for the last seven years a very successful Outreach program which is designed around reminiscence therapy. We offer the program in the form of kits and visits to regular meeting places in the community.

The program is targetted towards active seniors and the less mobile
Nursing Home residents. We often encounter people from very diverse
backgrounds, e.g from the country or city, and from people with English
as a second language. We find the very act of "reminiscence" or
recalling the past provides a very stimulating environment and
participants actively share memories.

The Outreach program was initially developed in partnership with
external organisations such a the Mayfield Education Centre and the
Victoria Alzheimer's Association. We are regularly invited to conduct
workshops for carers/workers in the field on how to set up their own
reminiscence kits.

I am more than happy to discuss further as to how we have applied
remiscence therapy to Museum programming. If you wish to contact me my email address is:    [log in to unmask]

regards
Bronwyn Thompson

I also have received this response which you may have already seen:
From:   Chris Landry <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Knight.GWIA("[log in to unmask]","clandr...
Date:   12/2/97 12:20pm
Subject:        Re: Reminiscence Therapy and Museum Theatre

Hi --
About 6-7 years ago, the Masachusetts Foundation for the Humanities
sponsored a project in Heritage State Parks that are located in
(economically Depressed) industrial towns throughout the state.  The
project was called Shifting Gears, and it brought humanities scholars into
these communities to work with residents.  In Holyoke, senior citizens (as well as younger residents) from the city's several cultural groups (Irish, French-Canadian, Puerto Rican) worked together to create and perform a play about Holyoke.  It was a wonderful project featuring some actors in their 80s who had never acted before.  Contact the Mass. Foundation for the Humanities for more information:  http://www1.shore.net/~mfh/mfhpage.htm.
Their page has phone and e-mail info.

I would be interested in seeing a summary of what you learn.  Good luck.
Chris Landry
Historic Deerfield
Deerfield, MA
[log in to unmask]

There is a museum consultant in Japan who is really interested in reminiscence therapy in museum programming but is not aware of any such programs in Japanese museums at the moment:

Ryo
Yasui R. (Mr)
Museum Consultant
PO Box 13, Tsurukawa, Machida 195, Tokyo Japan.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

I have also received this response which is quite exciting:
From:   Lisa Abia-Smith <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Glenbow.Mainpost(SHERRYC)
Date:   12/3/97 6:56pm
Subject:        Reminiscence

Sherry-Contact Dr. Victoria Coffman.  She is a scholar in the field of 
Theatre Therapy-in fact she did her PhD on Theatre and Reminiscence.  She consults all over the nation and has done consulting work in Lethbridge at the University. Her home base is in Montana.

She is fabulous and could contribute A LOT!!!!

Contact her at:
(406)657-1724
Montanta State University-Billings
Communication Arts Department 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lisa Abia-Smith
Director of Educational Outreach
University of Oregon Museum of Art
1223 University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon 97403
(541) 346-0966
[log in to unmask]

In addition, this person is interested in the idea of the program:
Nancy Lynner
Smithsonian Institution
National Postal Museum
Washington D.C> 20560

That's it so far!

Now that Glenbow has a RemKit established, I would like to work toward expanding that program but am also considering additional ways to incorporate reminiscence therapy into museum programming. I would like to follow up with the above suggestions.

In my original email, I mentioned Age Exchange Theatre Trust Ltd. in London. It is a member of the Museums Reminiscence Network about which I am just learning. Britain sounds as though it is really active in reminiscence progamming in museums and I am eager to learn as much about it as I can. 

A colleague of mine at Glenbow, Sandra Morton Weizman, referred me to a 1996 article in "Museum Practice," Volume 1, Issue 3, p. 58, "Outreach: Museums and Reminiscence Work." In that article, the creation of the Museums Reminiscence Network was described as an informal process underway in 1995. I do not know the current status of the Network; however, a goal had been set to have a directory of network members published in the spring of 1997. I have not yet checked to see if that has happened but fully intend to do so.

Thanks again for your interest! Please let me know if you are or someone you know or know of is incorporating reminiscence therapy into museum programming. I'll keep you posted on my research!

Sherry Anne Chapman
Live Interpreter
Glenbow
[log in to unmask]
http://www.glenbow.org
130-9th Avenue N.W.
Calgary, AB
T2G 0P3