Where the Arts Belong: Creativity and Connection in Dementia Care

At Belong Villages, creativity is not an afterthought—it is an essential part of daily life. Through powerful partnerships with professional artists and organizations like Bluecoat, Liverpool’s contemporary arts center, these communities have embedded arts engagement into the very fabric of dementia care. The result is a reimagining of activity provision, where artistic collaboration and intergenerational connection foster dignity, identity, and joy.

Liverpool Roots: Bluecoat and Belong

The story begins in Liverpool, where Belong partnered with Bluecoat to launch Where the Arts Belong, a groundbreaking, four-year research project exploring how sustained artistic engagement can enhance the lives of people living with dementia. Bluecoat, with its reputation for pushing creative boundaries, commissioned six established artists to undertake residencies across Belong villages. The artists worked not as entertainers but as collaborators, co-creating with residents in painting, storytelling, sculpture, music, movement, and digital art.

As Marie-Anne McQuay, then Head of Programme at Bluecoat, explained: “To one extent it is about dementia but in another sense, it’s about the creative potential of people who live with dementia and understanding them as creative and artistic people.”

This Liverpool-anchored collaboration has become the most extensive arts partnership in Belong’s history, shaping how creativity is integrated into care culture across all its villages.

Co-Creation, Not Consumption

The residencies demonstrated a radical shift: residents were not passive recipients of entertainment but active participants in the creative process. In one workshop, a woman who had once loved working with clay but hadn’t touched it in decades rediscovered the material’s feel between her hands. “I never thought I’d make something again,” she said quietly, her sculpture later exhibited in a village showcase.

Musical residencies, too, sparked surprising moments. A resident who rarely spoke found himself humming along to a rhythm, then gradually joining in with the lyrics. For staff and family, it was a revelation: music had reached a part of him that dementia had not taken.

Importantly, these sessions were evaluated with academic rigor. Using validated measures like DEMQOL, researchers found that more than half of participants reported improvements in quality of life, and 84% described themselves as “happy or very happy” after arts sessions—12% higher than responses to more traditional activities. For those who began with lower wellbeing, the improvements were often the most profound.

Creativity Through Crisis

When the pandemic disrupted in-person engagement, the Liverpool partnership adapted quickly. Initiatives like We Belong Together and Where the Arts Belong at Home delivered creative programming online, trained staff in arts facilitation, and extended opportunities for residents receiving care at home.

One artist, working via Zoom, invited residents to make soundscapes from everyday objects—teacups tapped with spoons, the rustle of newspapers, the squeak of a chair. These became shared “concerts” that brought both laughter and connection in the midst of lockdown. For residents who were isolated in their rooms, the sessions proved that creativity could still travel across screens, reaching hearts even when hands could not meet.

Little Golden Moments

One enduring outcome of the Liverpool collaboration is Little Golden Moments, a dementia-friendly creative toolkit developed by Bluecoat artists and Belong staff. It offers simple, adaptable activities in music, movement, clay, and storytelling that anyone—care teams, family members, or volunteers—can use to spark joy and connection.

A Belong carer described how one exercise, “story circles,” transformed her usual tea break with residents. Instead of quiet routine, the group began swapping tales prompted by a single photograph, laughter spilling over as residents built on one another’s memories. “It wasn’t just care,” she said, “it was community.”

This toolkit is more than a manual; it is a legacy of the Liverpool partnership, ensuring that creativity continues to ripple outward into homes, families, and communities.

Recognition and Reach

The impact of the Liverpool-Bluecoat collaboration has been widely recognized. Where the Arts Belong won the Creative Arts Award at the 3rd Sector Care Awards, while the virtual program We Belong Together received the National Activity Providers Association’s Year of Creativity Award. These accolades confirm what residents and staff already know: that embedding the arts in care transforms not only individual lives but entire communities.

Beyond Age, Beyond Assumptions

Perhaps most striking are the intergenerational encounters these programs foster. Local schoolchildren and college students often join projects, dissolving age barriers in the act of creation. In one Belong village, pupils worked with residents to create a mural of their community’s past and future—children painted skylines of the Liverpool docks while residents added ships they remembered from their youth. The finished piece hangs in the village café, a daily reminder of continuity and shared belonging.

For the children, the projects foster empathy and respect for older generations. For residents, they offer affirmation: their stories and skills are still shaping the world.

From its roots in Liverpool’s Bluecoat to its spread across the Belong network, Where the Arts Belong has shown that professional arts partnerships are not a luxury in dementia care but a necessity. They reduce isolation, enrich identity, and give people living with dementia the chance to keep growing, contributing, and connecting.

Belong Villages prove that care environments can be cultural centers—alive with imagination and relationship. And as residents dance, paint, and tell their stories alongside children, artists, and carers, they remind us that creativity belongs to everyone, at every stage of life.

In the next article in this series, we’ll look at how Belong Villages turn daily routines into therapeutic opportunities—where making tea, folding laundry, or taking a walk becomes a powerful act of connection and self-expression.

Together, these stories reveal a new vision of later life—one where every moment, from the extraordinary to the everyday, becomes an opportunity to belong.

Colleen Knudson – NAAP Outreach Director