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Creative Ageing in South Korea

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Blue skies and Changing of the Guard at Gyeongbokgung Palace

December 03, 2017

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Creative Ageing festival visit

After a gorgeous morning spent exploring the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace with Susan Langford (Magic Me) Emma Robinson (Age Cymru) and Carol Rodgers (National Museums Liverpool) we were taken to the Cheongchun Festival. It was a hive of activity - the Festival was the culmination of work created by groups of older people who visit Senior Welfare Centres working with teaching artists (musicians/theatre makers/visual artists) all of which was state funded.. There were some fantastic costumes on display and a great sense of celebration in the hall. Some surreal theatre - led by a Johnny Depp look alike Grim Reaper - the show seemed to be a mixture of Waiting for Godot and a pantomime. I only wish I could have understood Korean in order to get the jokes. My favourite moment came when the large choir started dancing on stage and then spilled over into the audience to continue the party. As we were in the second row we were soon being pulled ...

Creative Ageing conference -

A full day of presentations in front of a packed room (250+) . David Cutler set out the case for access to the arts for older people as a human right. It was interesting to hear from our Korean colleagues about their concern about the baby boomer generation - the average age of retirement is 52! (My age...) but the state pension age is 65. There is a worry that there are tensions between the generations and that loneliness amongst older people is a huge concern. Kimon Kim of The National Institute of Dementia spoke about their three core missions - to improve citizens quality of life, to improve awareness about dementia and to build a foundation to lead research. Her slides above show the need for the sectors to work together. We heard from Professor Jeong Ok Hwang from Korea Dance Institute about a dance and dementia research project. Diane Amans (a leading dance artist from the Uk and a WCMT Fellow) will be leading two...

Sculpture walks and music paintings

We spent the day at Seoul's contemporary art gallery, hearing about a variety of art programmes for older people and sharing work from the UK. The highlight for me was the description of Sculpture garden walks - for people with dementia and their carers, a session that includes a picnic, art-making and letter writing and sounded like a brilliant combination. It made we wonder if West Yorkshire sculpture park and others have similar programmes. The gallery also delivers 'Romantic Wednesdays' an interesting name for sessions that are in the gallery and where people with dementia and their carers come to see the gallery and reflect on the work, similar to the MoMA Meet me model. We also heard from a gallery Docent (gallery volunteer) who described how, after working and bringing up a family, she had decided to do something she loved and how rewarding she found it. I know this role is big in the US but less so in the UK, although I...

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