Sheffield UK – South Yorkshire Dementia Creative Arts Exhibition 2019 at Meadowhall Interchange – 1 to 7 July 2019

South Yorkshire Dementia Creative Arts Exhibition 2019 at Meadowhall Interchange

I am very pleased to confirm that the 2019 11th annual South Yorkshire Dementia Creative Arts Exhibition will take place at Meadowhall Interchange between Monday 1st and Sunday 7^th July 2019. Many thanks to South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive for their support. The exhibition follows on from our successful 2017 and 2018 Exhibitions at Sheffield Cathedral.

Persons with memory problems or dementia, their family members and care and support practitioners are now invited to take part in the 2019 event.

The theme for 2019 is ‘Dementia is…’. Anyone affected by memory loss or dementia is invited to contribute creative art to the exhibition. This could be painting, poetry, sculpture, mosaic, photographs, music, video-based work, life-stories – in fact anything connected (even loosely) with the theme.

I also appreciate fully that the exhibition’s continued success relies to a significant extent on arts coordinators and other supporters providing opportunities for persons with dementia or memory problems to get creative. If you are in a position to do so, please support others to take part and come and see their work on display.

The main objective of the exhibition is to offer members of South Yorkshire’s dementia community an annual opportunity to showcase their talents and share their experiences of life lived with dementia.

Everyone is welcome to visit the exhibition venue and see their work on display – and the exhibition is of course open to the public. As usual, trained, friendly, volunteers will be on hand to welcome people and, where the budget allows, refreshments will be available.

Information about parking is available on request but the easiest way to attend will be by train or tram.

If you register your interest a full Exhibition Programme for the week-long event will be sent out to you 4 weeks before the exhibition, and will include details of other activities associated with the exhibition which you might consider visiting.

I can confirm that the annual Dementia Futures conference is running on Friday 5^th July at SITraN, University of Sheffield, at which postgraduate researchers from a range of disciplines explain their current PhD dementia research in plain English.

There will also be an ambitious National Dementia Spoken Word event ‘Mentioning Dementia’ held on Tuesday 2^ndJuly in Sheffield at 38 Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 4DT.

If you have poems or stories or other literary work connected with the theme ‘Dementia is…’ and want to share these with the world please get in touch with David Reid as soon as possible (d.reid@sheffield.ac.uk) to register your interest.

This is intended to be a celebration of the literary talents of persons with dementia and those affected by dementia.

Following a competition held among the tremendously talented students at University Centre Rotherham between September and December 2018, on the theme of ‘Dementia is…’, we have a beautiful poster available to advertise the exhibition. Congratulations and thanks to Humairaa Hussain for her wonderful design.

How to get involved

Please register your interest in taking part in the exhibition now by sending me an email d.reid@sheffield.ac.uk or leave me a message on 0114 222 2060. A poster for the exhibition will be sent to all those who register and would like one. If you have not already confirmed you intend to take part in the exhibition please contact me ASAP – this will help allay my anxiety about what will appear at the exhibition and assist greatly with planning. Those who register will be sent the stunning exhibition poster designed by Humairaa Hussain and further details about submission arrangements, including timings and labelling. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Please contact me if you have any queries.