Y Bont/The Bridge
We were delighted to receive an Arts Council of Wales grant for our project 'Living with dementia: An operatic exploration to promote understanding and reduce stigma'.
This project took place November 2022 to April 2023. It consisted of three main elements.
1. The creation of a new one-act opera about the experience of living with dementia called 'Y Bont/The Bridge'. The music was composed by Dr Edward Wright and the libretto written and production directed by Marian Bryfdir. The opera was performed twice: once in English at the Ucheldre Centre in Holyhead and once in Welsh at Pontio in Bangor.
Click here to download the English programme
Cliciwch yma i lawrlwytho'r rhaglen cymraeg
The film of the English performance will be available soon. In the meantime, please enjoy a taster via the advert above.
2. The second aspect of the project was to hold two community workshops asking 'How can we improve the experience of living with dementia?'. These workshops were for people with dementia and carers and held in Holyhead and Bangor. We collaborated with Emma Quaeck from Dementia Actif Gwynedd to make them bilingual and relevant to North West Wales. The outcomes from these workshops will soon be available on our Living with Dementia Toolkit.
Below you can download the full report from the workshops, which features lots of quotations and photographs. However, we have also created three graphics which show the main themes to come out from each question. They can be seen below.
Click here to download the report from the community workshops
3. The third aspect of the project was a photography workstream. Photographer Ian Smith colllaborated with Dementia Actif Gwynedd's Caernarfon group, to both document the power of their group through his own photography and share photography with group members by giving out single-use cameras. The resulting exhibition, 'Relationships', was held at the Ucheldre Centre in March 2023 and featured both Ian's photographs and those taken by members of Dementia Actif.
Below you can see a series of photographs from the project.
Kiefer Jones plays the lead: a man diagnosed with dementia. (Photo by Ian Smith).
Well-meaning characters do not always communicate well with the man living with dementia. (Photo by Ian Smith).
The opera explores how people can forget to communicate with the person with dementia, talking over them instead. (Photo by Ian Smith).
IDEAL's Catherine Charlwood shares the Guide to the Living with Dementia Toolkit in English and Welsh, with Emma Quaeck to the left.
Carol and Dory (who both live with dementia) write down their ideas.
Proof that fun was had!
Gail Gregory (who lives with dementia) created this beautiful artwork for the project.
Ian Smith's exhibition 'Relationships' captures the essence of Dementia Actif Gwynedd.
Dementia Actif is not just about exercise, but connection and friendship. (Photo by Ian Smith).
The Dementia Actif group enjoyed seeing their photos exhibited in the Ucheldre Centre. (Photo by Ian Smith).