Corning Museum of Glass partners with Rockwell Museum and Alzheimer’s Association on Tours for People with Dementia

Beginning this month, the Museum is partnering with the Alzheimer’s Association, Rochester & Finger Lakes Region, and the Rockwell Museum to offer Meet Me at the Museum, a new program for individuals who have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia.

Meet Me at the Museum tour at The Corning Museum of Glass

Meet Me at the Museum tour at The Corning Museum of Glass

Meet Me at the Museum is a free social program for individuals with dementia and their caregivers. It features exclusive tours of The Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning each month from February through May and from September through December.

Meet Me at the Museum will be held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on the second Monday of each month, and the tours will alternate locations each month. The first tour was held this past Monday at The Corning Museum of Glass.

The tours are led by specially trained docents who highlight pieces in the museums’ galleries to stimulate conversation and reminiscence. They conclude with a small reception.

“Our collaboration with the Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Museum of Western Art will be a wonderful opportunity and major benefit to the people we serve,” said David Midland, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association, Rochester & Finger Lakes Region. “I expect that people with dementia and their caregivers will enjoy a positive experience as many others around the country have.”

Meet Me at the Museum is based on a program offered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City called Meet Me at MOMA. The MOMA program was found to provide not only an opportunity to socialize, but also to provide intellectual stimulation, shared experiences with loved ones, an accepting environment for activity, and positive changes in mood for participants both during and in the days after the tours. The Alzheimer’s Association, Rochester & Finger Lakes Region, offers a similar program in partnership with the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester.

“We are excited to offer programming to people with dementia and to their caregivers,” said Bonnie L. Wright, education and interpretation supervisor at The Corning Museum of Glass. “I’m looking forward to hearing what this audience will tell us about the glass too, through shared stories and memories elicited by the pieces on display.”

Contemporary Glass Gallery of The Corning Museum of Glass

“This special connection between the Rockwell Museum and the Alzheimer’s Association offers people with Alzheimer’s a sense of connection and identity through the arts using the museum’s rich collection of Western and Native American art,” said Mary Mix, senior museum educator at the Rockwell.

Registration for Meet Me at the Museum is required. To register or to learn more, call 800.272.3900 or visit www.alz.org/rochesterny.

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