All posts by Gail Kenning

Gail Kenning

About Gail Kenning

As an artist, designer and researcher Gail’s research explores technology in craft and expanded textiles in relation to health, wellbeing, creative ageing and dementia. She is the recipient of funding for research related to craft and wellbeing and is a member of the international collaborative research project HANDS: Helping Assist With New Devices for Seniors. Gail was awarded a PhD from University of New South Wales for her work exploring evolutionary patterns and code in craft-based textile forms. She has exhibited and screened works internationally and nationally, and worked in research and data visualization in industry for over ten years—developing acclaimed commercially available software. Gail was awarded a funded Design Union Research Fellowship at University of Technology Eindhoven for 2015 and will carry out research in relation to implicit memory, ageing and dementia.

Presentation at Art Gallery New South Wales by Gail Kenning

Presentations

Arts engagement to promote liveable communities

Materialising Memories members Gail Kenning and Annemarie Zijlema are currently engaged in another phase of research in relation arts engagement for people with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. As part of Dementia Awareness month Danielle Gullotta, Art Gallery of NSW, and Dr Gail Kenning, University of Technology Sydney will talk about some early findings of this project, which has been supported by Department of Family and Community Services, NSW.the project

The Art Gallery of NSW has been offering art access programs, particularly for people living with dementia and their carers, since 2009. An independent evaluation of the program in 2016 showed the importance of arts engagement for providing normalcy and social scaffolding to enable individuals to engage with artworks in a supported environment. The Gallery is now working with researchers at the University of Technology Sydney to explore how arts engagement within the Gallery can be extended to develop artmaking practices, and how these important programs can be extended to reach further into the community to allow more people to benefit from arts engagement.

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/calendar/dementia-awareness-month-presentation/