Nine senior citizens from Spring Arbor of Wilmington — an assisted living facility — made their way through Hiroshi Sueyoshi’s ceramics exhibit during a private tour of the Cameron Art Museum Monday, June 29.
The museum offers free tours, known as Connections Tours, for elderly or disabled visitors each Monday, while it is closed to the general public.
“We do them on Monday so we can take over the museum without worrying about being quiet or a group of school children roaring through,” said Martha Burdette, the museum’s curator of education. “We try to limit it to 10 visitors per tour. … It’s not a high-volume program.”
Burdette said the docents who volunteer to lead the Monday tours go through an extensive eight-session training program to learn how to interact with visitors with Alzheimer’s disease and other memory disorders.
Beverly Turner has been a docent on the Connections Tours since the program’s inception in 2011.
“My dad had Alzheimer’s, so I had a very selfish inclination to want to learn as much as I could about it to get an idea of what to expect,” she said.
Turner said docent training for the Connections Tours helped her understand the disease.
“It was very involved. It was as if I were being trained to be an active caregiver for someone. It allowed me the opportunity to know how these people thought,” she said.
The docent-to-visitor ratio during the tours is two to one. Turner said she enjoys interacting with the Connections Tours visitors on a personal level.
“The person with me today kept repeating a story. The paintings were reminding her of a beach house she had. She remembered the specific things her family did there. … She went down memory lane. … It prompted memories in here that she was so happy to talk about,” Turner said.
The docents help the visitors pass through the exhibits, if necessary, by offering an arm to hold on to or by pushing their wheelchairs.
“This program has meant a lot to everyone who’s been a part of it and certainly to the people who participate. The docents carry the people through; it gives the caregivers a break,” Turner said.
The only requirement for signing up for a Connections Tour is two weeks’ notice. No disability documentation is required.
“They don’t need proof,” Burdette said. “It’s open to anybody with a disability.”
Burdette also said an individual with a mental disability can enjoy a free tour with his or her family.
“We have been really pleased by the positive feedback we get from the visitors and from their caregivers. We have a lot of return visitors. Every time the show changes, they come back,” she said.
Each tour lasts approximately 45 minutes.
To learn more, call 910-395-5999 or visit cameronartmuseum.org
email [email protected]
