Trained facilitators create a warm atmosphere that encourages conversation, where each person gets to enjoy the engagement at their own pace and in their own way. Participants can expect a seated tour of the gallery with time given to experiencing a selection of work from the exhibition. The tour ends with a cup of tea or coffee in our café, MUSE coffee + food, situated just beside our main gallery.

Butler Gallery Accessibility information

The Azure Project: Some Background

Exploring greater inclusion of people with dementia in museums and galleries in Ireland

The Azure project, based on a collaboration between Age & Opportunity, The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, the Butler Gallery Kilkenny, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), is exploring how greater inclusion for people with dementia could be made possible in an Irish cultural context.

The project is inspired by the ‘Meet me at MoMA’ programme making art accessible to people with dementia, which is based at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Azure sought to practically explore the application of the ‘Meet Me’ model in Ireland through piloting guided visits of art works in the Butler Gallery collection for people with dementia and their family, friends and carers. Based on this practical research, an evaluation report was produced.

Azure Evaluation Report

Building on the interest in this work Butler Gallery worked with the project partners to host training in May 2015 for staff working in museums and galleries across Ireland. Input was provided by various representatives from the partnership, the 'Meet Me at MoMA' programme in New York and a person living with dementia. The aim of the training was to build the capacity of staff from museums and galleries to be more dementia friendly and to provide them with the skills and knowledge needed to facilitate dementia-inclusive arts events.