The attendees worked on songs and artwork each week
People with young onset dementia and their carers came together to provide a moving musical and artistic performance that concluded a series of weekly sessions. Service users from Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust's Young Onset Dementia Service teamed up with an artist, composer and musician from Manchester Camerata to work on songs and artwork in weekly sessions held throughout July and August. The project, Portraits of a Place, received funding from The University of Manchester as a unique arts and science collaboration. The aim is to use the learning from this pilot project to develop similar activity with others who have young onset dementia locally, regionally and nationally. The resulting pieces based on the themes of identity, belonging and living in the community were performed for those assembled and included four songs written by the group themselves during the sessions and artwork in the form of sketches, collages, booklets that formed the starting point for music making and informed the lyrical content of the songs. Mel Brown, Team Manager of the Trust's Young Onset Dementia Service praised the service users for their enthusiasm in the project: "This has been a groundbreaking project and we're all proud of their hard work. The artwork, songs and performance were fantastic.
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