House of Memories (HOM) is a museum-led dementia awareness programme developed by NML. It enables people living with dementia and their carers to share together memories and recollections through creative activities and immersive digital innovations.
House of Memories connects people living with dementia, their carers and loved ones by bringing the museum to them.
Through Memory Tour workshops and the My House of Memories app, National Museums Liverpool provides access to its collections and to a unique set of training resources which can be used at home. Designed for carers, health and social care workers supporting those with dementia, these resources enable users to feel more confident in the support they can offer.
The House of Memories app is fantastic, so taking the idea On The Road and going out to talk about things in Liverpool sounds brilliant. I want to show people that a diagnosis of dementia is not the end.
-Gina Shaw, Service User/Campaigner
On the Road
Launched in 2021, House of Memories On the Road is an immersive mobile museum experience, designed specifically for vulnerable and socially isolated people living with dementia.
On the Road seeks to combine both the power of a museum tour with the agency and mobility that digital applications possess. Built in a specially constructed vehicle, On the Road is a completely immersive cinema that recreates various scenes from the past, with the sights, sounds, and even smells, of locations such as a 1950s grocery store, Liverpool’s Overhead Railway, or even a day out to the seaside or a forest.
House of Memories On the Road is visual, authentic and magical. For some older people, ... [they] haven’t been down to the river, or they’re missing a connection with the music they love that might remind them of happy times. For a moment, [On the Road] will allow people to be somewhere else and give people something to connect with, something to celebrate.
-Carol Rogers, Director of HOM
Covid-19 and beyond
Compulsory museum closures during the COVID-19 pandemic made National Museums Liverpool’s collections and programmes inaccessible to most. House of Memories On the Road was launched specifically in response to lockdown closures. A mobile version of the successful House of Memories app, it allows anyone anywhere to hear and see again the past through objects brought to life with sounds, descriptions, and pictures.
Bringing the museum ‘to you’, On the Road has to date visited local community settings and neighbourhoods, from hospital trusts to supermarkets and car parks!
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