An art-making program for people with dementia and their caregivers, OMA (Opening Minds through Art) is an award-winning, evidence-based, intergenerational art-making program for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurocognitive disorders.

Founded in 2007 at Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University, OMA is grounded in “person-centered” ethics, rather than disease-centered – in other words, OMA focuses on what people CAN do.

Our goal at The OMA Center is to help create a society that values older adults with dementia. We achieve this by building genuine friendships between people with dementia and volunteers as they engage in art-making. Additionally, we offer education, respite, and fellowship for caregivers.  Our goals are achieved by:

• Providing creative self-expression opportunities that promote the social engagement, autonomy, and dignity of people with dementia;
• Providing staff and volunteers with opportunities to build intimate relationships with people with dementia;
• Educating the general public on the creative self-expression capacities of people with dementia through exhibitions of their artwork;
• Contributing to the scholarly literature on dementia care and the arts.