The purpose of this study is to describe and discuss the art experience of persons with dementia taking part in guided museum tours at a Norwegian art museum. The analysis is based on semi-structured open-ended interviews with participants and researcher field notes. The results demonstrate the capacity and willingness of persons with dementia to reach out and connect on a personal level with the artworks. We identified four experiential dimensions: (1) a new way of seeing, (2) being lifted out of everyday life, (3) activating emotional and bodily responses and (4) connecting art and life. Our findings draw attention to the existential dimensions of the art experience and show that dementia-friendly programmes can offer individuals with dementia a way to stay connected both to themselves and to the wider community through active participation in a cultural discourse. This is the first research study conducted in this emerging field in a Norwegian context.

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There is a growing interest in the role art museums might play in enriching the lives of persons with dementia. The literature has started incorporating the views of persons with dementia in the knowledge production, but in-depth explorations of their art experiences are still rare in the literature. This article adds to the research with a case study of a man with Alzheimer’s who regularly takes part in dementia-friendly guided tours at his local art museum. The article examines through a narrative analysis the role his visits to the art museum might play in the way he navigates life with Alzheimer’s. The authors argue that the art experiences are important cultural resources in the man’s effort to ‘hold his own’ faced with Alzheimer’s. The study is bound to a Norwegian context, but the art programme has similarities with related programmes at art museums in other countries.