==== Front
Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3054
igaa057.3054
Abstracts
Session 7620 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Bringing Art to Life: Measuring Engagement Through Art, Connection, and Dignity
Reel Candice 1 Allen Rebecca 2 Lanai Bailey 1 Sneed Sami 1 Potts Daniel 3 1 
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States
2 
Alabama Research Institute on Aging, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States
3 
Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”834 834
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
The BATL program aims to improve the quality of life for community-dwelling people living with dementia (PWD) through art therapy, intergenerational contact, and life story preservation. This study utilized a modified ENGAGE measure (Hartmann et. al, 2017) to evaluate ethnographic transcripts recording activity and social engagement over time (N=100). A five-member analysis team independently coded the observation transcripts for engagement and qualitative themes. Results reveal average communication engagements (M=28.30, SD=13.36) significantly exceed the average art engagements (M=9.86, SD=5.56) over time t (98) = 20.85, p<0.001). Emergent themes included reminiscence, intergenerational communication, and creating art. These mixed method results suggest the intergenerational contact and reminiscence portions of BATL were fundamental features in comparison with art-making. More studies are needed to determine if the BATL intervention 1) has greater comparative effectiveness than typical programs in adult service centers, and 2) is scalable nationally to enhance the quality of life in PWD.