A new art gallery celebrating creativity in people living with dementia has opened at Tauranga Hospital, marking the launch of a unique partnership with the University of California San Francisco.

Gallery 190 NZ is the “little sister” to Gallery 190, which is run by UCSF’s renowned Memory and Ageing Centre.

“We will be running four exhibitions a year in sync with San Francisco,” said Tauranga geriatric psychiatrist Dr Bronwyn Copeland, who spearheaded the collaboration. “Our aim is to find beauty within the illness and showcase the incredible artistic talents that can emerge through dementia.”

During a recent sabbatical in the United States, Copeland spent time at the UCSF Memory and Ageing Centre (MAC), founded in 1998 by internationally respected neurologist Professor Bruce Miller. MAC’s research has documented how degeneration in parts of the brain can sometimes release previously dormant creative abilities, resulting in remarkable visual art, music and poetry.

Determined

Inspired by the centre’s gallery and outreach programmes, Copeland returned home determined to create a New Zealand counterpart.

“I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to partner with them,” she said. “Art and dementia are two of my passions, and forming a sister gallery was something I felt could make a real difference.”

After discussions with Professor Miller, Gallery 190 curator Sara Wesson Chang, community creative co-ordinator Gloria Aguirre and Alzheimers Tauranga, the international collaboration was formalised.

One of the first artists to exhibit is Ian Cameron, a 66-year-old Tauranga man living with dementia mate wareware, who only began creating art after his diagnosis about five years ago.

Dementia mate wareware is the name for symptoms caused by different diseases that affect a person’s brain, such as memory, thinking and social skills.

A close-up of one of Ian Cameron’s artworks at Gallery 190 NZ. Photo / Rosalie Liddle Crawford

A former technical writer converting code to layman’s language, with a background in chemistry and geology, Cameron had not previously painted. Motorbikes were his passion, but due to dementia, he can no longer drive or ride. His wife is a keen quilter, and Cameron, who had previously done some leadlighting, would sit and watch her. Encouraged by his wife and sister, he began making free-flowing, instinctive marks, which grew into larger drawings he calls “Whackadoodles”.

Organically

“It just happens organically, you don’t think about it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what you do, there’s no wrong way. It makes me feel good.”

Cameron’s distinctive work caught the attention of curator Sara Wesson Chang during Copeland’s trip to the US. His first solo exhibition, The Whackadoodler from Middle Earth, opened last month at Gallery 190 in San Francisco.

Now the exhibition has opened in New Zealand, where his pieces are on display at Gallery 190 NZ – a light-filled space created inside the Mental Health Service for Older Persons (MHSOP) waiting room at Tauranga Hospital.

The gallery builds on the success of Artful Mind, a 2024 exhibition led by Alzheimers Tauranga manager Glenn Bradley, volunteer co-ordinator Steph Harlan, local artists and Copeland. The project paired people living with dementia with local artists to create new work or have their life stories transformed into art.

Tells a story

The exhibition drew strong community support, prompted a second event in September this year, and inspired the creation of Gallery 190 NZ.

“Every piece tells a story of resilience, creativity and connection,” Bradley said. “It honours the voices of people living with dementia mate wareware and their whānau.”

Gallery 190 NZ is located at the Mental Health Service for Older Persons (MHSOP) waiting room at Tauranga Hospital. Photo / Rosalie Liddle Crawford

Copeland said the gallery is about much more than paintings hung on walls.

“It’s about creating meaning from art, giving it purpose, using it to bless others,” she said. “It’s about trying to find beauty in suffering and capturing moments and memories that might otherwise fade.”

She hopes that, as the gallery grows, it will support broader arts-based dementia programmes in Tauranga – something already common overseas but not yet available locally.

“This is a step in the right direction,” she said. “It provides creative expression, increases awareness and enhances public empathy for people living with dementia.”

Ongoing exchange

Gallery 190 NZ will run exhibitions alongside its San Francisco counterpart, with plans underway for shared themes – including a potential Earth Day collaboration – and ongoing exchange of artworks between the two countries.

“We’re honoured to have our first cross-Pacific artist in Ian Cameron, our ‘Whackadoodler from Middle Earth’,” Copeland said. “His solo exhibition in San Francisco was a great success; we have his beautiful work here – this is something to be really proud about and celebrate.

“The underlying purpose of our gallery is to try and find beauty within the illness as well as showcase some of the amazing talents that can be revealed when dementia sets in.”

The gallery opened on October 24 and will feature rotating exhibitions by people living with dementia and those who have journeyed alongside them.