ABOUT US
OUR MISSION
SoundUp Arts empowers people living with dementia and those who support them to build confidence, a sense of identity, and create meaningful connections through creative arts activities. Our mission is to improve the quality of life of those affected by dementia by enabling creative experiences that promote wellbeing and bring people together. Our online hub of high-quality digital resources provides users with the tools and inspiration to engage in creative activities that foster connection, self-expression and joy. These resources are supported by training which aims to equip individuals, families, groups, and professionals to use creative activities with confidence.
"SoundUp is a community service that believes a little music can go a long way."
Why this matters:
Engagement in the creative arts supports and improves the quality of life for people living with dementia and those who support them. The arts can help foster a sense of self and identity and create space for expression, reminiscence and learning. Creativity can help foster connections in new and varied ways, making it a powerful tool in dementia care, and in creating and sustaining relationships.
Symptoms of dementia often result in progressive changes to cognition, memory or ability for individuals. These symptoms may mean a change of communication needs for both those living with dementia and those who support them. There is a lack of accessible creative resources available to people living with dementia and we want to change this. We aim to provide access to effective creative arts activities that build connection, identity, confidence, and joy. We have experienced the magical moments that occur when people are enabled to express themselves creatively, and we want to empower you to make magical moments of your own.
Engagement with the arts can improve relationships and increase respect and understanding between people living with dementia and those who support them.
Benefits of the arts include: reduction of the stress hormone cortisol, increased immunity, lowered perception of pain, reduced anxiety, improved mood, and reduced symptoms of depression.
The arts stimulates cognition, memory, communication, movement, and helps to reinforce identity and life stories for people living with dementia.
RESEARCH SHOWS...
OUR STORY
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2018
SoundUp Arts founded by Lucy Temby
Jan 2022
Exciting things to come
Create & Connect
digital workshops
WHO WE ARE
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"You have incredible understanding of how to touch those with dementia.”
- Angela, Activities Coordinator
In 2018, SoundUp Arts CIC was founded by Lucy Temby and began to run local creative arts workshop projects for people living with dementia in care homes and the community. In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, the company adapted its work, and focused on producing and delivering digital resources and workshops. From 2021, SoundUp has streamlined its work to focus on the demand for accessible creative resources, links to arts and culture for people living with dementia and carers, and training for those within this community to be able to facilitate and take part in creative experiences with confidence.
Founding Director Lucy Temby (MMus, PGC Person-centred dementia studies) and Co- Director Rachel Speirs (MMus) are both skilled freelance musicians, music facilitators, and dementia support workers. Lucy and Rachel met whilst studying at the Royal Northern College of Music, and share the belief that music and the arts can bring people together, foster connections and spark magical moments. SoundUp works in partnership with a diverse range of professional artists and organisations, ensuring that our resources and activities cover a wide range of interests, abilities, and art forms.
LUCY TEMBY
Founding Director
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Lucy founded SoundUp in 2018. She is a classical singer with an undergraduate degree from Sydney Conservatorium and a Masters from the Royal College of Music in Manchester. She has an ATCL in Speech and Drama from Trinity College London and has taught effective communication, improvisation, poetry and prose for young people and adults for seven years. For the past three years she has worked as a Junior Fellow in Learning and Participation at the Royal Northern College of Music, and has been an arts for health project manager, trainer and facilitator since 2017.
Lucy is a Dementia Group Leader at Together Dementia Support, running music groups, creative sessions and supporting individuals living with dementia and their families across Manchester. She has a certification in Dementia Care Mapping from Bradford University, and is currently studying a Postgraduate Certificate in Person-Centred Dementia Care with Worcester University. In 2020 she became a qualified facilitator of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy and Ageless Grace. She has previously worked as an associated music facilitator with Manchester Camerata for Music In Mind, co-facilitating sessions with a music therapist, and Age Exchange as an artist facilitator in their new team of trained personnel in the North West of England.
She has received formal creative ageing arts facilitator training through Together Dementia Support, Manchester Camerata, Equal Arts, Goldsmiths University and Age Exchange. In 2019 she had cultural leadership training as a Clore Emerging Leader, and studied Social Entrepreneurship with Oxford University Continuing Education.
RACHEL SPEIRS
Co-Director
In January 2021, Rachel was appointed Co-Director of SoundUp Arts, a Community Interest Company which creates creative resources and activities for people affected by dementia. During the pandemic, Rachel also worked as a Dementia Group Leader for Together Dementia Support. She is passionate about the effects on wellbeing and quality of life that music, creativity, and the Arts can have for people living with dementia and those who support them. Rachel has a wide-ranging CV of teaching, administration, and outreach work and has worked in this capacity for Grange Park Opera, Together Dementia Support, Healthy Arts, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The Sixteen, Stagecoach Performing Arts, and RNCM Learning and Participation Department.
Scottish Soprano Rachel Speirs is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music where she won the Betty Bannerman Award for French Song 2020, the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the singing of Strauss in 2019 adjudicated by Sir Simon Keenlyside, and was a finalist in the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize in 2020 adjudicated by Dame Ann Murray and Sarah Tynan.
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BOARD OF ADVISERS
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Fiona Stuart
Head of Learning and Participation at the Royal Northern College of Music
Fiona Stuart has been an integral figure in SoundUp's development from the beginning, being an advisor and benefactor of SoundUp's work since 2018. Fiona trained as a music teacher and as an Arts Producer for BBC Radio. She was Director of two arts festivals and a member of the AQA National Advisory Committee for Performing Arts before joining the RNCM, where she is responsible for creating and delivering the RNCM’s outreach activities in schools, colleges, universities and other community groups.
Sally Ferris
CEO of the charity Together Dementia Support
Sally Ferris has worked with older people in Manchester, Trafford and Salford for 30 years. She has an MSc in Dementia Care and has managed the Dementia Support Service for Salford Age UK, running a DoH pilot project to set up and evaluate peer support for people with dementia.
Lucy Geddes
Head of Learning at Liverpool Philharmonic
As Head of Learning at Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, she oversees a programme of music opportunities for people of all ages, including workshops and performances in inpatient and community mental health settings. Formerly Head of Camerata in the Community at Manchester Camerata, Lucy engaged with over 5,000 older people each year through creative composition programmes. She has developed sustainable models of music-making for care settings in the North West and has delivered training schemes for orchestras in East Asia on group improvisation with people living with dementia.
Fiona Stuart
Head of Learning and Participation at the Royal Northern College of Music
Fiona Stuart has been an integral figure in SoundUp's development from the beginning, being an advisor and benefactor of SoundUp's work since 2018. Fiona trained as a music teacher and as an Arts Producer for BBC Radio. She was Director of two arts festivals and a member of the AQA National Advisory Committee for Performing Arts before joining the RNCM, where she is responsible for creating and delivering the RNCM’s outreach activities in schools, colleges, universities and other community groups.
Sally Ferris
CEO of the charity Together Dementia Support
Sally Ferris has worked with older people in Manchester, Trafford and Salford for 30 years. She has an MSc in Dementia Care and has managed the Dementia Support Service for Salford Age UK, running a DoH pilot project to set up and evaluate peer support for people with dementia.
Engagement in the creative arts supports and improves the quality of life for people living with dementia and those who support them.
OUR ARTISTS
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Our SoundUp Artists are a selected group of talented musicians that work across our programmes and projects. After auditioning and getting through the selection process, all our artists are trained in music for dementia facilitation and dementia awareness.
Our Artists are exceptional musicians, and each have their own impressive portfolios of work and experience. We are delighted to be able to offer our Artists opportunities to perform in interactive concerts and workshops through our work, and to be a bridge between their talent and our audiences.
BECOME A SOUND UP ASSOCIATE ARTIST
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Apply to become a SoundUp Artist
If you would like to get involved please download and complete the application form. Please send completed form to lucytemby@gmail.com