Leadership in Action: The Art and Memory Cafe (Uganda)

The Art & Memory Café is a flagship experience of the Memory Mosaics initiative curated by Kiggundu Art Studio. The event, organised by Kiggundu Rodney Erismas an Atlantic Fellow from Uganda, is designed to bridge the gap between care and community through creative, community-centered engagement. The event will bring together emerging artists, older adults, caregivers, people with lived experience (PWLE), and health professionals in a shared space of learning, creative expression and connection.

Through interactive art workshops, accessible health talks, and open community conversations, the Café creates a platform where science meets culture—making brain health more relatable, inclusive, and actionable. This event will contribute to a broader vision of building an African “brain economy” rooted in creativity, trust, advocacy and community.

Goal

Promote awareness and understanding of brain health through accessible, arts-based community engagement.

Objectives

• Increase public awareness of brain health, memory, and ageing.
• Create inclusive dialogue between professionals and communities.
• Celebrate GBHI’s 10-year milestone locally.
• Introduce Memory Mosaics initiative.
• Demonstrate the role of creative practice in wellbeing.

Topics

Topics will include: 

• What Is brain health?
• How do we take care of our brain health/What compromises it?
• Community-based approaches to brain health. What are they?
• How the brain processes memory
• The impact of aging on cognition
• Role of Creativity in emotional and cognitive wellbeing (Post Art Sessions)
• Nutrition and Brain Health

Local Leadership, Global Connection

Organizers and participants of Café will also contribute to a public, synchronous session on May 21, 2026, hosted by GBHI at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), connecting all Satellite Sessions worldwide. Please join us!