LYNN – Andover resident Emily Kearns has produced a multimedia installation, set to be displayed next Friday-Sunday at LynnArts? Neal Rantoul Black Box Theater, which explores the many facets of dementia, based on her experience over a decade caring for her late parents, who both had the condition.Through art, music, games, photos, family video footage and a taped group interview conducted by Kearns, “Dementia?s Way: A Meditation on Presence and Connection,” starts with the first station of fear; then moves to diagnosis; followed by isolation, withdrawal and caregivers; connection at the fourth station; and lastly, celebration.Kearns is the assistant director of planning and development at Greater Lynn Senior Services, but she produced the installation independent of GLSS after attending a women?s spiritual retreat two years ago. It was there, she said, that she got the idea for an artful portrayal of dementia as a way of changing mindset about the illness.Kearns applied for a grant, which she received last January from the Lynn Cultural Council, to produce the installation.?I decided, ?What the heck?? So I submitted a proposal and I secured a small grant, which basically covers part of the space, but I really wanted the support, to see if other people were interested as well,” she said. “And that was an indicator.”Kearns said she makes a point in the installation of balancing fear and sobering moments of dementia with what she calls the “incredible potential for connection and presence.”She explained, “I talk about this as wanting to be a community space to consider not only the heartbreak, because it certainly is and I would never deny that, but also what I call the redemptive and grace-filled moments.”Kearns described in a recent interview touching moments she had with her father, who died in 2006, and her mother, who died in 2008. Kearns? father was a mathematician, photographer and musician, she said, and if she put on baroque music, he would recognize it and enjoy it, despite being disoriented with time and place.?Even at the end, when he didn?t know who I was in terms of my name and my role, he would take my hand and thank me and just be so appreciative,” Kearns said. “My mom, I could put a rose in her hand and you could just see a connection.”The time she spent tending to her parents also led Kearns, who has a doctorate in sociology, into elder services, and away from academia and her position at Emerson College in Boston, where she taught dance, ritual and performance as well as gender and leadership courses.The installation, she said, includes footage from family moments, scenes from different times of the day at the ocean-side path Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine and a group interview about dementia that Kearns conducted with friends. Kearns was supported in the project by a team of artists and consultants. Mike Testa, a visiting lecturer in the sound recording technology program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, is producing original pieces that reflect the five stations of the installation.?I tried to compose around what the feeling would sort of be and how I can put that in a music sense,” he said.Testa said he was approached by Kearns, a good friend of his wife, in December, and instantly agreed to help with the project.While her parents served as part of the inspiration for her installation, Kearns said she also wanted to put forth a commentary that went against the overall negative portrayal of dementia in the media.?It?s not about me and my parents. It?s really about boomers aging, and they?re predicting one out of four boomers will have significant cognitive disabilities,” she said. “To me, it?s an historic moment and we have the opportunity to plan for ourselves, but also to put in place ways that we can connect and support folks.”Sarah Mupo can be reached at [email protected] You Go? “Dementia’s WAy: A Meditation on Presence and Connection will be at LynnArts’ Neal Rantoul Black Box Theater fr