The purpose of this study centered on the model of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory was to approach from the contextual point of view including environment and interaction surrounding elders with mild dementia to comprehensively understand elders with mild dementia and examine art therapy as an effective therapeutic intervention. For this purpose, this study focused on concepts of microsystem, mesosystem, and exosystem of the Ecological Systems Theory and explored support services and policies related to elders with dementia and art therapy for elders with dementia and family carers. In the meantime, this study sought the significance in the role and meaning of microsystems and mesosystems in the environment of elders with dementia and services connected between these systems. The role of art therapy for elders with mild dementia and the need for art therapy to improve the quality of life of elders with dementia and their family carers were confirmed. This study is meaningful in that it explores the meaning of art therapy as an effective and systematic intervention to improve the quality of life of the elders with dementia based on a contextual understanding of the individual and environment of elders with mild dementia, confirming that it is necessary to verify the effect by activating active science‐based research in order for art therapy to become a mandatory program in the field of art therapy for elders with dementia.