Creative personalities enjoy a brighter old age
ALBERT EINSTEIN said: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere”. Joan Miró proclaimed: “A simple line painted with the brush can lead to freedom and happiness”. Recent research has shown that creative and cultural activities are the topmost important contributors to our wellbeing in old age.
And following a two-year inquiry, the All-Party Parliamentary Group published a report on arts, health and wellbeing in 2017, stating that: “participating in the arts is essential to healthy ageing, mentally, emotionally and even physically”.
Jewish Care offers a varied creativearts programme to enhance quality of life, connecting people to each other and the wider world.
Helen Preddy, Jewish Care’s creative arts development coordinator, says: “Whether it is through singing or music, art, drama, dance or poetry, we work with participatory artists to bring programmes into our homes, with facilitators who are skilled in shaping a safe and enabling environment that invites residents to respond creatively. By focusing on their strengths, carers, volunteers and relatives often gain a MRÞN[NW] YN[\YNû]RþN XW ]QN YN[\XW they care for.”
Within the borough of Barnet, consistently award-winning artwork by Jewish Care residents has been recognised by the wider community as a beacon to others.
Art by residents of Otto Schiff and Rela Goldhill homes has helped inspire other care home providers to develop their own arts programmes.
A group of artists at Jewish Care’s Rosetrees home in Friern Barnet recently exhibited their work in the home. The group was set up by Sarah Lennard, whose mother had been a resident at the home, together with Anna Baczek, Jewish Care’s living well facilitator.
The duo’s shared passion and commitment for art creates a stimulating and welcoming environment for all abilities, where residents’ skills and ideas flourish.
“We found that many people gained confidence by using colouring pages as a starting point,” says Lennard, “so we produced individual drawings tailored to meet the needs and tastes of each participant.
“Everyone in the group expresses their own style and colour palette. The art group continues to evolve and thrive, resulting in this fabulous expression of each individual artist.” Jean Wakeman, a resident, sums up her experience there as: “my best day of the week”.
In Brighton, at the Yellow Beach Café, ten residents of Jewish Care’s Hyman Fine House showcased their creative work and ran interactive arts activities — from puppetry and gardening to silk painting and music, as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival last year.
Natasha Carson, home manager, says: “Many of our residents are living with dementia. The art provides a great way to engage them in activities they have always enjoyed doing, as well as creating new opportunities.
“We have a very creative group of people living in our home and it’s lovely for them to be able to show their work in public, at an event for all the community.”
Music is also stimulating creativity and wellbeing, whether through singing groups or with volunteers who come in to sing with residents.
Care-home choirs are thriving and each year the singers look forward to the healthy competition and buzz of Wigmore Hall’s Luke Newby meets Lily Goldstein, resident at Vi & John Rubens getting together to sing at the Jewish Care Sing Off.
Sadie Simmonds, 89, a Rubens House resident and member of The Rubenettes choir, says: “I love singing; it warms the heart and keeps you young. I try to sing every day and it’s in my blood, because my grandparents were on the stage doing Vaudeville all those years ago.”
Choirs are not for everyone so, at the other end of the scale, there are the professional musicians of Wigmore Hall’s Music for Life programme, who have a two-year residency at Vi & John Rubens House in Ilford, and the London Sinfonia at The Betty and Asher Loftus Centre. These musicians are currently giving residents, particularly those who are the most frail and those who are living with dementia, the opportunity to hear and participate in live bespoke classical music concerts performed in their rooms.
At Jewish Care, we see the benefit of creative arts first hand, day in day out and that is all we need to continue to develop and grow our work in this field.