Care Home Open Day 2019

08/21/2019

Care Home Open Day is an annual event across the country and encourages care homes to open their doors and celebrate a different theme each year. The key values at its heart are friendship, making connections and celebrating older and vulnerable people. This year’s event fell on Friday 28^th June.

We were thrilled when we found out that the theme for this year’s Care Home Open Day was the Role of the Arts in Care. It couldn’t be a more fitting theme for Creative Minds! It was the perfect opportunity for many Care Homes to showcase the work created during Creative Minds Art Sessions, and on the day many CM Artists ran sessions in Care Home so that residents and visitors could have fun getting creative.

CM Artist Karen worked with residents at Kingsleigh Care Home in Woking to decorate these pretty flower pots for the garden. On the day, they were visited by school children, who sang and recited poems. They also celebrated the work that Karen has been doing in the home and awarded her with a card and bottle of bubbly at the end of the session to show their thanks!

CM Artist Sarah Jane created a striking sealife installation with residents at The Hyde in Bridgeport, using local Bridgeport net. They had great fun painting tropical fish and creating starfish.

CM Artist Hanna had a busy day at Bentley House in Hertford where she worked with residents to create these two stunning canvases which they proudly displayed alongside some smaller painted boards. All were delighted with the outcome of the session, and so proud to see their work on display!

Then on the run up to their open day, residents at Kew House in Wimbledon worked with CM Artist Kirsteen to create this vibrant, colourful sign. It was used on the open day to direct visitors to the home to their garden. It looked stunning hung up on the wall, and they had great fun working on this communal collage exploring a variety of different artistic mediums.

CM Artist Kim worked on a huge project with residents at Appleby House. On their open day they revealed a series of new garden sculptures titled “The Pillars of the Community.” Local groups and individuals were invited along to design a section of the pillar, exploring topics that were close to their heart. During their art sessions, the residents worked on each section of the pillars using clay. These pieces were later installed onto each of the pillars.

The unveiling took place on the open day, and all were delighted to see how the finished sculpture garden turned out. Many people came along to visit on the day including children from local primary and secondary schools, the Mayor of Epsom, NAPA, Care England, plus local paramedics and police! This had been a massive project for both residents at Appleby House, staff and CM Artist Kim and we are all incredibly proud at the outcome! Take a look…

Appleby House ‘Renaming Ceremony!’

06/16/2017

What an exciting year its been for Appleby House Care Home in Epsom!

As you may know we’ve been delivering art sessions to Appleby House for over 2 years now, and the sessions have had a profound impact on the home, staff, residents and relatives. Early this year, Shona the manager announced that in honor of their commitment to the arts they would be renaming all of the suites in the home after famous artists!

The ‘Renaming Ceremony’ took place on May 9th, to officially rename the suites. James Cropper (our Founder and Director) and Sara Hurley were invited to the ceremony, along with Sylvie (Director of Napa) and Jacqui White (Marketing Director for Care UK) who helped cut the ribbon (pictured: credit to Care UK).

James was pleased to tour the house and visit each of the five newly named suites after famous artists, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo Da Vinci. The entrance to each now features a plaque in the shape of an artist’s palate with the printed surname. (pictures). After the tour James and everyone enjoyed a buffet lunch and glass of wine as a harpist played a beautiful melody at the other side of the room.

The art sessions at Appleby House began with James over 2 years ago, before passing the sessions onto Sarah and Sara our Woking and Ascot based CM Artists. Since the beginning of the year CM Artist, Sarah has been delivering weekly inter-generational art sessions at the home, involving residents and children from the local Epsom Primary School. The sessions are widely praised and highly popular at the care home and the ‘Renaming Ceremony’ has been yet another example of the homes commitment to art and the belief that it can have a transformational effect on peoples lives. You can read more about Appleby House in our previous blog posts here:

http://159.65.94.31/intergenerational-art-sessions-at-appleby/

http://159.65.94.31/the-appleby-tate-one-year-on/

http://159.65.94.31/the-appleby-tate/

The ceremony was a huge success, and a good time was had all round. We feel honored to have had this positive impact on our clients, and privileged to work with such an inspiring team.

Thanks for reading.

Creative Minds.

Intergenerational Art Sessions at Appleby!

03/24/2017

Since the beginning of 2017 Sarah, our Woking based CM Artist has been delivering weekly Art Sessions to Appleby House care home in Epsom, Surrey with one important difference; local primary school children have been in attendance too! Children from Epsom Primary School have been attending the weekly sessions to help the Appleby residents with their art and to collaborate to create wonderful Art Projects.

The intergenerational sessions have been an amazing success and its been great to see young and old generations interact with one another, creating a stimulating and engaging environment for all. “The children have become more comfortable and confident around the residents, it is great to see how some children take the lead when working with a resident and sometimes the resident will take the lead but great to see them working together. The sessions always create great discussions between the residents and children”, Jacqui the Activity Co-ordinator said.

Here are some wonderful photographs taken by our friend Gareth Pugh of a intergenerational session at Appleby House on the 1st March. The session was inspired by Matisse’s cutouts and the children and older adults had a wide selection of colourful pre-cut shapes to chose from to create their art.

Sarah, our Woking based CM Artist has delivered several intergenerational Art Sessions to Appleby House, and says “I am so pleased to have suggested we combine the Art Sessions with the children’s visit to Appleby House. Art breaks down so many barriers for young and old alike, however apprehensive either party is at first the moment the colour appears the generations melt away and young and old just share the moment. Its a joyous experience each and every week no matter what medium i offer them and that joy stays, you can feel it settle into the very construction of Appleby; its walls, the staff, the art. I hope i have the privilege of continuing to run these sessions for a very long time.”

Tracy an Activity Co-ordinator at Appleby House remarks, “The intergenerational sessions work amazingly well with the children enjoying the interaction with the residents. Sarah is brilliant because she leaves the residents and children to create for themselves, knowing when to help!”

Here are some more photo’s of some of the artwork created in the previous inter-generational sessions at Appleby House…

Stained Glass Window Art

Tree and Birds Collage

Mark Making Books

Commenting on the impact the Art Session have had on the Care Home, Jacqui says “During the sessions you see and hear lots of conversation and laughter, conversations have increased and the residents feel good and look uplifted after the sessions. The art created at these sessions will add to the existing art, which will go onto improve our environment. We are trying to put photographs onto canvas to show how amazing the sessions are and we feel the photographs capture the magic created more than words can say.”

James, the Director of Creative Minds comments “The intergenerational Art Sessions delivered to Appleby House are having a fantastic impact on the residents. It provides the residents with the opportunity to interact and communicate with the children and for the children it provides them with an opportunity to support an older adult with their artwork and in a way learn about the effects of dementia and ageing, which is important for children to have an awareness and appreciation of.”

We hope that this will be the start of what will be many intergenerational Art Sessions delivered to care homes across the country. Watch this space.