Down to a fine art – Godalming care home takes part in the world’s largest drawing festival

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Nov 20, 2019

Residents at a care home in Godalming picked up their pencils for The Big Draw Festival 2019.

Care UK’s Jubilee House, on Pound Lane, joined in the celebrations by creating works of art around this year’s theme, ‘drawn to life’.

The residents and team also created drawings centred around the theme of autumn, as it’s a favourite time of the year for many residents. They created paintings of leaves falling in autumnal colours and reminisced about why they love this season.

Launched in 2000 as part of the ‘Campaign for Drawing’, The Big Draw promotes drawing as a tool for learning, expression and invention, and has encouraged over four million people to get arty since its inception. This year’s theme celebrates the benefits of creative activities, especially drawing, on health and wellbeing. 2019 also marks the bicentenary of John Ruskin’s birth, founder of the Guild of St George, the charitable education trust behind the initiative.

Totka Zhelyazkova, home manager at Jubilee House, said: “Many residents at Jubilee House have a keen interest in creative activities, so The Big Draw Festival provided a fantastic opportunity to showcase these skills.

“Drawing has many benefits for residents, especially those living with dementia, as it offers an alternative way to communicate and a chance to relive happy memories. It was great to see residents work together to create some beautiful pieces of art. We certainly have some budding artists in the making!”

Jubilee House has been designed to deliver the very best standards of care and to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives. The home provides full-time residential and nursing dementia care, as well as respite care.

Recognising the importance of artistic activities, Care UK was happy to become one of the lead sponsors for The Big Draw this year alongside organisations such as The Courtauld Institute of Art and the City of Toronto Museum. You can read more about Care UK’s national involvement here: thebigdraw.org/drawn-to-life-care-uk

For more information about the home, please call customer relations manager, Mark Luxford, on 0333 4343 045 or email mark.luxford@careuk.com

For more general information about Jubilee House, please visit careuk.com/jubilee-house