Ready, set, draw – Cheltenham care home residents take part in worldwide art festival

Home news

Nov 26, 2020

Residents at a care home in Cheltenham picked up their pencils and went back to the drawing board for The Big Draw Festival 2020.

Care UK’s Sandfields, on St George Road, celebrated all things nature by creating works of art around this year’s theme, ‘a Climate of Change’.  

As part of their event, residents and team members collaborated with students at Cheltenham Ladies College and residents at neighbouring retirement development Jenner Court to create a special collage made of rainbow-coloured butterflies. The final piece is now displayed in Sandfields.

Launched in 2000 as part of the ‘Campaign for Drawing’, the month-long Big Draw Festival promotes drawing as a tool for learning, expression and invention, and has encouraged over four million people to get arty since its inception. ‘A Climate of Change’, this year’s theme, focused on the relationship between people and their environment, and offered a great opportunity for older people to reminisce about their favourite nature spots, as well as trips to the great outdoors in their younger years, and how our focus looking after our planet has changed in recent years. 

Emma Mackenzie-Bedford, Home Manager at Sandfields, said: “The Big Draw was a huge success, and we were delighted to be able to partner with students at Cheltenham Ladies College and residents at Jenner Court for this year’s celebrations.

“Although current circumstances mean we were unable to welcome members of the community into Sandfields, we wanted to connect with local people virtually to take part in the festival this year and do something positive, and The Big Draw offered the perfect chance for us to do just that.

“We’d like to thank everyone at Cheltenham Ladies College and Jenner Court for taking part, and we can’t wait to join forces again soon for some arty fun!”

After a successful participation in the Big Draw Festival last year, Care UK renewed its partnership in 2020, becoming the main health and social care partner and leading the way in changing perceptions of life in a care home by promoting activity-based care and encouraging other care homes to follow suit. Across the country, more than 70 homes have been getting arty and working with their local communities virtually to create works of art around the theme ‘A Climate of Change’.

Sandfields is a state-of-the-art care home which provides full-time residential, dementia, nursing and short-term respite care. The home, which features 90 en-suite bedrooms, has been designed to enable its residents to live active and fulfilled lives, while also promoting independence. The care home incorporates space for hobby and leisure activities and includes its own cinema, hairdressing salon and café.

For more information on Sandfields, please contact Laura Sayburn, Customer Relations Manager, email laura.sayburn@careuk.com  or call 01242 801 867.

To find out more about Care UK’s partnership with the Big Draw, and for more top tips on how you and your loved ones can get involved at home, visit careuk.com/care-homes/bigdraw

To find out more about the Big Draw festival, please go to thebigdraw.org