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

Home news

Nov 17, 2020

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

Care UK’s Deewater Grange, on Chester 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 joined forces with pupils at Abbey Gate College and Saighton Primary School, who sent handmade flowers to the home. These colourful creations were then turned into a larger piece of artwork by residents – creating a beautiful wall of flowers of all sizes and colours. 

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, focuses on the relationship between people and their environment, and offers 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. 

Sally Cooper, Home Manager at Deewater Grange, said: “The Big Draw was a huge success, and we were delighted to be able to partner with Abbey Gate College and Saighton Primary School for this year’s celebrations.

“Although current circumstances mean we were unable to welcome members of the community into Deewater Grange, we wanted to connect with local people 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’re thrilled with the result and incredibly proud to showcase our new artwork in the home and on social media for the people of Chester to see.”

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’.

Deewater Grange is a state-of-the-art care home which provides full-time residential, dementia and nursing care. The home has been designed to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives, while also promoting independence, and incorporates space for hobby and leisure activities. The layout of the building is configured into a series of individual suites, each having a dedicated lounge/dining room to help facilitate the creation of close-knit communities.

For more information about Deewater Grange, please contact the Customer Relations Manager Donna Brown at donna.brown@careuk.com, or call 01244 455176.

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