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

Home news

Nov 11, 2020

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

Care UK’s Elizabeth Lodge, on Pennington Drive, celebrated all things nature, creating works of art around this year’s theme, ‘a Climate of Change’. 

As part of the home’s event, residents made works of arts focused on autumnal wildlife, and drew animals including hedgehogs, squirrels and robins, using leaves they collected from the home’s garden as a background.

The care home also participated in an exclusive live drawing session, hosted by Big Draw Ambassador, Gary Andrews, an animator and illustrator who has worked on Fireman Sam and for Disney. Gary shared his tried and tested drawing techniques, and showed residents how to draw some of the world’s endangered animals, including sea turtles, tigers and puffins.

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.

Michelle Sampang, Home Manager at Elizabeth Lodge, said: “Our Big Draw event was a hit, and residents loved getting creative inspired by  our autumnal theme.

“Drawing is great for everyone, but especially for older people, including those living with dementia. On top of physical benefits, from increased motor skills to improved coordination, creative activities, such as drawing, can truly boost cognitive function and even reduce the rate of development for a range of memory conditions.

“It was a fantastic drawing session, and everyone left with a smile on their face – we’re all looking forward to getting our pencils out again very soon!”

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 Care UK homes have been getting arty and working with their local communities virtually to create works of art around the theme ‘A Climate of Change’.

Elizabeth Lodge 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, nursing and dementia care.

To find out more information about Elizabeth Lodge, please call Customer Relations Manager, Samantha Neal, on 0333 4343 024, or email samantha.neal@careuk.com

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