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

Home news

Nov 26, 2020

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

Care UK’s Mills Meadow, on Fore Street, 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 drew pictures based around their visions of climate change, which prompted discussions around how our environment has changed over the past decade.

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. 

Rebecca Calver, Home Manager at Mills Meadow, said: “We loved taking part in The Big Draw Festival for a second year – and although things were a bit different this year, everyone loved celebrating all things nature.

“Here at Mills Meadow, we believe in the power of activity-based care, and drawing is the perfect example of how we can put this into practice, as it is an incredibly accessible activity that people of all ages can enjoy. This year’s theme gave us a lot to think about, and it was great to hear residents’ favourite nature-related anecdotes and views on how things have changed since they were young.

“We've had our creative juices flowing, and we can’t wait to display the final masterpieces in the home and on our Facebook page for everyone 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’.

Mills Meadow is a care home designed to deliver the very best standards of care, and to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives. The home offers a range of services including residential care, specialist dementia care and respite care.

To find out more about Mills Meadow, call Home Manager, Rebecca Calver, on 0330 127 8375, or email Rebecca.calver@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