Looking the art! Shinfield care home residents take part in worldwide art festival

Residents at a care home in Shinfield picked up their pencils and went back to the drawing board for The Big Draw Festival 2021.

Residents and team members at Care UK’s Parsons Grange, on Westall Street, have partnered with pioneering charity, The Big Draw, for a third successful year to promote the therapeutic benefits of drawing for expression and promoting positive wellbeing. 

As part of their event, team members hosted a fun drawing workshop where residents were encouraged to draw, sketch and paint what the word ‘nature’ means to them. Residents were inspired by the world around them, with some residents focusing on traditional colours of autumn for their pieces, while another resident drew scenes of boats that reminded them of past years spent in the great outdoors. 

Launched in 2000 as part of the ‘Campaign for Drawing’, the month-long Big Draw Festival promotes drawing as a tool for learning, and invention, and has encouraged over four million people to get arty since its inception. ‘Make the Change’, this year’s theme, focuses on the relationship between people and their living environments, and offers a great opportunity for older people to reminisce about their favourite nature spots, how the environment has changed, and look to the future at what action can be taken to help safeguard the natural world in light of the climate crisis. 

Anthony Browne, Home Manager at Parsons Grange, said: “It was wonderful to take part in The Big Draw this year – the residents were quick off the draw to get involved and put their drawing skills to the test. 

“Creative activities play a big part of life here at Parsons Grange, and we actively encourage residents to continue lifelong arty hobbies and try new expressive pastimes through imaginative and creative activities planned by our lifestyle team. Drawing has a variety of benefits for older people, especially those living with dementia, as it provides an alternative way to communicate and express emotions, and an opportunity to relive happy memories.

“We certainly have some budding artists here at Parsons Grange and we can’t wait to display our works of art around the home.”

After a successful participation in the Big Draw Festival in the past two years, Care UK renewed its partnership in 2021 as 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, Care UK homes have been getting creative and working with their local communities virtually to create works of art around the theme ‘Make the Change’. 

Designed to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives, while also promoting independence, Parsons Grange care home incorporates space for hobby and leisure activities. The layout of the building has been configured into a series of individual suites, each having a dedicated lounge/dining room to help encourage the creation of close-knit communities.

For more information on Parsons Grange, please call Customer Relations Manager, Claire Usher, on 0118 391 3294 or email claire.usher@careuk.com.

For more general information, visit careuk.com/parsons-grange.

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/the-big-draw.

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