Ready, set, draw! Maidstone care home residents take part in worldwide art festival!

Residents at a care home in Maidstone 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 Invicta Court, on Gidd’s Pond Way, 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 the event, residents and team members discussed their favourite parts of nature and were encouraged to share fond memories of time spent exploring the great outdoors in their younger years. 

With many residents talking about their love of flowers and floral patterns in interior design, the team at Invicta Court challenged the residents to create their own floral tablecloth. Using water coloured paints and prints of leaves, residents enjoyed an afternoon of painting and laughter before admiring their finished tablecloth with a pot of tea and a homemade cake, courtesy of the home’s Head Chef, William Carpenter. 

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. 

Jacqui Pompeus, Home Manager at Invicta Court, said: “It was wonderful to take part in The Big Draw for the third year – residents were quick off the draw to get involved and put their drawing and painting skills to the test. 

“Creative activities play a big part of life here at Invicta Court, 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 very talented painters here at Invicta Court, who can now admire their artwork when they sit down to enjoy a hot beverage and a slice of cake during afternoon tea.”

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’. 

Invicta Court offers a full range of older people’s care services in luxurious surroundings, including a café, hair and beauty salon, bar and cinema. The highly trained, professional team delivers permanent and short-term nursing and residential care, as well as specialist dementia care.

For more information on Invicta Court, please visit: careuk.com/invicta-court.

For more information on Invicta Court, please call Customer Relations Manager, Jaime Jukes on 01622 807994, or email jaime.jukes@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.