Down to a fine art – local students join Cheltenham care home for the world’s largest drawing festiv

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Nov 07, 2019

Residents at a care home in Cheltenham picked up their pencils and welcomed Cheltenham Ladies College for The Big Draw Festival 2019.

Care UK’s Sandfields, on St George’s Road, joined in the celebrations by creating works of art around this year’s theme, ‘drawn to life’, where they shared childhood photographs and then drew pictures of their memories.

The residents and team also invited Little Pips Day Nursery to join in the fun and share their favourite memories, which they then used as inspiration to create their works of art.  

Launched in 2000 as part of the ‘Campaign for Drawing’, The Big Draw promotes drawing as a tool for learning, expression and invention, and has encouraged over four million people to get arty since its inception. This year’s theme celebrates the benefits of creative activities, especially drawing, on health and wellbeing. 2019 also marks the bicentenary of John Ruskin’s birth, founder of the Guild of St George, the charitable education trust behind the initiative.

Emma Mackenzie-Bedford, home manager at Sandfields, said: “Here at Sandfields, we firmly believe that activity based care is essential in supporting residents to lead fulfilling lives, so The Big Draw is a fantastic initiative for us to get involved with.

“Drawing is an accessible activity that people of all ages can enjoy together, so we were delighted to welcome pupils from Cheltenham Ladies College and Little Pips Day Nursery to join us for the occasion. Art, combined with intergenerational relationships, has proven benefits for older people, by offering the chance to tap into happy memories and an alternative way to communicate emotions and thoughts.

“Everyone had a wonderful day, and we can’t wait to display our masterpieces in the home!”

Sandfields is a state-of-the-art care home which provides full-time residential, dementia, nursing and short-term respite care. The home, which features 90 en-suite bedrooms, has been designed to enable its residents to live active and fulfilled lives, while also promoting independence. The care home incorporates space for hobby and leisure activities and includes its own cinema, hairdressing salon and café.

Recognising the importance of artistic activities, Care UK was happy to become one of the lead sponsors for The Big Draw this year alongside organisations such as The Courtauld Institute of Art and the City of Toronto Museum. You can read more about Care UK’s national involvement here: https://thebigdraw.org/drawn-to-life-care-uk

For more information on Sandfields, please contact customer relations manager, Laura Sayburn on 01242 801 867, or email Laura.Sayburn@careuk.com 

For more general information please visit careuk.com/sandfields

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