Etching to go! St Ives care home residents take part in worldwide art festival

Residents at a care home in St Ives 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 Field Lodge, on London Road, 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, residents and team members drew pictures around the theme of climate change, with works of art including recreations of the Great Barrier Reef, as well as artist expressions of bee and wildflower conservation. 

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. 

Linda Martinez, Home Manager at Field Lodge, said: “Our Big Draw event was a hit and residents loved getting creative around this year’s theme, ‘Make the Change’. 

“Drawing is great for everyone, 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 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’. 

Field Lodge is a modern, purpose-built care home providing full-time residential, nursing, and dementia care, as well as short-term respite care. Designed to enable residents to live enjoyable and fulfilling lives, the care home has a choice of lounges and dining rooms, along with facilities such as an activity room, cinema and hair salon.

To find out more about Field Lodge, please call Customer Relations Manager, Jo Molloy-Cruden on 01480 878 073, or email johan.molloy-cruden@careuk.com.

For general information please visit, careuk.com/field-lodge.

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.