K E Y WO R K E R S
Creative ageing in lockdown and after
by David Cutler

Key workers: creative ageingin lockdown and after
by David Cutler
Acknowledgements

About the Baring Foundation

We would like to thank the following people
for the case studies in this report.

We are an independent foundation which
protects and advances human rights andpromotes inclusion. The Foundation has three
grant making programmes: international
development in Africa, social justice in the
UK and arts in the UK. From 2010–2019 theFoundation’s Arts programme focused on
creative activity by older people. There are
a number of publications on our website anda selected list at the end of this report.

Karen Allan (National Theatre of Scotland);
Kelly Barr (Age Cymru); Claire Cowell(The Whitworth); Kate Duncan(City Arts); Victoria Emms (Centre for
Chinese Contemporary Art); Michael
Fryer (Northern Ireland War Memorial
Museum); Sue Gainsborough (Media
Active); Hannah Griffiths (Independent
Arts); Hannah Hitchens (Artis Community);
Douglas Hunter (Equal Arts); David
McDonagh and Cordelia Wyche (Flourishing
Lives); Anne-Marie Quinn (An Talla Solais);
Dylan Quinn (Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre);
David Slater (Entelechy Arts); Cassie Tait
(Wiltshire Music Centre); and Nicky Taylor(Leeds Playhouse).
In addition the author is very grateful for
conversations with a small number of experts;
Kelly Barr (cARTrefu and Gwanwyn at Age
Cymru); Shona Bradbury (Home Manager,
Appleby House, Care UK); Farrell Curran(Age UK Oxfordshire and Age of Creativity);Anne Gallacher (Luminate); Professor Martin
Green (CE, Care England); David McDonagh(Flourishing Lives); Liz Postlethwaite (author
and Director of Small Things); Dr Virginia
Tandy (Director of CADA, the Creative Ageing
Development Agency); Alison Teader (National
Activity Providers Association); and Ed Watts(The Whitworth).

To find out more about the Foundation,
see A History of the Baring Foundationin 50 Grants.

About the author
David Cutler has been the Director of theBaring Foundation since 2003 and runs its Arts
programme. He has written several reports oncreative ageing including Around the World in
80 Creative Ageing Projects. His most recent
report is a mapping study of participatory artsand mental health activity in the UK called
Creatively Minded.

The report has been edited by Harriet Lowe,
the Communications and Research Officerof the Baring Foundation.

Cover photo: The Singing Hinnies , courtesy of Equal Arts. See page 35.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

Key workers
C R E AT I V E AG E I N G
I N L O C K D OW N A N D A F T E R
by David Cutler

Together Apart by Samphire dancers, The Festival of Islesolation, courtesy of Independent Arts.

This has given mea reason to wash my hair.
Feedback from a participant in the
Our Time programme run by Leeds Playhouse34

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O NContents

Summary2

Key statistics from our survey

3

A world of delight in a dark time4

Lifeline: creative ageing during lockdown

6

Case studies A-Z

15

Age Cymru
An Talla Solais
Artis Community
Arts Alive and MediaActive Projects
Celebrating Age Wiltshire
The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art
City Arts
Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre
Entelechy Arts
Equal Arts
Flourishing Lives
Independent Arts
Leeds Playhouse
National Theatre of Scotland
Northern Ireland War Memorial
The Whitworth

Pause: a poem for lockdown

54

Beyond lockdown

56

Recommendations

59

Online resoures: selected online lockdown resources for creative ageing

60

Publications: selected list of Baring Foundation publications

61

Left: Photo montage of zoom session screens from SingAbout , courtesy of Independent Arts (see page 40)
and Heydays , courtesy of Leeds Playhouse (see page 42).

2

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Summary
Lockdown in March 2020 profoundly affected
the lives of everyone in the UK but restricted
most the lives of vulnerable older people, whowere also especially at risk from Covid-19.
The value of creativity in older age is alreadywell established and became more vital andurgent in the pandemic. Wishing to document
and learn from this period, the Baring
Foundation, which has funded hundreds ofcreative ageing projects, ran a small surveyof 62 arts organisations as well as inviting
15 organisations to write short case studiesof their experience of offering activities during
lockdown. This is the basis of this reportand largely recounts the experience of arts
organisations and artists.
The creative ageing sector has been developing
since the 1970s in the UK, but has grownswiftly in the last decade to become part ofthe offer of most arts organisations. This meantthat at lockdown there were many artists
skilled in working with older people and withestablished relationships including with carehomes and housing associations, as well aswith charities for older people.
Lockdown meant that these arts organisations
needed to develop new ways of working witholder people which had until then almost always
been in person. Most organisations swiftly
developed online offers of activities, usuallyfrom scratch. These were either interactive, forinstance using Zoom, or performances or ‘how
to’ sessions that might be on YouTube or similar

platforms. Keenly aware of the digital divide,
these were almost always accompanied bynon-digital methods such as telephone contact
and activity packs through the post and often
extended to other services such as befriending
or delivering food. Artists learnt a great deal
during this rapid mass experiment about how
to engage remotely; its benefits and limitations.
This activity provided fun, company andpurpose to the older people it touched, proving
to be a lifeline in dark times.
Creative ageing in lockdown has been an
essential service and artists, key workers.
Even so towards the end of 2020 the future forcreative ageing looks uncertain, with the nation
depending on social distancing and manyolder people and care homes being extremely
cautious about interacting with other people.
Also the financial impact of the lockdown on theeconomy will be deeply damaging, with the arts
sector feeling especially at risk.
Therefore the creative ageing sector needs
to innovate and adapt through researching,refining, documenting and disseminating
new ways of working. For the foreseeable
future this is likely to be a blended approachof remote working methods that are both
digital and non-digital. More needs to deliveredby care home staff though they are alreadyoverstretched. Crucially, arts organisations will
be reliant on the support of funders, especiallyin the arts and health sectors.

3

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

Key statistics from our survey
WE SENT OUT A SHORT SURVE Y TO FIND OUT
A B O U T T H E E X P E R I E N C E S O F C R E AT I V E A G E I N G
O R G A N I S AT I O N S D U R I N G C O V I D -1 962

Beyond lockdown

responded toour survey

87%

90%

Continued tooperate using
some form of
remote delivery

Of thesewill retainsome remoteoffer for thetime being

Survey sample:

Before lockdown

organisations

80% 10% 10%

face-to-facedelivery only

remotemethods,incl. digitalmix offace-to-face& remote

The lockdown experience

54%

87%

90%

Of respondents
maintained or increased
participant numbers

Said thatparticipants rated theexperience broadly positively

Said their artists
had needed tolearn new skills

The situation now

90%

91%

Of respondents are now
more worried about thefinancial viability of theirorganisation

Are more concerned
about their artists’health & wellbeing
than they were98%
Are more concerned
about their participants’
health & wellbeing
than they were4

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

A world of delight in a dark timeY O U W I L L R E A D A B O U T T H E S E I N T H E R E P O R T, B U T W E WA N T E D
TO SH A R E A F E W OF TH E I N V E NTI V E I DE A S FOR AC TI V IT Y WITH
O L D E R PA R T I C I PA N T S T H AT C R E AT I V E A G E I N G O R G A N I S AT I O N S
D E V I S E D D U R I N G LOC K DOW N .

Armchair gallery pre-lockdown, City Arts.

ARMCHAIR GALLERY APPIN AUGMENTED RE ALIT Y

City Arts Nottingham took the opportunity totake their Armchair Gallery app to the next levelby creating augmented reality experiences ofdifferent galleries and heritage collections. A
panel of older participants have been helping.

WORLD CL ASS CONCERTS
IN CARE HOMESAge Cymru teamed up with the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales to live stream speciallycreated concerts into care homes. Residents
could request a birthday shout-out too.

Gnomes at Home, Entelechy Arts.

GNOMES AT HOME
Entelechy Arts in south-east London sentout gift boxes with tiny unpainted, hand-castgnomes ready to decorate and designed
for windowsills and ledges. The gift boxes
also served as an invitation to join theirCreative Clusters programme which uses
telephone conferencing.

DOLPHINS AT HOME

An Talla Solais in the village of Ullapool, Wester
Ross, started by sending out weekly creative
activities to their Dolphins at Home group for
people living with dementia and encouraged
them to share what they’d made in theirwindows. This inspired a whole-community
project called Paperchain with many more
people making their own window displays.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

5The creative sector has, predictably,shown great inventiveness in confronting
the constraints of lockdown.

Singing Hinnies , Equal Arts.

THE SINGING HINNIES

Equal Arts in Newcastle started singing
food deliveries – making musical drop-offs insheltered housing schemes, as well as doing
Garden Gigs and Singing for your Street
Visits. Whilst the weather is kind, the Singing
Hinnies are singing five days a week acrossNorthumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham
and Darlington and receiving requests from as
far away as London.

FESTIVAL OF ISLESOL ATION
Independent Arts on the Isle of Wight usedsome funding from the Arts Council Englandto create an online gallery space to include
work from people of all ages across the Island,
including work from care homes and older
participants from their projects.

Sing for Victory CDs , Northern Ireland War Memorial.

NORTHERN IREL AND
WAR MEMORIAL
The Northern Ireland War Memorial museum
created free singalong CD of 1940s songs
based on their dementia-friendly singing
and reminiscence workshops. The CD was
accompanied by a songbook along with somesuggested exercises taken from Love to Move,a British Gymnastics Foundation seatedexercise programme for older people. This wasposted out to care homes across Northern
Ireland as a way to raise spirits and encourage
staff and residents during lockdown.

6

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Lifeline
C R E AT I V E AG E I N G D U R I N G L O C K D OW N

WH Y WE WROTE THIS REPORTThe pandemic and the resultant lockdown
across the country has changed more or lessfundamentally the lives of every single personin the UK. Its causes and consequences aregoing to be studied and debated for many years
to come. Two observations came together toinitiate this report. Firstly, that by and large
older people were more at risk of both catching
Covid-19 and of suffering its worst effects.
One quarter of the people who have died fromthe infection had been living with dementia.
Secondly, as everyone’s lives became moreconstrained, the value of creativity became
more obvious to great swathes of people, either
taking up writing, painting, singing or making
music for the first time, coming back to themor treasuring them even more. There weremany examples of this but one national one was
the popularity of ‘Grayson Perry’s Art Club’ on
Channel 4. The arts sector as a whole has been
responding to the crisis as explored in a newresearch report by Common Vision, Creativity,
Culture and Connection.1
Putting these points together and being awareof so many examples of new creative ageing
activity made us want to capture a few andoffer some thoughts about the interaction
between our new way of living over the last
few months and creative ageing.
This report is written from the point of viewof a funder, which for the last ten years has
supported the involvement of older people,
especially more vulnerable older people inthe community or in care homes, in the arts,
sometimes called ‘creative ageing’. We havemainly done this through funding participatory
arts, where skilled professional artists facilitatecreative activity with older people who do
not have their training. We have often done
this with funding partners, especially the four
national Arts Councils. So this report comes

1 covi.org.uk/dev4/arts-organisations-and-covid-19.

from that perspective and particularly considers
the work of arts organisations, but this is not
to deny how much work is happening throughfor instance voluntary arts groups or by carehomes themselves. It is just that we are lessaware of this.
The Baring Foundation has supported artsand older people work because we believethat it is the right of every human being to
express themselves creatively at whateverage until our last breath. This does not blindus, however, to the increasing body of research
evidence as to the mental and physicalbenefits (as well as societal) of creative
ageing. We first brought these together in areport commissioned from the Mental HealthFoundation in 2011, An evidence review of the
impact of participatory arts on older people.
More recently these have been described in a2019 study for the World Health Organization
by Professor Daisy Fancourt and Saoirse Finn
– What is the evidence on the role of the arts
in improving health and wellbeing? A scoping
review. There are many more examples to befound online at the Repository for Arts and
Health Resources at the Sidney de Haan Centre
at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent.
The methodology for this report was simple.
The Baring Foundation has funded several
hundred creative ageing projects over recent
years and we selected a small number ofthese to provide case studies to a common
format. They come from the four nations of
the UK, work with different communities
and are conscious of the diversity of these,
use a range of art forms, work in care homes
and in the community, and work in both ruraland metropolitan areas. Secondly, the author
interviewed a handful of highly experienced
people from the arts and care sectors. Thirdly,
we ran a small survey of arts organisations
with 62 respondents. These came from acrossK E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

7the UK, most worked with both people incare homes and in the community and acrossart forms. And lastly there are a number ofmaterials, accounts and articles online that havebeen drawn upon.

There were many more artists who had
experience of especially engaging older people,
including those living with dementia, and they
had honed their techniques and networked withother interested artists.

A THUMBNAIL SK ETCH
OF CRE ATIVE AGEING
PRE-LOCK DOWN

However arts organisations needed to adapt
to work in a way that was new to the great
majority of them – working remotely, which
to many felt like the antithesis of community
or participatory arts.

Our decade of funding for creative ageing wasbookended by two reports.
In 2009, we published a mapping study called
Ageing Artfully. This noted that a handfulof pioneering arts organisations had beendeveloping the practice of creative ageing sinceat least the early 1980s. However, they weremainly small and while some more generalist
arts organisations ran projects when funding
was available, these tended to be few and far
between and short term. It was very common
for arts organisations to be running special
programmes for children and young people
but rare for them to ask themselves whether
they were engaging older people sufficiently,
especially where there were challenges suchas living with dementia or rarely leaving acare home.
In 2019, we commissioned a study Olderand Wiser? from King’s College London by
Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt which showeda substantially changed picture. In short,while the specialist arts organisations
remained (and their number had not increased
significantly) what had happened might becalled mainstreaming, whereby most arts
organisations now do consider their offer for
older people. Dementia-friendly arts workshops
and museum tours have become commonplace
as well as a whole range of new initiatives. Thishas been accompanied by funding from arts
funders and others as well as an increase inresearch such as the Wellcome Trust’s Created
Out of Mind project. This has happened acrossart forms and in all four nations.
This meant that arts organisations confronted
the pandemic from a position of strength when
it came to working with older people. Some
had built relationships with care homes andmore vulnerable older people in the community.

ONLINE OVERNIGHT
Certainly the biggest effect of lockdown tocreative ageing is the degree to which activity
has gone online.
The main reason for this is obvious. Vulnerable
older people could no longer leave their homes
to attend workshops and care home residents
were no longer able to go outside or receive
any visitors even family and friends, let alone
artists. Everything stopped immediately.
Although, as we will discuss next, while digital
activity was by no means the only option, it
was used frequently and what’s more in manycases this was from a standing start andaccomplished in a matter of weeks or less.
In our survey almost 80% of organisations
only used face-to-face methods pre-lockdown.
87% of the respondents continued to work after
lockdown using some form of remote method.
Previously, the use of digital technology was
somewhat unusual for creative ageing. In our
survey only 10% used digital methods, witha further 10% using digital and face to face
before lockdown. The Baring Foundation
published two short investigations into this,most recently Technically Older: an update
by Joe Randall (2015). The report distinguishes
between two uses for digital technology; asa means of making arts and as a medium
for communicating such as streaming or
recording performances.
The most significant issue here is the ‘digital
divide’. At least until recently, many care homes
had a small number of digital devices and poor
broadband connections. Care workers also had
limited time to help residents with devices andsometime were unconfident themselves.

8

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

The situation in the community is far from ideal
too. A 2019 study from the Office of National
Statistics2 estimated that just over 10 million
adults in the UK did not use the internet andhalf of these were aged 75 or over. (However,
the intergenerational gap in digital use has
been declining somewhat since 2011.) Among
our case studies, Equal Arts thought that
80% of their participants couldn’t access theinternet, though this contrasts with the National
Theatre of Scotland project where most of its
users could access the internet and they had
increased their numbers by going online.

It is exceptionally time-consuming
work and is also not the way we ordinarily
work since we develop ideas and activities
very much in response to the people wework with. This way of working inevitably
has to be very structured and focusedon creating simple outcomes, with
Zoom sessions to create the connection
with people.

It must have been tempting to rush in, given
the palpable need to offer something toisolated older people and to care homes but
Leeds Playhouse (and doubtless others) took
a more systematic approach and started byauditing which devices were used by its 250
older participants. It then went on to givetest sessions to help people become more
comfortable with the technology if needed.
Arts Alive and MediaActive in Shropshire
provided digital ‘buddies’, volunteers to provide
technical support to their participants.

Zoom and other platforms offer the possibilityof interaction between older people and artists
and have perhaps been used most for singing
as in the case of Independent Arts on the Isleof Wight. The Whitworth maintained its longrunning Handmade group via Zoom, ensuringthat it used materials that were easily available
at home. Short sessions are recommended as
an antidote to Zoom fatigue.

A key distinction in terms of online provision
is between content that is provided either live
or recorded where the platform is a tool fordelivery, such as YouTube, or where there is
the possibility of interaction between artists
and participants, as for instance with Zoom.
Arts organisations reported using manydifferent methods such as social media pages,
especially Facebook and WhatsApp, and thefrequent use of YouTube for performances
or for ‘how to’ workshops. Celebrating Age3
Wiltshire has logged almost 4,000 visits
to the YouTube concerts it has posted. The
Whitworth began to make podcasts for its
older participants. The famous Sadler’s Wells
Company of Elders produced a series of classes
to be found on their YouTube channel. Veryquickly a dizzying amount of content was
digitally available. One commentator called this‘passive content’ and felt that it lacked the vital
co-production element of good creative ageing
practice involving a live event with an artist
allowing older people agency in creativity.

Survey respondent

Social embarrassment could be
amplified by the bright yellow frameof Zoom, whilst other expressions or
behaviours which may have felt exposing
in person were reduced by the comfort
of being at home. The stresses of getting
ready and journeys to a physical meeting
point were reduced. Participants havegenerously offered aspects of their home
lives to influence session content, such as
inspiring Our Time participants in thecreation of pom poms led by Jo and hermum, Pauline.
Leeds Playhouse

There are so many aspects to digital technology
and it is of course in a state of constantdevelopment. City Arts were already wellahead with their Armchair Gallery App whichallows virtual tours of heritage sites andgalleries combined with creative exercises.
They have now gone one stage further indeveloping an Augmented Reality versionof the Armchair Gallery.

2 w ww.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/householdcharacteristics/homeinternetandsocialmediausage/articles/
exploringtheuksdigitaldivide/2019-03-04#how-does-digital-exclusion-vary-with-age.
3 Celebrating Age is a joint Arts Council England and Baring Foundation funding programme for creative ageing,www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/celebrating-age#section-1.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

9Leeds Playhouse Our Time participant. Photo by Jo Lee.

10

One of the most obvious advantages of digitaldelivery is that it cancels distance. So, forinstance, cARTrefu, like many organisationsin Wales, has struggled with the North-South
travel problems and these were eliminated byonline delivery. In our survey slightly more arts
organisations said they had gained participantsin lockdown than had not.

The richness of shared creative
experiences, the social memory and fun,the profound sense of achievement andconfidence boosting sense of being visible,
heard and present – this is missed.
Desperately. The missing too, from theartists point of view, of creative exchange,
the lovely alchemy that happens whenideas evolve and surprise.
An Talla Solais

NON-DIGITAL
Given that arts organisations were rarely
working online pre-lockdown, and theimportance of the digital divide, it is natural thatthe case studies in this report use a wealth ofnon-digital methods.
One almost forgotten method of communicationthat has seen a come-back has been theuse of the postcard. Artis Community inWales observed that a large majority of their
participants couldn’t use the internet and used‘the Royal Snail’ for beautifully decorated
postcards with messages of love. Celebrating
Arts Wiltshire is developing a county-wide
postcard scheme with new funding from the
National Lottery Community Fund.
Another rather forgotten medium is the radioand Entelechy Arts took to the airwaves for half
an hour a week courtesy of Resonance FM in
South London.
In almost all case studies, regular telephone
contact was essential. For instance, Flourishing
Lives joined forces with the Claremont Project
to resource a telephone befriending service
for 850 older people. Entelechy Arts went one
step further by using telephone conferencing
technology to initiate Creative Clusters of eightT H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

participants, plus artists and volunteers aroundan artform such as drama or poetry, withsessions taking place weekly,
Even where organisations are using
digital groups like the Centre for Chinese
Contemporary Art in Manchester, with theirDumpling Social Club accessing WhatsApp and
Google Hangouts, it was combined with art
activity packs through the post.

THE ARTIST’S TALE
Much of the material on which this short reportis based comes from artists, rather than directlyfrom older people, so it has important messages
about their experience.
Artists were faced themselves with the reality
and challenges of life in pandemic Britain.
They or their families could fall ill or be anxious
about the possibility of catching Covid-19.
The organisations they worked for could lose
contracts and they might have to be furloughedand survive on reduced incomes. In our survey
91% of organisations had become moreconcerned about the health and wellbeingof their artists.
In the context of this report, they needed toradically and swiftly adapt the way they were
working with older people. It might not only
be older people that lacked digital skills; someartists also might not feel confident using
unfamiliar platforms.
The flipside of this was that artists learnt
new ways of working and skills, for instance
how to make films. In our survey 90% of
respondents felt that artists had needed tolearn new skills. In general, there was a lot ofconcentration on reflective practice networks
for artists. For instance, Flourishing Lives held
15 such sessions in a few months and several
roundtables on the need for better inclusionof BAME people in participatory arts. Age ofCreativity has initiated a very timely set ofworkshops (online) on best practice in working
non-digitally, recognising the challenges ofdigital exclusion. Age Cymru, partnering with
ArtWorks in Wales, organised a number oflearning sessions.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

Our musicians have said that this has
been a dark and uncertain time for them.
Comfortable Classical at Home not only
allowed them to perform live again but
also many said it reinstated their identity
as a musician and artist. As the musician
had to programme and present, asthemselves, in a way that was authentic,
relaxed and engaging (so that the audience
themselves also felt comfortable), many
were pushed out of their comfort zones
and reported that they learnt new skills
as an artist. This collective experienceamongst our musicians is somethingthat will go on to enhance not only ourparticipation work but also our concerts
and performances.
Survey respondent

And some artists needed to cope withparticipants who they might know well, dying,including from Covid-19. Entelechy Arts createdan online Book of Remembrance and Equal Arts
brought in a psychologist for grief counselling.
Despite these challenges, 84% of the
respondents to our survey believed that artists’experience of continuing to offer creative
ageing services through lockdown was
broadly positive.

THE CARE HOME ’S STORY
Much less of the material in this report comesfrom care homes and any observations need to
be much more tentative. It should immediately
be acknowledged what a stressful andtraumatic experience this period has been formany people working and living in care homes.
Estimates at the time of writing in September
2020 are that there have been 25,000 ‘excess’
deaths in this period than would normally be
expected and a minimum of 15,000 of thesehave been attributed to Covid-19. Most carehome residents live with dementia. This has
both been a risk factor for worse outcomeswhen someone is infected, and it has also
been noted how dementia symptoms haveaccelerated during lockdown. Care workers

11

were at heightened risk of falling ill themselves
which would then compound the stretchedresources in those homes. They have been
putting their own lives on the line to care for
their residents and deserve the nations’ thanks
for this as well as much better support fromthe Government.
Given that our research has less information
to rely on, here are some thoughts about
possible patterns.
Firstly, only a minority of care homes engage
with the sort of professional arts organisations
that are cited here and if they weren’t involved
before the lockdown, it is highly unlikely
they would have been able to develop new
relationships in a crisis situation. Secondly,
even if they did have a relationship, those carehomes with an outbreak of Covid-19 would
not have had the capacity to continue to use
the arts, and residents would almost certainly
be confined to their rooms with everyone
taking the most rigorous precautions. In theearly weeks of the lockdown, until at least its
peak during April, care home managers had
immense responsibilities, and however muchthey recognised the value of creativity, it was
unlikely that they could afford to give it priority.
Equal Arts stopped their Zoom provision tocare homes for this reason and used resources
differently, but digital engagement became
more realistic as the weeks went by.

The number of workshops andparticipants has decreased greatly;
many care homes chose not to take up
the offer of art packs delivered or posted
to their door.
Survey respondent

12

I think the pandemic has brought
forward a positive digital change withincare homes and groups, for residents but
perhaps more so for Activity Coordinatorsand staff as they have found new ways
of working and have been able to accesscreative activities they may not haveconsidered before due to free online Zoom
sessions etc.
Survey respondent

Arts organisations clearly felt a considerable
degree of responsibility to their care homepartners. Age Cymru organised two wellattended Zoom training sessions for carehome workers.

Celebrating Age Wiltshire has become
an invaluable resource for us during
very challenging times, supplying us withengaging and high-quality streaming
entertainment for our residents whilst on
lockdown. We could engage more residents
than ever before and use the footage forthe night staff to also entertain residents
who awoke during the evening – a realrescue to our staff.
Christopher Guest, Events Manager, Blenheim House,
Melksham

Not surprisingly the NHS reported
increased use in antipsychotic medication
which had significantly diminished overthe last decade or so. It is equally sad tohear how care staff and managers feelbetrayed and angry amidst a backgroundof the poorly considered hospitaldischarge plan.
Equal ArtsT H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

OLDER PEOPLE IN
THE COMMUNIT Y
It is easier to identify and describe care homeresidents in comparison to the catch-all termof ‘older people in the community’. This report
only deals with older people who are vulnerable
and are more likely of course to be shielding.
The situation here is much more elusive. Mostof the older people involved will have been
already engaging with a programme that anarts organisation was running outside carehomes. Rather more people, for instance livewith dementia outside care homes than live
inside. In London, Flourishing Lives specificallyworks to strengthen this type of provision.
Twenty to thirty years ago, frail and isolated
older people were much more likely to go tolunch clubs or daytime activities supported
by local authorities. These still exist, often run
by the local branch of Age UK, but have becomemuch less common due to funding cuts. Thesetype of activities instantly became out of thequestion in lockdown.
Some more vulnerable older people will live insheltered housing. Arts Council England andthe Baring Foundation have funded Entelechy
Arts to work with the Southwark Housing
Association in South London, for example.

There’s a risk that sheltered housing
continues to be an under-discussed,
lesser known way of living and becomesinaccurately grouped with care homes andthe more prevalent practice of running
regular activities for residents. We arelooking at ways we can support andprovide training in creative delivery forstaff in sheltered housing. We cannot say
when it might be possible for us to run
activities again within those buildings andstaff tell us that they feel ill equipped tosupport residents to engage with activities
we have offered during lockdown by postor telephone.
Survey respondentK E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

Many of the case studies in this report
include examples of working with people
living in the community. In addition to arts
organisations providing creative ageing
activities, another possible contributor might
be the local chapter of Age UK. As a federatedorganisation, patterns of service and priorities
vary considerably from place to place. Somebranches will give the arts more priority.
Age UK Oxfordshire is a prime exampleof this and also runs the national platform
Age of Creativity.

THE POINT OF IT ALL:
OLDER PEOPLE
Here are a few of the quotations fromparticipants about joining in some of the casestudies in this report.

Thank you so much for sending us
these weekly worksheets, it has kept us
inspired and busy and we are less likely
to worry over situations if your mind
is occupied.
Crafty Cuppa participant, Artis Community

13

It was a strange and wondrous
occasion and we all I am sure realise
the significance of the evening. It was
too much like magic in the past to expect
such things to happen, and indeed wasan historic moment in Scottish LGBTQI+
social history.”
David, National Theatre of Scotland

I have found our Zoom meetings to be
so beneficial. It has allowed us to continue
to be creative at home but in a group,
using the sort of materials we have athome, or are easily accessible from local
shops. An additional and really important
aspect of Zoom, particularly for those of
us who live alone, is that it has reduced
isolation. This was particularly importantduring the early days of lockdown
when it wasn’t possible to meet withanyone outside of your own household.
I also feel that we’ve got to know eachother better.
Nuala, The Whitworth

I feel it’s so good that someone calls
me at least once a week. It means thatsomeone somewhere is thinking about me.
Then there was this wonderful box withwool and a little plant and the gnome
and lovely colourful painting pens. My
granddaughter and myself are designing it
together. She says: “Grandma don’t carryon without me. We’re doing it together”.

However, many of the older people
continued to talk of ‘desperate loneliness’,‘desolation’ and expressed real anxiety –‘especially on an evening, anxiety became
real fear’.

Older participant, Entelechy Arts

Equal Arts

I feel the best I’ve been since lockdown
started. More like my naturally positive
self. All the cells in my body have danced...
and this feeling is sooooo good!!!
Carrie, National Theatre of Scotland

I feel like someone does care.
Our Time participant, Leeds Playhouse

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

One of the most exciting developments
has been older people themselves
becoming cultural activists – our elders
graduates have initiated their own daily
creative coffee morning which has beenrunning for 17 weeks. They take turns
to host creative activity and have been
videoblogging about their lockdown
experiences which they are postingon YouTube.

or classes. Leeds Playhouse used a systematic
approach to contact all their participants
acting as a referral agency if they needed
welfare support of some nature. The National
Theatre of Scotland’s events became parties
and branched out into cookery classes. Food
was definitely a theme with a recipe bookfrom Artis Community and food parcels being
delivered by Arts in Mind in Northern Irelandand by Equal Arts who added some sociallydistanced singing!

Survey respondent.

DOLPHINS AT HOME AND THE
DUMPLINGS SOCIAL CLUB: A WORLD
OF DELIGHT IN A DARK TIME

In our survey, 87% of respondents felt that
feedback from participants was overall
positive. Slightly more (54%) felt that they
had maintained or increased the number ofparticipants that they work with overall thanfelt they had declined.
However, 98% of respondents unsurprisingly
were more concerned about the health ofparticipants than they had been.

NEW PARTNERS
The complete disruption we all experienced
due to lockdown also created newopportunities, new interest and new partners
for organisations that had been working increative ageing for some time. Artis Community
began to work with Occupational Health staff inlocal hospitals. Age Cymru guided BBC Walesin an exciting initiative to stream concerts
into care homes. Arts Alive and MediaActivein Shropshire developed a relationship witha housing provider, Connexus Housing.

MORE THAN THE ARTS
Participatory arts practice always offers morethan creative expression, not least socialisationand friendship. One of the striking thingsfrom these case studies has been literally how
much more arts organisations are offering toisolated older people in a time of crisis. Dylan
Quinn Dance Theatre, with funding fromthe Arts Council Northern Ireland, provided
digital tablets to some older people to accesstheir streamed content. Many have combined
telephone befriending with creativity packs

The creative ageing sector has, predictably,shown great inventiveness in confronting theconstraints of lockdown. On the Isle of Wight,
Independent Arts got Arts Council Englandfunding to create a new festival of art producedby older people in lockdown – The Festival of
Islesolation. An Talla Solais in Ullapool started
by sending out weekly creative activities totheir Dolphins at Home group for people livingwith dementia and encouraged them to share
their artwork in their window as a public
sign of creative life continuing. These werethen photographed for an online gallery. In
Manchester older Chinese people knew they
could find fun and friendship in the Dumplings
Social Club. And who wouldn’t want to receive
one of Entelechy Arts’ 250 ‘Gnomes at Homes’
packages which included amongst its creative
goodies an unpainted tiny garden gnome!

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

15Meet Me on the Radio, courtesy of Entelechy Arts.

Case studies

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Age Cymru

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
Age Cymru is the largest charity working withand for older people in Wales. We have beenrunning creative ageing projects for many
years, including an annual Wales-wide festival
which started in 2006. Age Cymru run various
projects outside of the festival that mightchallenge the stereotypes of ageing, like No
Regrets, a photography project exploring thetaboo of tattoos, or Gwanwyn Clubs, whichaims to create sustainable and challenging
creativity clubs for isolated older people.
cARTrefu is Age Cymru’s flagship arts in carehomes project and is the largest of its kindin Europe. cARTrefu aims to improve accessto high-quality creative activities for older
people living in care homes, and through robust
evaluation, has proven that the programme
has a statistically significant impact on the
wellbeing of care home residents.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
In the first instance, the annual festival, due totake place in May, was postponed, and we werein regular contact with all event organisers to
re-affirm our support to them as plans change.
Care homes had started to cancel workshops
in early March, so we already had a senseof the challenges that they were facing. We
worked across departments to ensure that wewere responding to the immediate needs ofthe care homes. We committed to sending out
a fortnightly email to care homes that pulled
together a range of resources, including our
Activity Packs and example activities from theartists, live-streams and online content that
was available from other organisations.
BBC National Orchestra of Wales approached
us as they were keen to reach out to those livingin care homes, and those isolated within theirown homes, so we developed a programmecalled From Homes to Homes. Care homes
are able to access high quality live-streamsof specially curated concerts, and are able torequest shout-outs for anyone with a birthday.
We recognised our responsibility within thearts sector, offering out one-to-one sessions
for artists and practitioners wishing to talkabout creative ageing projects. Then wepartnered with National Dance Company
Wales, ArtWorks Cymru, Tanio, Voluntary
Arts Wales, Wales Wide Training Programme
and Youth Arts Network Cymru to host two
networking events to explore the impact of
Covid-19 on the sector.4
This led to a joint response to the Department
of Culture, Media and Sport and the Welsh
Government to highlight the importance ofparticipatory arts.
Digital networking opportunities have been
greatly valued by artists and practitioners andmany organisations are reporting that digital
engagement is allowing them to reach newparticipants. It has been easier to connect withorganisations across Wales, and has united theparticipatory sector in a single purpose.
There is widespread recognition of the
impact of digital exclusion in Wales and how
it is hitting older people the hardest. Manyorganisations and individuals are adapting todoorstep contact and phone calls.
Care home staff are keen to find ways toprovide creative opportunities for residents andrecognise the impact that restricting visitors has
had, demonstrated by 40 care home workers
attending a ‘Skill Session’ on creativity that wepartnered on with Public Health Wales. Zoom
fatigue has been considered whilst developing
a new online delivery plan for cARTrefu,
so sessions are shorter and rely on more
preparation from the participants in advance,
e.g. gathering materials.

4 artworks.cymru/Participatory-Arts-Capturing-the-Learning-Beyond-the-Lockdown.

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17

Gwanwyn Clubs pre-lockdown, courtesy of Age Cymru.

Online delivery of the cARTrefu programme
makes attendance for participants much easierin some respects. Travel to workshops in Wales
can often be challenging, and can require carehome staff to be released for a full day for halfa day’s session. Although online workshops
haven’t started yet, we anticipate greaterattendance at both workshops for care home
workers and artists.

This is going to really help the projectin regards to sustainability.
cARTrefu artist

Moving forward, we are considering blended
approaches – digital and socially distanced
or telephone engagement. For example, ourcARTrefu Activity Plans can be delivered
through Zoom and over the phone. Short
example videos can be made and sent inadvance, and tailored plans can be emailed
or posted.
We have a lot of work to do to build
the confidence of those who have beenhouse-bound, and we have an opportunity
to support those who we haven’t reached
before into creative activities. Creativity has
been crucial for the well-being of everyone
throughout this time, and in particular, for those
who have been shielding.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

An Talla Solais

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
The project was born out of a conversation
between the local dementia-support link
worker, jointly funded by Alzheimer’s Scotland
and the NHS, and An Talla Solais, the local
community arts group and gallery. Funding
was secured early 2017 to trial creative
activities with people living with dementia andis now funded by the Life Changes Trust andthe Robertson Trust. The group currently works
with seven people with a diagnosis of dementia,
their carers and members of their families, anda number of volunteers.
Pre-Covid, we met weekly for sessions
inspired by a combination of visual arts andpoetry and monthly sessions in the gallery
for conversations about art. In addition, anannual fundraising project drew in the local
community and the group had developed an
excellent relationship with the local schools,
with a plan that the group would hold a session
in the school art room once a term, involving
activity linked to the school curriculum toenable children and older people to workand learn together. The group has led on
dementia-friendly conversations within thecommunity, held two annual exhibitions in the
An Talla Solais gallery, and is a vivid and much
loved part of village life.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
We locked down two weeks before the official
lockdown. As we made the decision, one ofthe participants said, ‘but we’ll get homework
won’t we?’ and Dolphins At Home began. Fromearly on we ensured that every household hada pack of art materials and the local postie,
one of our volunteers, helped enormously
here. I devise creative activities which are sentout in a letter every week – amazingly we are
now in Week 21. People were encouraged todisplay their work in their windows which wasphotographed and shared back to the groupin subsequent letters. Activity has been so
warmly welcomed, with everyone describingthat the day the Dolphin letter arrives as
like a lifeline, helping people feel connected
when it has been impossible to connect withothers in the usual way. It isn’t in any way thesame as meeting together, but people haveregularly imagined how others in the group
might respond to the stimulus and this has
additionally helped to break down feelingsof isolation.

Activity has been so warmly welcomed,with everyone describing that the day theDolphin letter arrives as like a lifeline.
An additional richness is that very early into
lockdown the Dolphin home works inspired theAn Talla Solais community arts in lockdown
project, Paperchain, which meant that thebroader community had opportunities to becreative, growing support for and increasing
the visibility of the Dolphins. Ullapool window
displays and the sharing of artwork on
Facebook has helped connect people, and there
has been a really vivid sense of togetherness,of shared experience, which has strengthened
relationships and created new bondsof connection.
But it isn’t easy. The richness of shared creative
experiences, the social memory and fun, theprofound sense of achievement and confidence
boosting sense of being visible, heard andpresent – this is missed. Desperately. The
missing too, from the artists point of view,of creative exchange, the lovely alchemy that
happens when ideas evolve and surprise. This
work is enriching and stimulating and I feel asense of loss in not being able to directly andsocially feel and hold the creative moments ofthe group. However, the feedback is that it issustaining the group, helping to keep people
connected, has helped during the severe
restrictions of lockdown to minimise the effects

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

of social isolation, and remarkably, the groupseems to feel cohesive. They love the weekly
letter. Artworks in windows are beautiful tosee. We now knock on doors every week todeliver post, carry messages and news, takephotographs, share them back with everyone.
Some highlights – art works on postcards andsent to each other, handmade puppets singing
or reciting a poem, Desert Island Discs, tea bag
textiles, patchwork quilts from old magazines,
paper chain people. We are now embarking
on a recipe book inspired by recipes andkitchen stories.
Lockdown has had a powerful impact onparticipants – one shielded in the local carehome and another couple who live 50 miles
away – not able to be part of the weekly
connection. We managed to connect with thecouple by video call whilst on a weekly village
dash recently and that provided an enormous
boost to their morale. And recently we havebeen able to make contact with the care homeresident and a care worker is facilitating theweekly letter with her. One participant has losta lot of confidence about leaving the houseand his family are uncertain about his ability toattend sessions again. There has been a general
sense of loss, shock, anxiety, fear.

19

All this contributes to an added intensity to
the work of the project somehow – creative
engagement still, but a real sense of friendship,a growing understanding that we are also
supporting a range of needs in differently
vulnerable people. We all feel we have to keep
the connections going as we evolve new ways
of working. We feel our group are resilient
and that having created a creative space forthem, the current weekly connection remains
a creative space. Just not the creative space
we had. I think we believe that in a very small
village, especially when the tourists go home,
we perhaps have the advantage of being able
to plan creative moments – gatherings at the
harbour or in the park or on the Shore Road –where we can be visible, shine creatively andlook outwards again.

We feel our group are resilient andthat having created a creative space forthem, the current weekly connection
remains a creative space. Just not thecreative space we had.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Artis Community

BEFORE LOCK DOWNRESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN

Artis Community is an Arts Council Wales
National Portfolio organisation based in
Pontypridd, covering the whole of Rhondda
Cynon Taff and Merthyr Tydfil.

We started the first few weeks of lockdown
checking in on our participants by phone calland starting up a project working with local
families and volunteers to send out decorated
and personalised postcards to members withmessages of love and support.

We bring high-quality arts experiences tothe community, having had a strong history
in community dance and the visual arts forover 30 years. Our work with vulnerable older
people is varied and reactive to the needs ofour participants. We work closely with partners
to make a difference to people’s lives throughparticipation in various projects, such as our
inclusive dance programme for adults withlearning disabilities, dance for health initiatives
such as Dance for Parkinson’s and Chairobics,
and our ‘Crafty Cuppa’ activities for isolated
older people aged 50+.
The restrictions imposed due to Covid-19 has
been a challenging time for everyone and our
immediate thoughts turned to our participants
attending our weekly programmes, and how
best to support and engage them creatively
during this time.
Our weekly ‘Crafty Cuppa’ groups are led byhigh-quality art tutors who have a personled approach to their work. Our participants
are important and we have a duty of care forthem which goes way beyond the classroom.
For many of our older participants, attending
the weekly group is vital for their healthand wellbeing, an important social lifeline,
a connection with others and the chance tocome together to be creative as a community.
It provides a safe space in which to learn new
skills and make valuable friends along the way.

We found the most successful method
to engage with our older participants[during lockdown] is through theRoyal ‘Snail’.

Creativity packs sent by the Royal ‘Snail’,
photo courtesy of Artis Community.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

These brought a lot of joy to those thatreceived them and that much needed feelingof connectivity with others.

Learning

Shortly after, we were lucky enough to gain
funding to support the delivery of remoteweekly workshops through worksheets andvideo tutorials. These were promoted via oursocial media pages and creativity packs weresent to 60 participants’ homes every two
weeks, as well as sharing content to partners
to ensure a greater impact. Activities were
designed to use minimal equipment andmaterials found around the home. Participants
were also given the opportunity to be part oflarger projects which have all helped in themfeeling connected to others.

– Embrace technology! Be aware not all

ImpactWhilst we adapted our method of delivery,a large majority of our participants wereunable to take part due to lack of equipment
or confidence with using devices. We found themost successful method to engage with ourolder participants is through the Royal ‘Snail’,postcard swapping and phone calls.
Lockdown has reminded us how important it is
to look after each other and sometimes a voiceon the end of the phone is all that is needed tobrighten someone’s day.
Keeping up the morale of participants has
been a challenge some weeks – it has been arollercoaster of emotions for everyone involved
and although these weekly creativity packs
have provided some comfort it is hard to create
the same sociable atmosphere that happens
naturally at usual Crafty Cuppa events. It has
also been difficult to ascertain whether someparticipants have completed the activities andit is challenging to evaluate the impact thisinteraction is having on participants’ healthand wellbeing.

Thank you so much for sending us
these weekly worksheets, it has kept us
inspired and busy and we are less likely
to worry over situations if your mind
is occupied.
Crafty Cuppa participant

21– In lockdown everything takes longer!

The admin required, the postal service.
participants have the skills or confidence
to use Zoom.

– The importance of a phone call – it could justmake someone’s day.

– Tailoring activities so participants feel they
are creating something together.

Our tutors working on the project have
improved their technical skills but havemissed that in-person interaction which helps
determine group activity.
We have gained new participants working
online and our work has been shared withnumerous partners and is now being usedby occupational health staff with patients
who have dementia in hospitals acrossCwm Taff Morgannwg.

After all “The tighter the corner,
the quicker you get around it.
Crafty Cuppa participant, Bernard, aged 91

Our approach as lockdown is eased will be a
blend of the old and the new. We are hoping
to gain funding to trial some new distanced
activities with our groups, using outside spaces
where possible and continuing online classes
and projects. Our participants are desperate
to get back together again and re-connect
with each other. Lockdown has given us the
chance to reassess what we can do, rise to thechallenges and come up with new and exciting
ideas and ways of working with our community
again. Our focus is on keeping our participants
and staff safe at the same time as igniting theirlove of the arts.
I think that the arts are certainly more valued
now than ever and our creative approaches
to working are really an asset in these
uncertain times.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Arts Alive and MediaActive Projects

BEFORE LOCK DOWNRESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN

Arts Alive and MediaActive Projects firstbegan collaborating in 2017 to develop new
partnerships and new provision for Arts & Older
People across the rural county of Shropshire.
In 2018, with Celebrating Age funding, we
embarked on a new programme of artists’workshops and residencies in a range ofsettings and contexts, both community based
and in care settings, and supported by CPD
for both artists and partners organisations.

Prior to lockdown, in direct response to
feedback from Creative Conversations’participants and partners, and inspired by the
At My Home Helsinki pilot profiled at The Art
of Ageing Artfully conference,5 we had begun
to consider how we might better support
people unable to travel to take part in our
programme of activities.

The Creative Conversations offer included
performing and visual, creative media anddigital artforms, and the programme benefited
from the involvement of experienced creative
practitioners including: a musician andstoryteller, a musicologist and curator, a danceartist, a poet, visual artists, an animator, andMediaActive’s digital arts associates.
The majority of participants are in their 70s
and 80s plus.
There have been many highlights, including:– Storyteller, Sal Tonge, and Dance Artist,

Rachel Liggit, working with residents ofa care home to explore storymaking andmovement, inspired by everyday objects.

– Poet, Jean Atkin, co-creating poems withelders living in care, reflecting the richnessof their lived experiences.

– Age UK choir members working withMusicologist, Adrian Plant, to create and pilot
a Vodcast (audio and visuals) that celebrates
the benefits of singing and their experiencesof joining a choir.

– Artist, Jill Impey, upskilling older volunteers
in digital arts so that they can adopt new
creative approaches when supporting
elders living both independently and incare settings.

We simply sought to create new routes totaking part in the arts for those most at
risk of isolation and loneliness, by utilisingavailable technology, providing one-to-one
support in using the tech, and by working withartists, performers and cultural organisations
to develop “virtual friendly” models ofparticipatory activity.
Connexus social housing joined us as a pilot
partner and funder.
When Covid-19 struck, the relevance ofdeveloping a virtual model became all too
apparent! We moved quickly to support
our artists in their development of a virtualapproach that related to their artform practice.
We have supported test runs, trialling newarts participatory approaches using videoconferencing, bringing together focus groups
who have provided feedback from a rangeof societal and art form perspectives. We
are having to find new ways to offer techsupport when face-to-face home visits are notappropriate so we are now recruiting Digital
Buddies, volunteers who will help provide techsupport and encouragement, where needed.
We have established new partnerships(Connexus Housing: 25 supported living
communities across Shropshire) and we haveachieved new investment from the Community
Foundation for Staffordshire & the NET
Coronavirus Appeal, and Shropshire Council.

5 The Art of Ageing Artfully creative ageing conference was funded by the Arts Council England and theBaring Foundation, and organised by the MAC in Birmingham in February 2020.

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23ImpactBE YOND LOCK DOWN

Some of our artists were immediately eager
to adopt the use of technology, others less so,
but what has been clear is how crucial it has
been to offer time and support to the artists.
In trialling new virtual participatory approaches,
they have taken on board feedback, adapted
their workshop models, and gained newtechnical skills and confidence.

We can’t wait until we can again be in thesame spaces with our artists and participants,
but we fully embrace the future opportunities
presented by using digital tools and platforms
to enhance the reach of our programme.

Of equal importance, the participants haveunderstood that they are taking part insomething new that needs their considered
input – they are actively helping to shape theartists’ participatory practices.
Musicologist and Curator, Adrian Plant, hadbeen running a weekly choir session with the
Orchard Singers, whilst also working with thegroup on a Vodcast pilot. Working around thetechnical challenges of the Vodcast project
had not been easy for the group, so it waswonderful to see how readily some of the choirmembers adopted new technology to movetheir sessions online. The group now meetsonline twice a week, a social on Mondays(to help members get used to using the tech)and singing on Tuesdays. One member ofthe choir now issues a regular newsletter,
maintaining a welcoming presence, whilst
offering user-friendly tips on dealing withthe technical side.

Due to the limitations of the tech, somany of the group, through having to singsolo and a cappella for each other, are also
and increasingly beginning to realise justhow beautiful their own unique voice canbe, and it’s really going to change the way
we work when we eventually meet again
as a group!
Adrian Plant

Through partnership working with oursocial housing, local authority, care home,community and cultural partners, we willcontinue to develop new digital routes tocreative participation and sharing of cultural
resources. By working virtually with our artists
and participants, we will continue to establish
new creative opportunities, sharing ideas,
experiences and artworks.

All of this we will do with an open
heart and an open mind… but yes,
we can’t wait until we can again be
in the same spaces with our artists
and participants!

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Celebrating Age Wiltshire

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
Celebrating Age Wiltshire (CAW) is apartnership of cultural, heritage and community
organisations comprising Wiltshire Music
Centre (WMC), Wiltshire Creative, Pound Arts,Age UK Wiltshire, Wiltshire Council LibraryService and Community Engagement Services,
Community First, and the museums of Wiltshireand Salisbury. The project uses high-quality
creative arts, heritage, and cultural activity
as a vehicle to improve or maintain the healthand wellbeing of older people, including those
who are most socially isolated or vulnerable
due to dementia, reduced mobility, ill healthor caring responsibilities.
CAW Phase 1 (June 2017-2020) funded by Arts
Council England and the Baring Foundation,
provided free monthly events in six different
community areas of Wiltshire, bringing older
people together in local, accessible community
venues, care homes and sheltered housing.
Activity has included celebratory events,
concerts, small-scale theatre, poetry readings,
creative writing sessions, art workshops,
singing, seated dance sessions and exhibitionsof work.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
Covid-19 restrictions forced us to rethinkplanned activity for CAW events during thefinal three months of Phase 1 (April-June 2020)
with eight planned events cancelled. CAW
responded by creating online content, filmedand edited by WMC, and released through
WMC’s YouTube channel.6 This series enabled
our freelance artists to perform when somuch of their work was cancelled, whilst also
maintaining a connection with many of our
CAW audiences.

I was beginning to become a bit
despondent about delivery in the current
times and this opportunity has given me
my bounce back.
Wiltshire dance artist

Each film is sent to the CAW contacts databaseof individuals, carers, support organisations
and residential homes and promoted throughsocial media and the WMC weekly newsletter.
Engagement is very positive, with significant
numbers of older people able to access the
programme (3,684 YouTube views to date).
When so many social interactions wererestricted, the concerts were well received
in care homes:

CAW has become an invaluable
resource for us during very challenging
times, supplying us with engaging andhigh-quality streaming entertainment
for our residents whilst on lockdown.
We could engage more residents than everbefore and use the footage for the nightstaff to also entertain residents who awoke
during the evening – a real rescue toour staff.
Christopher Guest, Events Manager,
Blenheim House, Melksham

The CAW online offer is unable to provide the‘togetherness’ of a live experience so central
to older people’s needs at this time. Althoughcontent has been thoughtfully designed, withperformers interacting with the audience, tea
breaks, sing-a-longs and space for reflective
responses, the experience is limited. Some older
people have found accessing digital technology
a challenge. CAW Phase 2, (September
2020-2025) funded by the National Lottery
Community Fund, has been re-structured since

6 w ww.youtube.com/channel/UCZxtI--Izm4eNJg6rjasnCA/videos.

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Covid-19 to deliver five key strands of activity
that can reach older people in multiple ways,
not just digitally. These are:
1. online content
2. o utdoor concerts and small-scale theatre
3. 1
 :1 ‘creative conversations’ via telephone
4. 1
 :1 ‘creative conversations’ in individuals’
homes
5. W
 iltshire Postcards, a postal project
for Wiltshire.
CAW 2 will work closely with partners acrossWiltshire to create a bespoke offer based oneach area’s needs. As community gatherings
are re-introduced, building confidence inattending public events will be paramount,
and our work with older people in their homes
via telephone, one-to-one sessions and via
post, will be focused on encouraging a return
to social and cultural experiences in thecommunity. Reaching the most isolated older
people and their carers who were unable toattend events due to disability, lack of transport
and anxiety around leaving their homes wasa significant challenge in Phase 1. We now
have more opportunity to reach this mostvulnerable group.

25

Celebrating Age Wiltshire has received National
Lottery Community Fund funding from 20202025, and is supported by Wiltshire Council,
and trusts and foundations. The evidenced
need and evaluation to date for Celebrating
Age Wiltshire gives us confidence for continued
funding in the future. In re-focusing the CAW
project during this testing and restrictive time,
we can continue to offer creative and culturalexperiences to help heal, build confidence andinspire older people to engage fully in their lives.

Fear, if it wasn’t a feature before,
is now one added challenge that many
lost, vulnerable, isolated older people
will be feeling. Our task is to begin to
confront that fear, to repair and rebuild
the older person’s trust in themselves
and the community in which they live.
Communities are asking what they can
do to create experiences that help people
reflect, honour or suitably mark what has
been our ‘new world’ for the last 6 months– CAW can play a part in the response tothis for Wiltshire’s older people.
Karen Linekar, Community Engagement Manager,
SW Wiltshire

Residents at Blenheim House enjoying a performance by a Celebrating Age Wiltshire artist. © Christopher Guest.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

The Centre for
Chinese Contemporary Art

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art(CFCCA) is a unique arts charity in the heartof Manchester that promotes conversationand sparks debate about contemporary China
through a rich programme of exhibitions, artist
residences, events and engagement projects.
Through its work, CFCCA inspires tolerance
and greater understanding of multicultural
perspectives and for over 30 years hasremained central to debates around art andmulticulturalism, providing alternative readingsof Chinese culture.
Formed as the Chinese View Associationin 1986, CFCCA was conceived to promotefurther understanding of Chinese heritageand culture for UK audiences at a time
when Manchester’s Chinese community
was growing rapidly. Formed as a vehicle
to promote community cohesion in the city,
the organisation was based in China town,
developed by and for this diverse community.
There are now (2019) approximately 30,000
Chinese speaking residents in Greater
Manchester. The first generation, who migrated
from Hong Kong in the 1950s and 60s, arenow elderly. Of these older Chinese residents,
24%-50% reported high levels of loneliness,with older Chinese people spending 25% of
their time alone in comparison to the 5-10%of White British and South Asian older people.
In 2018, CFCCA in collaboration with theBaring Foundation embarked on a project to
explore social isolation in the older Greater
Manchester Chinese community, to not only
better understand the challenges faced byolder people in minority ethnic communities but
also investigate how art can be used as a tool
for wellbeing.

Following this project, funding from the Big
Lottery Community Fund provided capacity torecruit an Age Friendly Project Officer to build
our aspirations to work with older people. This
marked the beginning of CFCCA’s Dumpling
Social Club, a two-year project focused onbringing older people together within the centre
to make and share food, conversation and art.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
A year into the project, Covid-19 brought freshchallenges, exacerbating issues of isolation we
had worked hard to counteract while South
East and East Asian communities across the
UK began to face brutal Covid-racism due tothe racialisation of the virus by the media. In
order to maintain connections and relationships
at a time of real need, we quickly adapted ourweekly sessions onto a digital platform, unsure
if it would work or have the same impact.
The success of Dumpling Social Club was
always predicated on the physical, humanconnection older participants were able tohave with each other, being connected andpresent in a space, talking and sharing. There
were real concerns that this wouldn’t andcouldn’t translate as well in a virtual setting.
Also, the group were initially nervous andunconfident about using a digital platform they
hadn’t accessed before and the practical issues
they might face in doing this. There was real
reluctance in continuing to engage.
We needed to further connect the group andsupport them to test virtual delivery. We set up
a WhatsApp group where we would connect
with the group regularly to touch base andmake practical arrangements. In parallel, theProject Coordinator had one-to-one calls withsome of the participants, investigating their

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27

A Dumpling Social Club marbling workshop pre-lockdown. Courtesy of CFCCA.

nervousness further and supporting them withinformation about the suggested platform
and approach.
We chose to use Google Meet to host thesessions – there is no requirement for a sign-in,
to download an app or use a meeting code. We
wanted to make the sessions as open and easy
to access as possible. Additionally, art packs
were sent out to participants’ homes.
These proved popular, eliminated the need to goout and source materials and made the sessions
much more accessible. The art packs also
worked as an incentive for new participants.

To begin with, take-up was low but by
the third session we started to see people’s
confidence increase.
Virtual fortnightly sessions began, initially
focussed on catching up with each other andgetting used to the platform. To begin with,take-up was low but by the third session we
started to see people’s confidence increase andinteraction was more natural. After sessions,participants share their artworks in the
WhatsApp chat and this encourages uptake,as well as further connection and support
between participants.
The success we have seen in virtual deliveryof this project has encouraged us to investigate
the prospect of developing pre-recorded
workshop content which participants canaccess at their leisure to cover further skills.

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
There are challenges to come. We are awareof the prospect of repetitive learning and thelimited scope of accessible-at-home activities
and so we are continually researching ideas tokeep the group engaged and interested. We
are happy with the project and participant’s
progress so far and it has been a joy to see
The Dumpling Social Club continue to flourish
despite the numerous challenges Covid-19
brings. We plan to continue virtual sessions
up to November and will re-assess then.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O NCity Arts

BEFORE LOCK DOWNCity Arts in Nottingham helps communities andartists to create and explore art of all kinds – frommusic to writing, from drawing to dance. We
aim to give everyone the chance to be creative,
regardless of who they are or where they’re from.
Over the last ten years we have developed arts
programmes that support older people in careand healthcare settings, hospices, shelteredhousing and in the community. It offers people
in later life the opportunity to be creative andinvolve them in commissioning and producing
collaborative new artwork that aims to
support wellbeing.
We have devised particular work to support
older people living with dementia that includes
the creation of our Armchair Gallery app7 andImagine arts programme.8 The artforms wehave explored with older people include creative
workshops, performance, shadow puppetry,carnival, dance, music, gallery visits andworkshops, poetry and writing and digital work.9

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
Whilst some of our programming has halted
or had to be postponed due to Covid-19, we
continue to explore digital ways of engaging
with older people creatively.
We have been promoting the Armchair Gallery
app which is free to download on iOS andAndroid tablet devices. The app was featuredin The Observer’s Art and Culture section
during the pandemic. It offers virtual visits tohigh profile cultural venues where users candiscover, play and create with their favourite
artworks. The app also includes instructions fordoing tried-and-tested creative activities witholder people in the comfort of their own homes
and in care environments.

7 armchairgallery.co.uk.
8 imaginearts.org.uk.
9 city-arts.org.uk/programme/artful-ageing.

We have received emergency funding fromthe Paul Hamlyn Foundation to develop ourArmchair Gallery app. A number of nationalarts venues will feature in Augmented Reality
experiences for older audiences. During thistime, it is important to future-proof our projects
if face-to-face working is not viable. We areworking remotely with a panel of people 55+
to support us with the development of thisnew app.
Our Celebrating Age project includes poetry
and writing. We have called upon Nottingham’s
older communities to respond to writing apoem called ‘Pause’ (see page 54). Local poet,
Panya Banjoko, has collated the poetry entries
into a collaborative poem. A collective filmed
poem will be released on social media later thissummer. This time to pause and reflect hasgiven us a good opportunity for older people
to express their feelings, experiences andthoughts relating to the current lockdown.

Impact
The current situation has been challenging,
especially as we work in a participatory,
face-to-face way the majority of the time.
Some of our staff have been furloughed as
the continuation of some programmes are notviable during this time. Our physical workshops
have halted due to being in care homes andwith vulnerable participants. In the same waythat ‘digital’ can offer solutions, it also brings
about challenges as many of the older people
in the later age category don’t have access tovideo calls. During this time, we have discussed
ways of adapting our work, this might bethrough live-streamed events/workshops
and telephone calls; however, for the more
vulnerable participants, face-to-face support
is necessary to complete tasks.

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Songwriters group, courtesy of City Arts

We have managed to offer some of our artists
ongoing opportunities; however, this is not at
the scale of our usual business. We have lost
contact with many of our participants as wewere working towards collective performancesthat require physical rehearsal time. However,some of the older people that have accessto Zoom have continued with weekly music
sessions and our 55+ participants will besupporting the development of the new
Armchair Gallery app.
We have had to divert our programme toaspects of our work that can be maintained
easily through digital means. It is of great
concern to us that the more marginalised
participants that we work with are evenmore isolated and not able to participate incommunity life at the moment. For freelance
artists, it is also a very challenging time andthe implications of the pandemic will be felt
for some time to come.
Going forward we need to be mindful ofadapting our approach to creative engagement
and we are discussing this within ourorganisation, however it will take us time andresources to find feasible solutions.

BE YOND LOCK DOWNThis unprecedented and unforeseen situation
has forced our hand as creative practitioners
to find positive solutions.
In many ways, it has increased and stimulated
new conversations about how we work withpeople and how, if we can’t do this face to face,
we can continue this valuable work. The arts
most definitely offer expressive, therapeuticand stimulating ways to explore uncomfortable,
as well as positive, opportunities to address thecurrent situation of enforced lockdown.
Going forward, many cultural organisations,already under challenging economic duress,
may be forced into difficult situations or may beunable to recover from this situation. However,
it is a good opportunity to share creative
engagement ideas collectively and to work
even more collaboratively to achieve positive
outcomes. Since lockdown we have managed
to convince partners, who previously did not see
the value of digital work, that positive solutions
for engaging with older people are even more
relevant at this time. For us, this is good news!

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre is a professional
dance company based in Northern Ireland’s
most rural county of Fermanagh. The company
delivers a wide range of professional andparticipatory creative arts projects for all
sections of the community and has been
operating in and from Fermanagh for
10 years. Artistic Director, Dylan Quinn, hasover 25 years’ experience of delivering andproducing creative dance activities, locally,nationally and internationally. The company
has developed dance projects in care homes
settings, with local support organisations andwith older people in the community. We havedelivered publicly funded programmes andpay-to-attend health and wellbeing dance
activities. We have created and produced
performance projects both live and film-basedfor older people living in the border regions on
the island of Ireland.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
Due to the current public health emergency
Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre has been unable
to deliver in-person dance activities for older
people. The company therefore focused its
resources on continuing to provide accessto dance via its website. In order to ensure
the broadest reach possible the company
developed a free-to-access programme ofdance available by streaming directly fromtheir website.10 The programme involved 14
independent movement activities that havebeen designed specifically to be accessible
to older people and those with restrictedmovement. These activities have beendeveloped with the support of an Occupational
Therapist and as a result of several months ofwork in care settings and community classes
across Fermanagh.

10 w ww.dylanquinndance.com.

These have been created and presented ina variety of ways to support engagement:
1. with direction instruction
2. with support information for occupational
therapists
3. with musical accompaniment.
As a result of previous support from the Arts
Council of Northern Ireland, we were able toprovide a number of older people living in thecommunity with Samsung Tablets to accessthe dance material. These tablets also provided
individuals with a communication device tohelp tackle issues of loneliness and isolation
during lockdown.

As a result of previous support fromthe Arts Council of Northern Ireland, wewere able to provide a number of older
people living in the community with
Samsung Tablets.
Impact
The process has provided a new area of workthat the company had not explored extensively.
The process was interesting and offeredconsiderable potential for development. Whilst
it is an area to be explored further, it requires
significant investment. It is difficult to ascertain
how successful the programme of work wasas the streaming system we are using does
not provide an overview of engagement. It
is worth noting that the level of proactive
internet activity by older members of thecommunity within our catchment is limited
and would be under the national average. The
process of providing access and promoting
the available programmes was time intensive
and required knowledge and experience thatinvolved investment and dedication. As a result,the artists involved did gain new skills andconfidence in this area of work.

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The impact of our work with in care homes
was unfortunately extremely heavily impacted.
Whilst we had delivered a number of very
successful activities in local care homes, in
our opinion the staff who were interested indelivering these, required further time andinvestment to build their confidence when
we were no longer available. Whilst this issomething we are looking to develop andsupport with online training, we have foundit challenging to secure investment in suchservices from care home providers.

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
I personally believe the issue of creative ageing
was not in a particularly positive situation prior
to lockdown and will therefore only suffer
further in light of the recent circumstances.
I think we need a fundamental change in how
we look after and pay for the care of older
people. It is uncomfortable to consider that31

older people’s care has been about providingthem with shelter and food to look after
their basic needs, and after that it is a lottery
dependent on the commitment of the individual
home. It is important to take into account thatthe extremely limited resources we had at our
disposal impacted significantly on our ability todeliver activities. The focus of the organisation
became about survival. In our experiencemanagement of the context became theprimary focus of most support organisations
that we would have dealt with and it has only
been recently that they have been able toconsider engaging in new creative activities.
This is related to the fundamental point I havemade earlier. The value of creative activities forolder people, particularly in care home settings,
is still a battle we have to win.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Entelechy Arts

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
Since its inception in 1989, south east London
based Entelechy Arts has been pioneering
ways of working creatively with vulnerable
older people.
Entelechy Arts works with marginalised elders:those living home alone, in residential care andin sheltered accommodation. A radical arts
programme that includes theatre, music, dance,
poetry sculpture and many other art forms,
supports participants to actively take part in thesocial and creative life of their communities asvisible and valued citizens.
Projects that we are proud of include: Walking
Through Walls11 that supports care homeresidents to creatively connect with theirneighbourhoods through the creation ofsite-specific performance events; the Meet Me12
project (developed with the Albany arts centre)
reimagining creative day care for isolated elders;our international collaborations with Japan,
Brazil and the USA that artistically connect
older south Londoners with their peers acrossthe world; theatre co-productions including
BED13 a touring street theatre performanceand The Home,14 a forty-eight hour immersive
performance set in a fictional care home.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
After lockdown Entelechy implemented aseven-point plan to respond to the immediateneeds of older beneficiaries, core staff andfreelance teams. All participants received two
weekly 15-minute telephone conversations.
A post of Care and Regeneration Manager was
created to develop safe ways of working across

11 entelechyarts.org/projects/walking-through-walls.
12 entelechyarts.org/projects/meet-me-at-the-albany.
13 entelechyarts.org/projects/bed.
14 entelechyarts.org/projects/the-home.
15 entelechyarts.org/remembering.
16 w ww.thealbany.org.uk/shows/meet-me-on-the-radio.
17 entelechyarts.org/projects/gnomes-at-home.

professional and non-professional boundaries
when supporting the unpredictable needs ofvulnerable beneficiaries.
Several participants died of Covid-19.
We created shared ways to grieve together,apart. We created a ‘Remembering’ page on
our website.15
Working in partnership with the Albany,
we restructured our creative programme,maintaining the pattern of friendshipnetworks. Many participants were not able
to access digital tools such as Zoom. We
therefore designed a weekly Creative Clusters
programme using telephone conferencing
technology to bring together groups of up to
eight participants with an artist and volunteers.
We now have an expanding programmeof singing, knitting, drama clusters andpoetry clusters.
We took to the air with Meet Me on theRadio,16 a weekly radio show co-producedwith the Albany hosted by two older
participants. It is broadcast every Tuesday
at 11.30am-12 midday on South London
community radio station Resonance FM.
To reach more participants we created 250
Gnomes at Home17 packages. This is anin-the-palm-of-your-hand, tiny garden initiative
designed for windowsills and ledges. A giftbox contains an unpainted, hand-cast gnome;brush pens; a crowd-sourced succulent plant;
stamped postcard and writing prompt; and,a letter from Meet Me on the Radio with aninvitation to join Creative Clusters.

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33

Gnomes at Home, courtesy of Entelechy Arts.

34

Artists have continued to maintain relationships
with residents and care teams in residential carehomes through a programme of real and digital
postcards. These have had a powerful impact
of demoralised and overstretched teams.

ImpactI feel it’s so good that someone calls
me at least once a week. It means thatsomeone somewhere is thinking about
me. Then there was this wonderful box
with wool and a little plant and thegnome and lovely colourful painting
pens. My granddaughter and myself aredesigning it together. She says: “Grandma
don’t carry on without me. We’re doing
it together”.
Older participant

The virus has had huge impact on ourparticipants. Many have lost friends, somelife partners. Isolation has increased. But thecreative phone sessions, the radio show andother activities have maintained a gentle pulse,a small semblance of normality. Something tolook forward to.
Dancers and musicians working digitally incare homes have suddenly developed new
skills in creating short films using sound, music,
movement of light, dance, clowning, spoken
word and painting. Films often inspired by older
participants living with dementia and their own
unique ways of communicating and connecting.
Artists are thinking more deeply in personcentred ways.

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O NMusicians curating telephone singing groups
speak of the increase in confidence andquality of performance when people sing totheir friends down a telephone line. Powerfulreflective group conversations provoked by
the music have started to emerge.
The amount of time and energy that has had
to be invested in establishing a new ordinary
has been significant and we have valued
the increased commitment of existing andnew funders to enable us to maintain andexpand the number of people benefiting fromour programmes.

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
The creative learning from the time of lockdown
has been immense. Creative ageing now has
an opportunity to become much more flexible,(even) more imaginative and inclusive. The newskill sets and technological adaptations will
have the power to forge new intergenerational
opportunities between sixty-year olds andninety-year olds. Real (non-socially distanced)
practice will be able to symbiotically connect
with digitally remote ways of working.
The age of Covid-19 has demonstrated that it
can be possible for people to live out their days
as creatively engaged citizens no matter what
the circumstances of their lives. Whether they
live home alone, with family, or in a residential
care home, there is the ability to connect andcreate. To be recognized and valued. To bea contributing member of society.

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35

Equal Arts

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
Equal Arts has been delivering cross-artform
creative ageing activities since 1985, working
with vulnerable older people in care settings
as well as independent living, older people
involved with age friendly activities in culturalvenues, and across communities. Our flagshipproject HenPower attracts significant media
attention and has increased our delivery
footprint across the UK and overseas. Using a
Relationship Centred Care approach, HenPower
involves older people, care staff, families, school
children and wider stakeholders in crossgenerational creative programmes stimulatedby the daily routines of looking after hens.
Our support of cultural venues, improving
their age-friendly offer, involves venues suchas Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art,
Baltic CCA, The ARC, National Glass Centre,
Northern Print, Lakeland Arts Trust, The Bowes
Museum, Oriental Museum and The Hatton
Gallery. Our support with user-led groups
sees over 60 self-led organisations delivering
creative ageing programmes valued at over
£500,000 annually.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
By the end of March, our creative ageing
programmes came abruptly to an end. Carehomes were restricting visitors and cultural andcommunity venues were closing their doors.
As a staff team, we were all now homeworking.
Initially, we trialled live streamed creative
activities through Zoom. However, withina very short time the situation in care homes
had significantly escalated. Care staff no longer
had a moment spare and were no longer able
to deliver ‘quality of life’ activities. Supporting
resident engagement in live-streamed video
activity wasn’t a priority and was no longer
a viable option.

We contacted as many independent living older
people as possible with phone calls and began
formalising this process as the ‘Art-2-Art’phone ‘befriending’ service which encouraged
creative activities. In conjunction, we set up‘Create at Home’ activity packs which wereposted each month as over 80% of participants
didn’t have access to the internet.
However, many of the older people continued
to talk of ‘desperate loneliness’, ‘desolation’and expressed real anxiety ‘especially on an
evening, [when] anxiety became real fear’.

Singing food deliveries were creative
and aimed to brighten people’s days.
We opted to start delivering food supplies
with a difference. Singing food deliveries werecreative and aimed to brighten people’s days.
This was trialled at Wood Green and tenants
were delighted to see familiar faces and enjoy
singing from a safe distance. Other visits werescheduled to sheltered housing schemes andShadon House Dementia Care centre. Service
Manager Keith Hogan said:

In 20 years managing this service
I’ve never witnessed any activity havesuch a positive impact, such a morale
boost for staff and joy for residents.
More sessions were delivered with dementia
care homes and ‘The Singing Hinnies’ werecovered on local TV, radio and newspapers.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

The Singing Hinnies , courtesy of Equal Arts

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There was a rush of enquiries from relatives
concerned about their parents and could
The Singing Hinnies make a visit? One
daughter said:

Me dad’s got bi-polar and me mam has
Alzheimer’s, I really don’t think they’re
coping, I’m really worried.
The Singing Hinnies delivered Garden Gigs
and Singing for your Street visits and she
wrote back:Me dad loved it, he’s never stopped
talking and me mam sings the songs down
the phone. I love that they’ve got a weekly
visit which cheers them up and keeps
them going.
Whilst the warm weather allows we’redelivering Singing Hinnies sessions five daysa week across Northumberland, Tyne & Wear,
County Durham and Darlington and responding
to enquiries in London and the South East.

Impact
The positive response to The Singing Hinnies
demonstrated that outdoor safe, sociallydistanced activities can be delivered and anumber of other artforms have been trialledwith gardening as well as a variety of arts andcrafts activities.
It is very evident that care staff and carehome managers we are working with haveexperienced extremely difficult circumstanceswith a significant loss of life amongst residents
they care for. In consultation with care homemanagers we’re delivering Bereavement &Loss management courses via Zoom facilitatedby trained Psychology professionals. Thesesessions will be followed up with practicalcreative activities developing transition andcelebratory artworks in order to remember andcelebrate the lives of residents who have died.

37

Not surprisingly, the NHS reported increased
use in antipsychotic mediation which hadsignificantly diminished over the last decade or
so. It is equally sad to hear how care staff andmanagers feel betrayed and angry amidst a
background of the poorly considered hospitaldischarge plans.
The Bereavement & Loss training has also been
made available to 15 artists as they will need tofeel confident in supporting care staff, residents
and their relatives in creating transitional
artworks which give a semblance of meaning
to their experience of the last four months.
Almost surprisingly we’re now seeing carehomes as well as culture and community
venues planning activities in safe distanced
and small group activities within indoor andoutdoor spaces.

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
Ensuring high-quality creative and meaningfulactivities are delivered throughout the wintermonths and into 2021 will need flexibility indelivery and planning. We are keen to support
care homes and care staff increase theirconfidence, skills and technical ability to benefit
from digital activities including live streamed
creative sessions. There is still a huge gulf in theability of the sector to access digital resources
compared to many other organisations. The
huge reliance on the internet by society during
the pandemic has led to people viewing it asa fourth utility, something they have a rightto access.

There is still a huge gulf in the abilityof the [care] sector to access digital
resources compared to many otherorganisations.
We all want and need human contact but
equally we know that increasing our ability toaccess digital resources will offer the sector
and older people with more opportunities andsupport a fair and equal recovery.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Flourishing Lives

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
Flourishing Lives is a London-wide coalition ofarts, health and wellbeing organisations taking
a creative approach to supporting richer, more
independent lives for people over the age of
55. We combat social isolation amongst older
people by promoting community, expression
and engagement through the arts.
We connect creative practitioners, day centres,
arts organisations, health initiatives andcommunity groups so that knowledge, researchand resources can be shared. We offer a variety
of workshops, trainings, showcase arts events,
support groups and inclusion programmes tohelp galvanize organisational collaboration,communication and resilience across the arts
and wellbeing sectors.

During lockdown, we have delivered our fullprogramme either online or via phone/mail:– we have delivered 15 online Reflective

Practice Group sessions, providing creative
practitioners and service providers withaccess to trained counsellors and a vital
opportunity for peer support;– we have partnered with the Race Equality

Foundation and HEAR Network to deliver
two online diversity and inclusion roundtables
focusing on strengthening BAME inclusion inarts and wellbeing services across London;– we partnered with Hackney Shed on anintergenerational pen pal project, connecting
their younger participants by post with older
residents in Westminster and Kensington& Chelsea on a joint storytelling project;

We have developed the coalition over the
past four years with the kind support of City
Bridge Trust and the Mercers’ Company, andwe currently have 387 member organisations.
We were invited to represent the UK at theinaugural ‘High-Level Forum on the Silver
Economy’ in Helsinki in 2019, convened by the
Finnish government and the Global Coalition
on Aging for government and business leaders.

– we also partnered with the East Side InstituteRESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN

The depth and breadth of knowledge, support
and connection across the Flourishing Lives
coalition has allowed our network to quickly
adapt and continue to support socially-isolated
older people across London during thischallenging time.

Given the vulnerable older client group that we
support and the pressures facing the frontline
service providers and creative practitioners
that we work with, we have quickly adapted
our activities in response to Covid-19 to ensurethat our coalition framework of support remains
in place and addresses the needs of socially
isolated older people.

– a US-based educational research centre –to deliver online workshops offering creative
exercises to change perceptions aroundageing, memory loss and dementia;– we have also worked alongside theClaremont Project team to provide direct
support for its c. 850 older members throughbefriending phone calls.

Responding to Covid-19 has highlighted theneed for programming to consider on andoffline provision to prevent further isolationof the following two groups: firstly, people
who either physically or financially (or for otherpersonal reasons) cannot attend activities andso hugely benefit from an online offer, as isevidenced by new audiences.

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The other group is people who have either
always been digitally excluded or are newly
excluded because of spaces like libraries
closing, which for many people is their only wayof getting online. Offering both options is key
to inclusive practice.

The other group is people who have
either always been digitally excluded or
are newly excluded because of spaces likelibraries closing.
Another learning has been realising the sheer
potential of international partnerships andthe impact that bringing together thought
leaders from across the world can have. Our
collaboration with the East Side Institute in
New York – which led to the co-design of
online workshops defying stereotypes aroundageing and memory loss – not only createda space to share best practice internationally
but also challenged how isolating the diseasecan be. Attendees reported that being part ofa world-wide conversation left them with aprofound sense of connection and community.
Finally, we have learnt about the amazing
commitment and ingenuity of creative
practitioners to adapt their working practices,
but as the distinction between work and home
life blurs further still, supporting their wellbeing
is essential. Feedback from our online Reflective
Practice Groups has stressed how vital thesessions have been for their mental healthand the resilience of their work with older
people where the impact of Covid-19 has been
particularly traumatic.

39

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
As lockdown is eased, there is concern that theeffects of Covid-19 are at risk of compounding
the sense of loneliness experienced bysocially-isolated older people, with many stillshielding, or wary of engaging in the public
realm. We have rapidly mobilised as a coalition
to mitigate this increased risk, offering on andoffline opportunities for social connection,
intellectual stimulation, and emotional support.
In the longer term, we feel that morecoordinated work needs to be done on agovernment policy level to combat the digitalinequality that many older people face, boththrough increased access to devices, and also
through digital skills training. It is also vital thatfunders continue to support networks such as
ours to bolster resilience across the sector, andhelp support richer, more socially-connected
and aspirational lives for older people.

40

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Independent Arts

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
Independent Arts (IA) on the Isle of Wight
has offered activities to improve health andwellbeing and reduce social isolation since1987. We work with a talented group of
freelance artist practitioners to offer workshops
in care homes and community settings. Our
work covers everything from the applied arts
to music and dance and everything in between.
SingAbout is an award-winning singing for
wellbeing project, now in its ninth year, withover 300 people across the Island taking part
before lockdown. The groups are popular due
to their inclusive nature, welcoming anyone whowants to sing. Time & Tide, our Celebrating Age
project, works on interpreting Island history
through various artistic mediums. Workshops
were held in sheltered accommodation
schemes, care home and libraries, with work
exhibited at Dimbola, Isle of Wight College
and our People’s Gallery.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
When lockdown began the main focus for us
was to reach those who needed us and to lookat an alternative way of delivering sessions.
Within a week of lockdown our SingAbout
sessions had moved to the online platform
Zoom and we have been running weekly
meetings where we could offer an elementof the familiar in a time that was anything but.
Our Grants Officer began to apply for funding
to support these sessions and our practitioners
through the changes that Covid-19
restrictions brought.
We began to work with our practitioners
to produce a varied programme of creative
workshops posted to our YouTube channel.
These sessions include versions of ourcommunity groups and several playlists aimed
at care home audiences.

18 w ww.islesolationgallery.com.

To create a non-digital project, we repurposed
our school ties project, creating 240 art bags
(containing art materials, postcards, colouringbook) delivered to schools, care homes andsupported accommodation. As part of the
project participants are encouraged to write
postcards to each other to stay in touch:‘O’ loves children, and was soemotional to receive a card from oneof the children just for her. She criedwhen we gave this to her, these were tearsof complete joy. A feeling that is hard toachieve at times.
Resident, Cornelia Manor care home.

As lockdown has eased, we have also begun
delivering ‘curbside’, running sessions outside
windows, in car parks and in gardens. Bringing
creativity back but in a safe manner.
An Arts Council England grant has allowed
us to run The Festival of Islesolation,18 with
its own online gallery space, which includes
work from people of all ages across the Island.
It has been a joy to exhibit such a broad rangeof work describing people’s experiences oflockdown. This includes work from care homes
and participants from our community projects
as well as the general public.
We have delivered digital and paper copies
of our newsletter to keep in touch with as
many people as possible during this time.
Our community connector has made welfare
calls and helped support those who neededa listening ear. She has also helped people geton Zoom and YouTube to enjoy our workshops.
The main issues with delivery during
lockdown have been learning and becoming
confident with the technology both for us andpractitioners. Before this all our delivery wasface to face. Some of our practitioners havebeen more comfortable than others with thisK E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

41Together Apart by Samphire dancers, The Festival of Islesolation, courtesy of Independent Arts.

new way of working and some have chosen not
to be involved. There has been no pressure fromus to be involved and we have continued tosupport our practitioners as much as possible.

Our focus for the future will be to continue tooffer a mixture of sessions, keeping some online
work but also hoping to return to working face
to face as restrictions allow.

Our participants in the community have enjoyedbeing able to take part in more of our projects
and they have found things more accessible.
Others have really struggled with loneliness as
they don’t have internet connections and havelost their usual groups. We have tried to keep in
telephone contact with as many as we can andlink them to other participants.

As workshops in care homes were a major
income stream for Independent Arts, there
is of course concern for our future financial
stability but we hope the charity can continue
to adapt and change in order to survive andremain relevant in the future.

Care homes have been busy and with many
participants being confined to rooms and outof communal areas. Some homes found it hardto access the YouTube workshops, but they
have also been a real lifeline and provided asense of normality in lockdown. We estimatethat we are currently reaching 50% of ourcare homes via our YouTube provision, withapproximately 300 beneficiaries regularly
viewing the content
We have all had to adapt quickly and our main
focus was to ensure that our workshops andsessions online were as professional, highquality and meaningful as those we deliver
face to face. It took us a while to strike the rightbalance, but we feel it was worth spending thatextra time to get it right.

Where we have lost face-to-face work, we havebeen able to open our groups and workshops toa whole new audience. SingAbout participants
zoom in from as far away as East Lancashireand people in New Zealand are enjoying
our poetry.

42

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Leeds Playhouse

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
Leeds Playhouse is a cultural hub, where people
engage in world-class theatre and creative
engagement projects. Leeds Playhouse has
been at the forefront of creative ageing since
1990, when Heydays, its flagship creative arts
programme for over 55s, began. Thirty years
later Heydays continues to thrive and has
produced numerous off-shoot programmes
including Feeling Good Theatre Company, acompany of older performers creating shows
exploring issues of ageing, and a collaborative
partnership with The Performance Ensemble
to produce work led by older artists including
2016’s Anniversary.
Since 2010, the Playhouse has developed
pioneering creative programmes for, with andby people living with dementia, including theworld’s first dementia-friendly performance andsubsequent guidance for the theatre industry.
Every Third Minute (2018) – a ground-breaking
festival of theatre, dementia and hope – wascurated by people living with dementia. In
March 2020, a play carefully created overthree years with the input of people livingwith dementia – Maggie May by Frances Poet
– opened for just three performances before
government advice forced its early closure.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
We paused activity as soon as it felt unsafe tomeet, entering a ‘holding’ phase which focusedon supporting existing participants who rely
on Leeds Playhouse for their social contact.
We swiftly learned about using Zoom andconducted an audit of participants’ accessto devices and data in our dementia-related
projects. We offered multiple test sessions tocoach individuals to use the best methods forthem – phone, video call, smartphone, laptop,
PC – whilst simultaneously establishing withartists activities that could connect, whilefeeling achievable, safe and fun. In early
lockdown seeing another human face was a
priority – even if the sound didn’t work – formany who live alone, but with perseverance
we found loans of devices where needed andmanaged to meaningfully connect all our regularattendees. Weekly sessions with people withdementia have continued throughout lockdown
and beyond and we have welcomed newcomers
during this time.
We dealt with the immediate disappointmentof the cancellation of Maggie May by hosting avirtual gathering on Zoom, where the creatives
and cast could celebrate and commiserate withour consultants affected by dementia. It felt
important to mark this occasion in a timely
manner as so much energy had been invested,
and we were aware that by the time the show
may be restaged its immediate relevance
may have faded or disappeared for some
contributors with dementia.
We telephoned each of our 250+ Heydays
members to assess the level of support
they required, categorising their need for an
urgent referral to a partner agency for food or
health-related support, or a welfare check via
a phone call on either a weekly or fortnightly
basis from a friendly, regular caller. All Heydays
members were sent a package of at-homecreative activities within a week of lockdown.
For those with online access, a Facebook
group was established and run by members
to maintain regular connection. A fortnightly
e-newsletter (with printed copies sent to people
without digital access) included creative stimuli
such as writing haiku poetry or photographingan object and receiving a poem or photo in
return to complete an exchange. Heydays
sessions via Zoom now connect participants
with artists, using breakout rooms for activities
such as creative writing and visual arts. The
earlier forms of contact via phone, post andemail continue, with telephone calls made bya team of staff and volunteers.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

43Leeds Playhouse Our Time participant, Pauline, with her daughter Jo. Photo by Jo Lee.

Existing professional partnerships have beensolidified, enabling us to reach care homeresidents with co-ordinated activity packs,
make referrals and access equipment whilst
supporting partners to reach participants andshare our learning around digital delivery.

Impact
The digital divide was incredibly apparent at
the start of lockdown. Assisting people to use
various methods to engage in remote activity
took tremendous effort, time, perseverance
and patience. Overnight artists had to learn
new ways of working, adapting everything
we would normally offer to be accessible andenjoyable in a totally different format.

We all (artists and participants) experienced
frustration and exhaustion with technology
whilst also dealing with the fear and lonelinessof the situation itself. Successful moments oftogetherness became genuine celebrations.

I feel like someone does care.
Our Time participant

Shorter sessions allowed for the fatigue ofusing the screen; however preparation time
dramatically increased as personalised coaching
and trial sessions were vital whilst learning touse new formats safely and accessibly.

This has given me a reason to wash
my hair.
Our Time participant

44Some participants with dementia experienced
confusion about the use of a screen forcommunication and relatives needed to support
their partner in different ways. We desperately
miss the power of touch and the subtle, focused
encouragement we can offer in person. Social
embarrassment could be amplified by the brightyellow frame of Zoom, whilst other expressions
or behaviours which may have felt exposing
in person were reduced by the comfort ofbeing at home. The stresses of getting readyand journeys to a physical meeting point werereduced. Participants have generously offeredaspects of their home lives to influence session
content, such as inspiring Our Time participantsin the creation of pom-poms led by Jo and hermum, Pauline (photographed, p43).
Dealing with grief and loss remotely has
been a particular challenge. Inevitably wehave experienced the illness and death ofparticipants and have found the absence of
the usual rituals of comforting each other andsharing grief difficult to replace. We have notsolved this but we are determined to find a way
to mark the important lives lost at a point when
we can be together.

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
Participants long to return to the Playhouseand trust us to ensure their safety while theytake part in sessions, but many rely on public
transport and are anxious about having to mix
with others who may not be as careful. Thereis a feeling that much of society has returned
to normal, whilst for many of our participants
the need to shield, protect a loved one and stayseparate is keenly felt. We have conquered
aspects of the digital divide, found ways toconnect at distance, and will continue to do sountil we feel safe to return to in-person activity.

The creative ageing sector will needto explore and address the divides andinequalities experienced, to challenge howolder people were treated in Covid-19
policy and practice and to amplify
ways to embrace creative, adventurous
opportunities in later life.

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45

National Theatre of Scotland

BEFORE LOCK DOWN
National Theatre of Scotland is a theatre
without walls: we create theatre for traditional
theatres as well as unconventional spaces aswell as develop unique collaborative projects
with communities across Scotland.
We started creating work in 2006 foraudiences of all ages, across Scotland, theUK and internationally.
Our Artistic Director Jackie Wylie met the
Melbourne-based team at All The Queens Men
in 2018. Inspired by their work with LGBTI+
elders, we wanted to bring their concept to
Scotland. We wanted to thank our older LGBTI+
community for the decades of campaigningthey have done and to celebrate them.
We launched fortnightly social dance clubs in
May 2019 where people come together freely
for dancing, fun and friendship and a teamof LGBTI+ artists ran regular dance clubs in
Scottish towns and cities. Our aim, before
Covid-19, was to bring all these people together
for the ‘Coming Back Out Ball’ in June 2020.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
We were able to respond quickly. We knew
the vast majority of our dance club members
were online so we moved the clubs to a digitalplatform where we could keep connections
alive. It was incredibly important to maintain our
relationship with the members – we didn’t wantthese connections to break.
We had to move swiftly in testing this modelof working to ensure our digital platform was asafe, secure and welcoming space for our older
people whilst at the same time ensuring thecreation of the new online dance clubs fulfilled
their creative purpose and standard of delivery.
They had to be inclusive and great fun!

We reworked our creative practice to give roomfor voices to continue to be heard. A section of
the online dance clubs is dedicated to members
selecting a music track to be played and that
person telling us why the track means so muchto them and the story attached to this.
We also wanted to give room for people todance in their homes or to sit back and relax
and continue to feel welcomed. We know – inreal life – some people want to dance and somerather watch so we had to replicate that online.
We are currently trialling online after-party
events on a suggestion from one of ourmembers as well as adding other member-led
activities such as cookery classes andorigami making.
We have extended our project by 12 months
in light of the current pandemic to allow the
project to culminate in The Coming Back Out
Ball, now taking place in June 2021.

ImpactWe have learnt that whilst a digital platform is
an opportunity for growth (we are welcoming
LGBTI elders from England, Wales, Canada,
Germany and Australia), it doesn’t reach all our
original members.
To help, we are offering training and equipment
to members of our LGBTI+ community who
wouldn’t normally use online platforms and
we are currently seeking other opportunities.
We have contributed an activity to a packcreated by Luminate, Scotland’s Creative
Ageing Agency, and Vintage Vibes in
Edinburgh, and this will go to isolated elders in
Edinburgh as well as our LGBT Elders who are
not engaging with us currently.
We are also looking at postcard exchanges.

46

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O NSocial dance club in Glasgow pre-lockdown. Photo courtesy of the National Theatre of Scotland.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

Our practitioners have been brilliant at
adapting to the situation. They have been
decorating their houses and dressing up forthe occasion in order to maintain the party
spirit we create at our live dance clubs. It
is a very different challenge to lead events
online and practitioners and participants havebeen incredible.

I feel the best I’ve been since lockdown
started. More like my naturally positive
self. All the cells in my body have danced...
and this feeling is sooooo good!!!
Carrie, member

It was a strange and wondrous
occasion and we all I am sure realise thesignificance of the evening. It was toomuch like magic in the past to expect
such things to happen, and indeed wasan historic moment in Scottish LGBTQI+
social history.
David, member

47

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
We will continue with our Social Dance Clubs
online for the foreseeable future and willconsider returning to live real clubs whencircumstances allow and when our older
members have the appetite and desire to meet.
We continue to seek out new ways to stayconnected with our dance club members andlisten to what works and what does not work.
We are extending the project by another twelve
months, fully funded by the National Theatre of
Scotland. We have not secured funding for the
project, despite best efforts. Our team will lookagain but there is a challenge as this is activity
which has already happened.
We will continue the work of the social danceclubs because we’re committed to the groupand we have found it to be a hugely enjoyable
and moving project.
Our longer exit out of the project will hopefully
give us more time to develop a longer-term
strategy and legacy model that allows the
project to continue without the fully funded
support of National Theatre of Scotland.

48

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Northern Ireland War Memorial

BEFORE LOCK DOWNThe Northern Ireland War Memorial is anaccredited museum in Belfast which tells thestory of the home front in Northern Ireland
during the Second World War.
The museum offers a range of engaging
workshops for older people including
reminiscence, object handling, craft and1940s cookery demonstrations. Working in
partnership with a music therapist, Karen
Diamond, we host a monthly singing andreminiscence workshop called Sing for Victory
which focuses on songs from the 1940s. All
programmes are designed to be multi-sensory
and fun while having a strong focus on
encouraging wellbeing for older people.
We take part in Belfast City Council’s Positive
Ageing Month every year by hosting an event.
In recent years we have offered singing,reminiscence, craft, cookery and spoken
word performances.
The museum is registered as working tobecome a dementia-friendly venue with thesupport of the Alzheimer’s Society, and we havebeen offering dementia-friendly experiences

for audiences since 2014. In 2019, we createda free reminiscence loan box for activity
therapists and community group leaders whichcontains objects relating to life during theSecond World War, allowing the resource tobe used to stimulate conversations with people
living with dementia.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
At the beginning of lockdown the Northern
Ireland War Memorial had to start thinking
creatively about ways to continue engaging
with its older audiences.
One of our first initiatives was to create a freesingalong CD of 1940s songs based on ourdementia-friendly singing and reminiscenceworkshops. We produced a songbook toaccompany the CD along with some suggested
exercises taken from Love to Move, a British
Gymnastics Foundation seated exercise
programme for older people. We then posted
this resource out to care homes across Northern
Ireland as a way to raise spirits and encourage
staff and residents during lockdown.
Another initiative we undertook was to develop
virtual versions of our workshops for carehomes. Using Zoom, we employed objects
from our handling collection, PowerPoint
presentations and music to stimulate
conversations and reminiscence with groupsof care home residents.

We have received the CD and
our residents love it. In fact they are
doing their daily exercises to the music
today. Thank you so much for thiskind gesture.
Care home staff member

Reminiscence box , Northern Ireland War Memorial.

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49

A Love to Move session pre-lockdown. Photo courtesy of Northern Ireland War Memorial.

Music has been particularly important for the
success of our virtual singing and reminiscenceworkshops, with a music therapist playing
live piano to accompany the participants’singing. We organised one of these workshopswith a care home for the 75th anniversaryof VE Day in May 2020. The museum also
created a YouTube video incorporating recorded
memories of VE Day from our oral history
collection, wartime songs and newspaper
images to commemorate the anniversary.
In May 2020 we received a Dementia
Friendly Museums grant from the Northern
Ireland Museums Council to enable us todeliver a digital pilot of the Love to Move
programme, partnering with a Belfast carehome and Sport NI to create six weekly
workshops incorporating movement, music
and reminiscence. This built upon an earlier
face-to-face version of the programme we ran
in January-February 2020, and the workshops
proved to be a valuable addition to our online
outreach during lockdown.

ImpactAll our lockdown initiatives have been wellreceived, particularly by care homes who
have understandably faced huge challenges
regarding their residents’ health and wellbeing
during lockdown. Feedback from care home
staff included the following comments:

Thank you so much for hosting thesesessions. They came just when needed– with the isolation of lockdown, theresidents really needed something else tothink/talk about. We would definitely love
to do this again.
That was great this afternoon! The
residents were saying how pleased they
were that they came as they were a bit
apprehensive about the whole idea of‘video chats’.

50

The main challenges we found in trying todevelop our lockdown programming have been
largely related to digital poverty or technology.
We contacted a number of care homes andsupporting living facilities to offer our virtual
workshops and, despite interest from staff,
the lack of Wi-Fi or access to the necessary
equipment meant that we had limited uptake
from those we contacted. We have also foundthat sometimes the sound quality means it canbe difficult to fully engage with participants
using Zoom, while the size of a group andtheir position in front of a screen, mean thatthe details of reminiscence presentations
can be lost.

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
Despite the challenges, we are pleased with thequality of the engagement we continue to havewith older people during this uncertain period.
Due to demand, we have produced a second
batch of our singalong CDs and we continue
to post these out for older people to enjoy.
We continue to run our virtual workshops
and there remains a steady appetite for digital
engagement amongst care homes.

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

The Northern Ireland Museums Council has
agreed to fund a second dementia-friendly
online programme called Memories, Movement
and Museums and we look forward topartnering with the same care home in Belfast
from the earlier pilot. The project will now
include training based on the exercises andreminiscence for the care home staff as well
as funding to put together a Covid-secure loanbox, ensuring a more multisensory and blended
experience for the participants.
The Northern Ireland War Memorial reopened
to the public in September 2020, allowing
people to safely visit the museum. We lookforward to offering face-to-face workshops
for older people again whenever it is safe to doso and, in the meantime, remain committed tofinding creative ways to keeping connectingwith our older visitors.

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51

The Whitworth

BEFORE LOCK DOWNThe Whitworth, part of the Universityof Manchester, founded in memory of theindustrialist Sir Joseph Whitworth, wasdone so with one aim: that it act for the“the perpetual gratification of the peopleof Manchester”.
It is that aim, in all its educational, cultural andinspirational forms, that creates an unbroken
thread between The Whitworth then and
The Whitworth now.
The Age Friendly Whitworth programme
at the gallery was developed in 2009 with
the implementation of a City-wide Cultural
Offer for older people across Manchester.
Our Age Friendly programme cuts across all
our work including workshops, research, talks,
exhibitions and collections.
Over the last eleven years we have delivereda wide range of Age Friendly projects withthousands of older people. During the closureof the gallery for redevelopment in 2013-15,
we developed a project with a local care facility
when we worked with older men and thisculminated in an exhibition in the new gallery
for the reopening.
Since reopening we have developed a regularcore programme around a weekly craft
session, Handmade.

RESPONSE TO LOCK DOWN
One of the first things we did in responseto the lockdown was to find new ways tokeep in touch with the regulars who attend
the Handmade sessions. We set up video
calls, social media channels and following
conversations a new WhatsApp group forour regulars.

We also felt that it was important to keep ourHandmade sessions going online, though withrestricted budgets, these social sessions weredelivered by our Age Friendly Coordinator
rather than our regular freelance artists. The
project relaunched as #handmadeathome andsessions ran live over Zoom.
Online sessions ran every Friday afternoon
until July. After each session we put together
a workshop instruction sheet that then wenton the Age Friendly Whitworth Facebook
page and was linked to the Whitworth’s social
media. This enabled the activity to be sharedwith a wider audience beyond those that
attended the Zoom sessions and although
we can’t be sure how many people followed
the worksheets, we do know that after
those posts the numbers visiting the pageincreased dramatically.
The #handmadeathome group also responded
to Black Lives Matter through discussions aswell as artwork to share online. The group havealso help make podcasts, joined other online
meetings and worked on plans for developing
future projects such as the Menopause Musingsand the Men in Sheds.

It was also really good that people
were welcome to chat and not participate
in the art activities. We also had a coupleof zoom sessions where we just chatted
and supported each other -that worked
really well too. THANK YOU so muchfor the sessions!
Marcia, Handmade at Home participant

52

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

A Handmade at Home session on Zoom. Photo courtesy of The Whitworth.

Impact
The lockdown period has made us think
differently about how we work with andengage older people, especially in participatory
activities. At the start of the lockdown there
was a concern that older people would struggle
with the technology and it would exclude somepeople from engaging. Whilst it is the casethat not everyone (no matter what age) has
access to either laptops or internet, it is also
the case that lots of older people over 60 are
in fact very comfortable with using and trying
new technology.
One of our regular participants had recently
stopped coming to the weekly sessions in thegallery as their physical ill health prevented
them from getting there and the online
sessions have enabled them to participate
again. Another concern was the accessibility ofmaterials for participating and we were awarethat not everyone would have a ready supplyof equipment and resources. The solution forthis was to come up with workshop ideas thatused readily available materials, such as making
a loom from cardboard and using scraps ofmaterial, string, wool etc to make a weaving.
The Handmade sessions are already firmly
established as a regular Friday afternoon
two-hour slot so we decided to keep to thatframework as people were used to it. The maindifficulty was not having the financial resources
to continue the usual pattern of employing
freelance artists to deliver the weekly sessions
but fortunately we had the skills internally to beable to deliver as staff on the engagement team
were working throughout the lockdown.

I have found our Zoom meetings to be
so beneficial. It has allowed us to continue
to be creative at home but in a group,
using the sort of materials we have athome, or are easily accessible from local
shops. An additional and really important
aspect of Zoom, particularly for those of
us who live alone, is that it has reduced
isolation. This was particularly importantduring the early days of lockdown
when it wasn’t possible to meet withanyone outside of your own household.
I also feel that we’ve got to know eachother better.
Nuala, Handmade at Home participant

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Because we’ve almost become likea large family, I miss face the faceinteraction, the chats and the laughs.
The Friday sessions on Zoom is a great
idea as the creativity hasn’t come to an
end. I enjoyed teaching the bunting session
for unityarts as it got me back into being
productive and leading a workshop.
Handmade artist

Financially it has been a struggle too
the last two months as I am not able toteach most my students. I’m grateful forwhatever work I’ve been offered. From theHandmade WhatsApp group, I’ve beenable to see everyone’s creativity, seen new
ideas and made a bag from a T shirt on
one of the Zoom handmade sessions...
That was enjoyable. I look forward to art
galleries opening again.
Aysha, Handmade artist53

BE YOND LOCK DOWN
As the lockdown eases and we are able toget back into the gallery and offer workshops,
we intend to do that in a different way. We
will continue to deliver the regular sessions
alongside adding in the facility to include
additional participants online.
The core group that has attended the online
sessions during lockdown is already developing
into what could be classed as volunteers andthey will be supported to deliver sessions andcreate events as well as providing advice on
ideas for new projects and funding.

54

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O NPauseC I T Y A R T S C O M M I S S I O N E D P O E T PA N J A B A N J O K O T O C R E AT E
T H I S C O L L E C T I V E P O E M F O R N O T T I N G H A M C A L L E D ‘ PA U S E ’.
M A N Y OF THE 93 CONTRIBUTIONS C A ME FROM OLDE R PEOPLE .

When the world paused, to greedily breathe in hope,
I catch myself standing by the window
leaning into solitude.
We are wet clay among the chaos.
Behind a locked door, my life isa stretch to breathe reflect and hopewhile May winds storm the hawthorn hedges.
the pendulum swings, rising and falling.
And we are so small from this forced stillness.
Thoughts travellin’ tirelessly, turning to face a cloudless sky
standing still in time, mindful, loving and true,
fixed in a windowpane, hearing nature’s sigh.
We face it all, the sick, the lonely,debt, fear, apathy, the caw of funeral crows,
broken and fallen apart, the cracks start to appear.
Thing aren’t always as they seem, if only we hear.
Birds, bluebells, the beat of your heart,
examine them closely. I do not crave an ending
at a time like this, beyond the laps of the lawn,
beyond your own barriers to feel vexedrushing everywhere, halfway home.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

I breathe deeply; my madness hard
remember those who are no longer
with the present, stilled by the unthinkable.
Has life been kind beneath azure skies?
Starlings take flight, bathed in summer sun,linger a while, hold that note, so we can see
our truth and watch the lilacs bloom.
When I let go, look up and around,
finally grasp this fragile planet
through innocence renewed, pause, to smell hyacinths
to stop and breathe, drift away from all hurt,
I can see a new paradigm,
winged, free, youthful, quiet moments a plenty,
birdsongs divine. What will happen next?
It is quite true to say we make history
breathing in and out the possibilities of tomorrow
hanging in the air. Don’t mourn for me with an old blue hum,feel this city for a moment and capture every blue spring sky.
When time is served, life on hold, absorbing the wonder,these moments may not happen again,
faces on screens mapped in history.
Step backwards to calm, we are all in this together
to recall and enjoy white tailed bumblebees.
For all these days and more, normal life is gone
and yet we reign, mind at ease, still, and grateful.

For more about City Arts, see page 28.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Beyond lockdown
A DA P T I N G T O A N U N C E R TA I N F U T U R E

NEITHER LOCK DOWNNOR ‘NORMALIT Y ’
Writing in September 2020 at a time dominatedby social distancing, the most stringent
restrictions of the Spring are no longer inforce but nor have we returned to life before
lockdown in terms of social interaction,
especially for vulnerable older people. Whenthat will happen is entirely opaque. The new
approach to creative ageing through working
remotely is still the prime way of working,with few examples of say, artists going intocare homes and using social distancing. Thistransformation has now been in operation forsix months with no end in sight. One of the
respondents to our survey commented thatthe chief challenge now is keeping up moraleand motivation.
The creative ageing sector entered the
pandemic with skills, resources andrelationships, often developed over decades.
It needed to very quickly adapt to a totallychanged reality. The success of the sector willlie in a continued ability to adapt.

FUNDING FE ARSOver 90% of the respondents to our survey
are more worried about the financial viabilityof their organisations.
One of the shifts that has happened over thelast ten years is that more larger, ‘mainstream’arts organisations are delivering creative ageing
projects. Despite the Government’s funding
intervention for the arts and the valiant work of
the four national arts councils, arts organisations
that are dependent on ticket revenue, especiallythose with performance venues like theatres,
are facing immense challenges in keeping afloat
as we endure a period of social distancing withno clear end date. And arts organisations thathave relied more on grant income from funders

are highly aware that those same funders are
puzzling how to make up for that shortfall inticket revenue for other organisations. Freelance
artists upon whom many creative ageing arts
programmes depend have been having an eventougher time than the rest of the sector.
Another part of this issue is that so little
support has come from health funding, despite
the health benefits of creative ageing. Funding
has tended to come almost always from arts
funders or more generalist funders such as the
National Lottery. This needs to change.
Also it has been rare for social careorganisations, which for many years havebeen experiencing deep financial insecurities,
to have been able to contribute to the fees ofarts organisations providing creative sessions.
The Government has stated that it will reformthe social care sector to make it viable. If thishappened there may be more capacity forfunding from this source.
The Government has also committed itself
to funding work to diminish the scourge ofloneliness in society, undoubtedly made worseby the lockdown and again, this fundingneeds to recognise the positive impact of
creative ageing.

DIVERSIT Y… AND INEQUALIT Y
Older people are as gloriously diverse as
the rest of the population in every possible
respect. The creative ageing sector is seeking
to celebrate that as discussed in our publication
On Diversity and Creative Ageing. Case studies
in this report by the Centre for Contemporary
Chinese Art and the National Theatre of
Scotland give examples of activities targeting
specific communities and other case studies
are seeking to be inclusive.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

But we know from previous research thechallenges here. For instance, research that we
supported (Arts and Dementia in the UK South
Asian Diaspora, 2019) has indicated some of
the reasons for lower engagement by someolder South Asian people, and it is well known
that men tend to be more socially isolated
and also less involved in creative ageing. The
pandemic has raised new questions about our
deeply unequal and fragmented society such as
the higher risk of infection for members of the
BAME community.
Contributors to this report also noted that moremarginalised groups of older people, whether
particular communities, the very old, or thosein ill-health, may have become more isolated
during the pandemic. Flourishing Lives cite theneed to be aware that some people may havebecome newly digitally excluded, through forexample, the closure of libraries. Therefore, it isimportant that thought is given to the diversity
implications of this remote way of working. We
have already discussed the digital divide. How
can this new blended way of working be madeas inclusive as possible?

It is of great concern to us that themore marginalised participants that wework with are even more isolated and notable to participate in community life at
the moment.
City Arts

WE NEED A NEW K IND
OF TOGETHERNESSArtists and older participants will often talkabout the togetherness that comes fromcreating art. This can be the most important
aspect of the work as recognised in our 2012
report with the Campaign to End Loneliness– Tackling loneliness in old age: The role of
the arts. This has almost always come frombeing in a room together. Indeed, Nicky Taylor
emphasises in her case study on Leeds
Playhouse (see page 42) how tactile creative
ageing with people with dementia often is.
So, for a while that togetherness, for creativity
in care homes at least, is going to mainly comeeither from care workers and friends andfamily bringing the arts into residents lives or
via a different form of connection to an artist
who can’t literally be in the room.

57… It is not easy to replicate gentle thetouch of a hand over a hand supporting
someone holding a paint brush to paint a
flower and in many cases it is not possible
for many staff in care homes who are sobusy (especially during the current crisis)
to take the time with each individual tohelp them join in an art project.
This is something we workshop leaders
are trained for in ‘normal’ face-to-faceworkshops – we have the time to sit withsomeone for a few minutes, explain tothem the project, show them photos ofbeautiful flowers, chat to them about
colours while reminiscing about theirgarden or flowers they loved.
We had the time to gently hold the card
closer to the individual with dementia
so that they could see the shape, and wait
as they considered what colour they may
like to use and where to put their first boldbrush stroke. And we have the time to go
back and sit with them at the end of asession and show them their piece of art
and the beautiful joint art project that has
been created.
This is something that is so important –a connection and acknowledgment withindividuals, an understanding, a sharedgoal of enjoyment in creating in whateverform, with less focus on the end productand more on the moment. And I think thisface-to-face creative human interaction
can’t and shouldn’t be replaced andhopefully will therefore return and thrive
once more in the near future.
Survey respondent

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THE FUTURE IS BLENDED
It has already been shown that the answer
to remote creative ageing is not online onlyinterventions, given not least the significanceof the digital divide. A very strong majority(90%) of the organisations that we surveyed
felt that they would be running a blended
mixture of face-to-face and remote provision in
the future (compared to 10% before lockdown).
Although the digital strand of work is cheap,
non-digital resources such as individual activity
packs come with a cost in time and money.
However, the arts organisations that we haveresearched have in almost all cases previously
used face-to-face methods and long for the day
when they can go back, say into a care home,and hold the hand of a resident and createa different level of connection.
Even so, once in-person sessions eventually
become possible, it is likely that some of theelements of digital working will be retained,
as well as the huge amount of content which
has now been put online.

T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

As social distancing looks set to be in place fora considerable while, even fewer care homes
will feel able to welcome artists into theirbuildings. So, activity delivered by care workers
naturally becomes the more essential.

REFINING WHAT WORKS
Understandably there has been relatively little
evaluation so far regarding the effectivenessof remote working given how swift the change
has been. One example is NAPA’s evaluation of
the intergenerational After Party project which
is a new iteration of Cocktails in Care Homes
run by Magic Me and The Elders at the Royal
Exchange Manchester.
There is certainly a drive by artists to examine
this new type of practice and this has been
facilitated by a number of creative ageing
networks. There also needs to be a commitment
to continue to innovate and adapt. This shouldbe evaluated by the research community andthe results widely disseminated.

K E Y WORK ERS
THE ROLE OF CARE WORK ERS IN
CRE ATIVE AGEING IS NOW E VEN
MORE IMPORTANT
It has long been the case that professional arts
organisations are only regularly involved witha small percentage of care homes. Therefore if
there is to be a good creative offer this needs tobe from other sources, especially provided bycare home staff. There have been many training
programmes and resources developed to help
care homes staff in this in recent years. Among
many examples is the National Arts in Care
Homes Day run by NAPA (National Activity
Providers Association). It is still uncertain the
degree to which these free resources are being
taken up by the majority of care homes. Thereneeds to be both support for care homes but
also an expectation by residents, families andcare homes that creative ageing is essential andeven more precious in the pandemic.

The American artist Theaster Gates memorably
replied when asked why the US Government
should be funding the arts rather than essential
services, ‘But beauty is an essential service’.
The power of creative ageing has been
demonstrated during lockdown as neverbefore, despite all its challenges. Most of oursurvey respondents (68%) felt that the valueof creative ageing is now more generally
recognised. We have all come to accept that
we have depended on key or essential workers
whether that is a nurse in an ICU, a care worker
in a residential home, someone delivering a
supermarket order or the refuse collection.
Artists providing creative ageing activities arealso key workers.

K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

59RECOMMENDATIONSFUNDERSAll funders have been under unprecedented
pressure during the pandemic and this willremain the case for a long while. Even so, thesignificance of creative ageing in the crisis
means they should prioritise this work.

ARTS ORGANISATIONS
The public and policy makers need to appreciate
what vital work creative ageing is. Arts
organisations must blow their own trumpet
in the local and national media.
This has been a tough time for everyone
including artists. Arts organisations needto display good practice on how best to
support the wellbeing of artists working
in creative ageing.
The end of social distancing is nowhere in sightand arts organisations need to continue toinnovate and refine new ways of working fortheir own job satisfaction and for the benefitof older people. Particular attention needs to be
paid to being as inclusive as possible.

But beauty is an
essential service.
Theaster Gates

SECTOR SUPPORT BODIES AND
CRE ATIVE AGEING NET WORKS
Age of Creativity, Flourishing Lives andLuminate in Scotland and others have been
doing a great job in bringing practitioners
together to reflect on their need to change
practice and this will remain needed forsome time.

RESE ARCHERS
There is now a strong body of evidence aroundthe benefits of creative ageing, much of which
is based on face-to-face activity. More researchis needed on what works best in working
remotely and who is being neglected bythis approach.

CARE HOMES
Care home staff are under great pressure but
will be the main people in physical contact
with residents during social distancing. Arts
organisations and care home umbrella bodies
need to redouble efforts to bring skills andresources to care workers to undertake thisvital work.
Some care homes have begun to experimentwith very controlled arrangements to bringartists back and on-site and the results of thisshould be disseminated.

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T H E B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N

Online resources
S E L E C T E D O N L I N E L O C K D OW N R E S O U R C E S
F O R C R E AT I V E AG E I N G
The Age of Creativity website has over a
thousand members concerned with creative
ageing and a range of resources.
www.ageofcreativity.co.uk
Age UK and 64 Million Artists produced
this pack of 31 creative challenges designed
to be a month of short, daily inspirations totry. Each of the challenges was created bya member of an Age UK community club, inpartnership with a creative practitioner from64 Million Artists.
www.ageofcreativity.co.uk/assets/pdfs/A0fC
Creative activity booklet A5 v3.pdf
The Armchair App from City Arts in
Nottingham, now being developed withaugmented reality features.
armchairgallery.co.uk
Arts in Care Homes (run by NAPA – National
Activity Providers’ Association) has a website
funded by the Rayne Foundation and the Baring
Foundation with a myriad of how-to guides andresources for care homes.
artsincarehomes.org.uk/howtoeverydaycreativity
Live Music Now has a new series ofpre-recorded performances suitablefor care homes.
www.livemusicnow.org.uk/lmnathomecare

Luminate, the creative ageing development
agency for Scotland, has a gallery of videos
including from Luminate@Home, its new
programme of online creative activities createdduring lockdown.
www.luminatescotland.org/video-gallery
Manchester Museum’s Cultural First Aid Kit
has creative & fun activities and workshop ideas
for carers that can be completed at home.
www.mminquarantine.com/
resources-for-carers
National Museums Liverpool has thedementia-friendly My House of Memories app
which you can use to explore objects from thepast and share memories together.
houseofmemories.co.uk/things-to-do/
my-house-of-memories-app
Paintings in Hospitals have produced an A-Zof visual arts activities and inspirational ideas
for care homes called Creative Care Homes.
www.paintingsinhospitals.org.uk/
creative-care-homes-introduction
Small Things’ Storybox Project is a fun andinclusive programme of activities for people
living with dementia.
smallthings.org.uk/2020/01/25/the-storyboxproject-at-home-3

London Bubble, a participatory theatrecompany, produced a series of activities
to do at home.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence has
a Baring Foundation funded microsite with lotsof activities and art form specific advice forcare homes.

www.ageofcreativity.co.uk/assets/pdfs/
Tatita’s rainbow e-booklet FINAL.pdf

www.scie.org.uk/person-centred-care/arts-in-care-homes

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K E Y W O R K E R S : C R E AT I V E A G E I N G I N L O C K D O W N A N D A F T E R

Publications
S E L E C T E D B A R I N G F O U N DAT I O N P U B L I C AT I O N S
All publications can be found on our website www.baringfoundation.org.uk

Older and wiser?

ON DIVERSIT Y AND
C R E AT I V E AG E I N GCreative ageing in the UK
2010–19

A selection of projects bringing arts andcreativity to under-served older communities

A R O U N D T H E WO R L D
I N 8 0 C R E AT I V E
AG E I N G P R O J E C T S
by David Cutler

Curated by Harriet Lowe

Treasury of arts activities
for older people
Liz Postlethwaite
A second Treasury is dueout in September 2021

Older and wiser:
creative ageing in the UK
2010-19
Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt,
King’s College London

On diversity andcreative ageing

Around the world in 80
creative ageing projects

Harriet Lowe

David Cutler

WINTER FIRES
Art and agency in old age
Old age haunts the human imagination. Nowadays, it also
haunts the politics, sociology, medicine and economics ofan ageing world. Art has taken age as a subject since ancient
times, giving its unique insights into other experiences. And
artists have always shown that ageing does not mean
stopping or even slowing down.
Winter Fires explores how the practice of art can change not
the fact but the experience of old age. Art confers agency on
its creator. It offers a capacity to act in the world by making
something that did not exist before.
The book is based on conversations with artists of all kinds
who, whatever else retirement has brought, are as creative
as ever. Illustrated with portraits by Mik Godley, WinterFires offers an unusual, optimistic glimpse of creative ageing.

Winter Fires

Art and agency in old age

T H E RO LE O F LOC A L AU T H O R I T I E S
I N C R E AT I V E AG E I N GSecond edition with new case studies
from councils across the UK

Technically Olderan update on digital arts and creative ageing

by David Cutler

By Joe Randall£5 where sold
REGULAR MARVELSISBN 978-1-906172-16-9

The Artist in Time
Chris Fite-Wassilak
and Ollie Harrop

François Matarasso

Winter Fires: art andagency in old age
François Matarasso

The role of local
authorities in creative
ageingTechnically older: an
update on digital artsand creative ageing

David Cutler

Joe Randall

The Baring Foundation
8-10 Moorgate
London EC2R 6DA
020 7767 1348
www.baringfoundation.org.uk
Twitter: @baring_foundOctober 2020
ISBN: 978-1-906172-51-0