Building on the Artist in Residence in a Care Setting, we are developing creative supports for care settings in order to ensure easier access to the arts for the residents and visitors of those settings. This initiative specifically supports the needs of care home staff in developing new activities for the residents and visitors.
How does it work?
The Arts and Creative Toolkit for Care Settings, launched in 2021, is designed for use by managers and staff, in particular care setting creative activity coordinators, as well as non-arts professionals interested in arts in care contexts. It is informed by our work over many years to ensure meaningful engagement in care settings and make the arts and creativity intrinsic to care.
The Toolkit is intended to provide straightforward advice, knowhow and useful videos for people who want to bring more creative activities into care settings and get the most out of working with artists. It is our aim to profoundly enhance the lives of the residents and attendees of care settings around Ireland and beyond.
As we continue to develop other supports we will include them here.
How can I get involved?
Read our Toolkit for Arts & Creativity in Care Settings here.
If you work in a care setting and would like to request a hard copy, please contact us.
What is ‘Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway: An Introduction to the Arts’?
In 2022 we produced a video, ‘Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway: An Introduction to the Arts’, which aims to further encourage arts participation in care settings using testimonial.
How does it work?
The video uses using testimonial and footage from previous Age & Opportunity Arts residencies in care settings. Featuring contributions from:
Shann Morris – Clinical Nurse Manager, Naas Day Centre
Joanna Hopkins – Artist
Declan McGonagle – Curator/Writer and former Director of Irish Museum of Modern Art and National College of Art and Design
Tom Horan – Participant, Castleisland Day Care
How can I get involved?
Watch our video ‘Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway: An Introduction to the Arts’.
What is National Arts in Nursing Homes Day?
Age & Opportunity’s Bealtaine Festival, in partnership with Nursing Homes Ireland invites care homes and day care settings around Ireland to participate in National Arts in Nursing Homes Day.
On the third Friday of May each year, as part of the Bealtaine Festival, we invite you to showcase the wonderful creative activity taking place in your nursing home or day care service either through planning an activity that takes place on that day or exhibiting work already made in a special way. We also encourage you to invite family and friends to join you at some point in the day (be that in person or virtually).
How does it work?
Of course we know that creative activity happens throughout the year but we encourage you to schedule a special creative activity on the third Friday in May. By focusing on one day, we hope to garner more public attention for this wonderful work.
Whether you would like to focus on one activity or pack the day with different workshops, performances and exhibitions, there is lots to choose from. Why not canvas your residents and see if there is something new they would like to try their hand at, or look through our Toolkit for Arts & Creativity in Care Settings for ideas.
Check out our leaflet for loads of ideas for your National Arts in Nursing Homes Day.
How can I get involved?
Plan your National Arts in Nursing Homes Day, on the third Friday each May, with the help of our leaflet and resources.
You can also register your event on our Bealtaine website.
After that we would love you to share your images with us on social media. Use the hashtag #ArtsInNursingHomesDay.
ORGANISATION & ART PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT : To support and inform arts organisations (and sometimes non-arts organisations) who work with or wish to work with older people and to raise the standard of arts practice more generally in the area of the arts and older people.
We believe that, whether you are 8 or 80 years old, we all should have access and opportunities to attend and participate in the arts and to realise our creative potential. Fresh thinking, bold experimentation and creativity are all fundamental to delivering a high quality of life for older people.
Research shows that arts programmes involving music, visual arts and drama, among other activities, have a profound influence on the quality of life of older people, with positive impacts on health, psychological well-being, confidence and autonomy as well as other benefits such as:
- happiness
- mental wellbeing
- reduced stress
- improved cognition
- sense of identity and personhood
- increased self-esteem and confidence
- reduced boredom.
