Lapwing 'Live Artists Practice Wellbeing Inspired Group' #LAPWINGproject

The LAPWING ‘arts for dementia and community mental health wellbeing’ partnership project ran from 2016-17.

It was inspired, managed and evaluated by Fay Blair on behalf of the partnership led by Age UK Canterbury and was supported by Kent Creative Arts CIC.

Espression Arts were invited to be part of the training for artists around creative wellbeing projects and dementia. We were also one of the 8 artists to be invited to lead on a project at Barton Court Care Home in Sheppey. This was the first project we were working on our delivery process for older vulnerable people and people living with dementia.

Espression Arts placement at Barton Court Care Home Sheppey

Collaborative arts project working with older residents living at Barton Court Care Home to produce decorative ceramic tile mural to decorate their care home entrance way, Following workshops designed to get to know the participants, encourage them to take part and build confidence in painting and drawing their contribution to the mural. Participants were taken through a series of workshops which addressed the following:

1 – Mug Painting – building confidence and getting to know you activity where everyone had fun painting a mug which they got to take home after glazing.

2 – Designing and Idea Development – using collage techniques and laminated sheets to design a place mat which depicts your “View” local community. Drawing, colouring, cutting, selecting and placing skills to design their ideas for the mural.

3 – Drawing and structuring the mural – free drawing, stencilling, tracing skills to make sure everyone is comfortable painting one or more tile taking reference from their original laminated design.

4 – Painting and detailing the mural images seeing how they look together as a group.

5 – Showcase event and mini celebration at Barton Court with the participants, families, press and funders.

Our mural was showcased at an event for all 8 Artist to share their learning about working within their settings https://www.ageuk.org.uk/canterbury/about-us/lapwing-project/our-lapwing-artists-and-project-videos/catherine-arnell/ It was this project which sparked the idea to set up Espression Arts CIC.