Making of Me
Based on our successful work in Herefordshire, The Courtyard was very excited to work with Order of St John’s Care Trust to bring our mentor led project to their residents and staff. This project sought to encourage creative participation and sharing of experiences, as well as encouraging the development of communication and creativity through working with older people using dance, drama and poetry as a starting point in nursing and residential homes.
Aims of the project
The Making of Me project aims to both improve quality of life and reduce social isolation for older people through direct access to the arts. The project was delivered by experienced and professional artists who worked to encourage, engage and support older people to have new experiences and gain new skills through this exciting new arts project.
Project structure
Each home involved in the project will have 3 artists working with them, a dancer, a poet, and a drama practitioner. These artists will work with you for 10 weeks at a time, and you will only have one artist at a time. Our artists will be working together to share information about what you have done together, and hopefully you will be able to develop on your favourite themes across several art forms!
Each residency will ran in a home for 10 weeks, 1 session a week. The first week is a planning meeting between care staff and the artist to discuss the project, look at what space will be used and for the artist to meet the residents. The following 8 sessions were delivered by the artist, with care staff supporting the sessions. The final session was always a celebration/sharing of the work made. This took place at the last session of the residency and is a culmination and celebration of the work created. The structure and content of the sessions were determined by the residents, staff and artists working together to create what they feel have been the key themes/important or significant points of exploration.
