I began working with people with dementia & Alzheimer’s at the Museum of the Home in London. I initially worked on a 6-year long project - devising & delivering creative wellbeing sessions at the museum and its outreach centres (care homes, hospitals & local community centres.) These involved handling plants & museum objects: reminiscing, sharing stories & creating something lovely inspired by the museum collection.
With the skills & experience gained through this, I’ve been leading workshops, & working 1-1, with local dementia organisations. I love connecting with local people affected by dementia & their carers/ families; hearing people’s stories & facilitating their creativity. Providing an open, warm & friendly space and a positive, confidence-building, wellbeing experience; seeing how surprised & proud people are with what they can make, often having displayed low self-esteem at the start of the activity.
A wonderful project: hugely creative Bright Shadow Zest participants from different dementia groups made brilliant bird-inspired work in these multi-sensory sessions I led with them
Winter plant-inspired drawings
Makers created fantastic fabric pieces for a group collaboration
We explored different drawing techniques & mediums. I was so impressed with how beautifully the groups drew
Lovely participants sharing stories about the plants & bird-inspired objects they brought to the sessions
The group did a great job at designing & block printing excellent prints
Proud participants!
Zest participants produced amazing paper cuts which were printed as Christmas cards at a local print studio. They looked fantastic!
Such a joyful group to work with :-)
Christmas candle making. Inspired by Lighting in Celebrations at Christmas time & around the world
Beautifully-decorated candle holders