Age UK Cheshire’s arts project, Wearpurple, has been running creative workshops across numerous care homes and community centres in and around Ellesmere Port and Chester, thanks to project funding from Essar at Stanlow.
The weekly sessions, led by professional artist Tara Dean, have explored a variety of art forms, including drawing, printmaking and ceramics.
During the last session, of an eight week outreach project being run at Elton Community Centre, the group of adults were joined by ten Year 6 children from Elton Primary School. The intergenerational session was a huge success, with the group sharing ideas and working side by side in order to complete a large collaborative piece of artwork.
Three care homes were also involved in the project: Astbury Lodge, Thornton Manor and Whitby House. The residential home sessions finished in August.
There was also a creative arts and reminisce session at Ellesmere Port library as part of Dementia Awareness Week.
Anne-Marie Rickus from Age UK Cheshire commented “The classes generated some good interest and we’ve seen some fantastic creativity from the participants. It was brilliant to work with Tara and explore so many different themes.”
Ian Cotton, Head of Communications at Essar commented: “The Wear Purple project run by Age UK Cheshire is a great way to help combat social isolation in our local communities. The sessions have enabled participants to gain new skills, as well as meeting new people.”
Wear Purple is an arts project run by Age UK Cheshire that gives individuals over the age of 50 the opportunity to work with artists across a range of art forms, in order to learn new skills and aid with wellbeing & reduce social isolation.
