Social Care News

Innovative project to bring the arts into care homes across Wales: get involved for free

Age Cymru is offering care homes the chance to get residents involved in an innovative Wales-wide project that aims to encourage residents and staff to participate in the arts.

Called 'cARTrefu', which means ‘to reside’ in Welsh, the project seeks to improve the quality and provision of art in care settings across Wales, and is jointly funded by the Baring Foundation and Arts Council Wales.

The project will provide 8-week artist residencies in care homes free of charge. Artists will run weekly workshops for residents in the performing arts, music, words or visual arts.

cARTrefu Project Coordinator Reg Noyes said: "We’re thrilled to be able to offer this project free of charge. We will provide your care home with an 8-week participatory arts residency, led by a professional artist. This artist will run weekly 2-hour workshops with the residents in your care in one of four art forms."

He added: "We have a real desire to improve the quality of life for older people through direct access to the arts so the workshops will be designed to be as fun, engaging, flexible and responsive to participants' needs as possible. The aims of the project are to increase opportunities for residents and staff to participate in the arts, as well as for Age Cymru to develop professional artists’ practice so they become experts within the Arts and Older People field.

"The cARTrefu model has already had great success throughout England, so Age Cymru is proud and very excited to now be able to offer this project to care homes in Wales."

Get in touch if you'd like to participate in cARTrefu!

Age Cymru would love to hear from care home managers who would like the residents of their care home to be involved in cARTrefu. If you’re interested, please contact cARTrefu Project Coordinator Reg Noyes for an application form: reg.noyes@agecymru.org.uk.