Sit back, put your feet up and relax, for the next moment comes from Rochdale Artists who share their Art Relaxation Time with us…….
“The ART Sessions are a time to have a go at painting, try something new and see what you can create!
Rochdale Artists has taken on the great work started by the late John Whyman MBE, along with volunteers he inspired, who for over 25 years visited local residential homes, hospices and hospital wards using and developing techniques for working with people and enabling them to create their own watercolour paintings.
This valuable work continues to be run by volunteers who provide regular art sessions across the area, stimulating and giving enjoyment to patients and residents in venues such as Springhill Hospice and Carders Court Nursing Home.
Three days a week, volunteers work at Springhill Hospice with day patients, and one day a week, one volunteer goes into Carders Court Nursing Home to work with up to five patients. The workshops are designed for complete beginners and include step-by-step processes. The volunteers have developed approaches that are suitable for people with mobility and sensory impairments and those living with dementia.
Part-funded by Link4Life, Rochdale Artists is an art group that meets every Tuesday evening at Castleton Library & Community Centre.
This programme of using art to work with the elderly, sick and terminally ill patients, people living with dementia, and those living in care, has provided us with countless testimonials of the benefits – they express feeling of being less stressed, more relaxed and engrossed whilst painting, amazed and delighted at what they have achieved, proud of themselves at achieving something new. It encourages confidence and give them something to look forward to, and to show off to family and friends. It lifts their mood and encourages some to take up art on a regular basis outside of our ART sessions.”
“I am thrilled with painting and look forward to my sessions at the Hospice. I wish I had started painting years ago. It gives me so much pleasure to see how the paints mix together and I get totally absorbed in creating a picture with the help of (the volunteers from Rochdale Artists.) When I have signed a painting and can take it home, it means everything to me and my family. ”
Tom – Day Patient, Springhill Hospice, Rochdale.
Huge thanks to Rochdale Artists for sharing their moment with us!
100 Moments 