Connecting the generations through creativity

On Monday, a secondary school in Lancashire released their mini creativity documentary capturing their journey of an intergenerational arts project.

The Hollins created ‘Let’s be Creatively Connected’, a project which uses creativity as a vehicle for connecting the generations, developing greater understanding and fostering a positive relationship between the two.

Over the past few months, the team have worked alongside artist Sana Maulvi and senior residents in local care and retirement homes.

This is to create an epic community exhibition, capturing participants’ stories, memories and words of wisdom.

The team used a number of different mediums, such as embroidery, paint works and textured based artworks.

These were used to imprint elements of the team’s identities into the work.

All the works created were then composed into a greater art piece for an exhibition.

Students and residents of the care homes were full of smiles as they shared their stories.

Each student and resident was paired up, so they would get to know each other throughout the process.

The idea was that during each session when meeting each other, they would be excited to share stories with one another because of the relationship they had built.

The documentary featured interviews with students and care home residents.

Student Abbie was paired up with one of the residents, Dorothy, who was in her 90s.

Abbie said: “She [Dorothy] once brought some pictures to show me of a birthday party, which I thought was really, really cute.

“She really likes painting, which is good because we’re doing artwork with them and creating a bond through artwork.”

Carla, an activities coordinator from one of the care homes, said the initiative was having a positive effect on the residents.

One care home resident, Sylvia, said: “I enjoyed the company very much and I found them two extremely pleasant girls who wanted to know all about me.

“And of course, my claim to fame is I’ve actually met the Queen. And she spoke to me.”

Sylvia’s partners were very impressed by the experiences she shared with them.

The relationships built between students and residents through creativity were very strong.

Towards the end of the video, students and residents spoke to the camera.

It finished with Sana Maulvi saying: “We are creatively connected.”

To see the full documentary, click here.