Living Well - Ageing Well

Golden years, arts, craft, people, festival

Living Well - Ageing Well week is a celebration aimed at over 50s to inspire and enable people to have fun, be active and try something new. In autumn 2016 creative workshops took place across Surrey in Runnymede, Woking, Waverley, Tandrige, Guildford and Spelthorne. Participants created a communal library of handmade books using personal stories as the inspiration to create poetry, collages and drawings.

Facilitated by artists Hannah Stuart and Marina Jurjevic, participants explored various objects, text, smells and visual imagery and engaged in an active and inspiring discussion.

Some feedback from participants:

Caroline: “I was really apprehensive when I came in. I didn’t want to take part. So I thought I would just sit and watch. I was encouraged to have a go, so I did, I found I could do it, and I really enjoyed it.”

Tony: “It was very enjoyable, made me look at things in a different way. I could have done with a bit longer as it takes time to think and create. It could have been an all day event.”

Grace: “My son died and I haven’t felt like doing art but this has given me the taster to start again.”

Mary: “Thank you it was really interesting, I enjoyed writing I will take my book home and work on

Hannah Stuart and Marina Jurjevic are collaborative artists who have worked together for almost twelve years. They work together in facilitating art, music and drama sessions at an activity and resource centre, or as collaborating artists on variety of art projects. They use the visual arts, storytelling, drama, poetry and composition as the art forms in their work.

The workshops have been informed by findings from research (relating to people’s narratives about their food provisioning habits, history and motivations) carried out by the University of Hertfordshire. The research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Food Standards Agency.