Borough Care Residents Create Self-Portraits

Residents at Borough Care’s Silverdale and Bryn Haven homes for older people have recently taken part in an art project and created self-portraits. The two homes signed up to the project with Arts on Wheels, which provides art activities to older people in residential care homes.

Arts on Wheels specialises in creating therapeutic collage making packs, which can stimulate communication, imagination and self-expression. Lindsay Hadfield, Activity Lifestyle Facilitator at Silverdale, says: “We signed up to the art project initiative to give our residents something different to try their hand at. Residents used the different coloured and textured paper to create a portrait of themselves. I helped Silverdale residents create their pictures and it was lovely spending one-to-one time with people chatting and getting crafty. It was a welcome distraction for everyone at the present time. At Borough Care, we believe our residents should live life in colour and this project literally brought out everyone’s colourful side.”

The self-portraits produced by Borough Care residents will be part of Collaged Citizens, an online gallery of self-portraits created by people isolated or socially disadvantaged during the coronavirus pandemic. Devised by Rachel Shore, founder of Arts on Wheels, the project is funded by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and supported by Arts Council England. Rachel Shore says: “As a creative practitioner, I am a passionate advocate for how creativity, in all its forms, can have immense therapeutic benefits for older people. By participating in art making, we engage with both ourselves and others in the wider world around us.”

The self-portrait collages, produced for the Collaged Citizens project, can be seen online at www.artsonwheels.org alongside information on other therapeutic activities offered by Arts on Wheels.