In Leeds’ Arts in Care Week, that began today with a national day of reflections about arts in care homes and ends with the International Day of Older Persons, our team wanted to take time to celebrate the talent of our partners and the people who have got involved in our projects over recent years.

As part of our work developing creative opportunities in later life, The Performance Ensemble has worked with care homes and community groups on mass participation projects such as building the stage design for our 2021 production The Promise of a Garden with over 5000 handmade flowers gathered from across our city.

Over the last two years we have continued to develop our relationships with care homes and recovery hubs as part of gathering over 1001 stories from older people with a link to Leeds. The range of stories, films, poetry and songs we received from across the city became a significant part of our programme for our Older People’s Takeover of Leeds Playhouse in April and May with care homes joining us remotely during the event to tell stories and watch a live stream of our Sinfonia performance.

We were also delighted to take the opportunity within the Takeover to showcase the work of a range of other organisations who work closely with care homes such as Ascendance‘s dance workshops aimed at older participants and Yorkshire Dance’s In Mature Company project.

After supporting the development of Leeds’ Arts in Care Week, we are now preparing to publicly launch our archive of 1001 Stories at our upcoming Arts, Ageing and Activism Symposium, bringing together health and care leaders, care home staff and people aged 55 to consider the role we can all play in continuing to create the best city to grow old in. If you are passionate about creative opportunities and creating spaces and platforms for older people please consider joining the event.

Learn more about our Arts, Ageing and Activism Symposium on 9th October here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/arts-ageing-and-activism-symposium-tickets-698298087377