A SPECIAL workshop aimed at using creativity to aid people with dementia has been hosted at The Forge.
As part of an ongoing community project called Finding The Words, the event held last Wednesday was the culmination of 18 weeks of collaborative work between Anvil Arts, Applewood Care Home in Bramley, and artists from Hampshire.
The project, developed and funded by Anvil Arts, saw Matt L.T. Smith and Mollie Russell (former and current students from the University of Winchester) deliver six weeks of poetry, followed by Steve Sammut from the Rock and Pop Foundation in Andover work with the group for six weeks to create musical responses to some of the poems. The final six weeks used recordings of the songs to devise movement and dance pieces with Integr8 Dance.
Ten participants, who all live with varying degrees of dementia, took part in the project which was designed to encourage the use of creativity to tell their stories, to increase their confidence and strengthen social relationships.
The project will be run again later this year with a different group from Applewood Care Home.
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