When we entered Ikon Gallery and saw our work on the walls, there was a whoop of joy!”, says Diane. She’s one of 25 older adults who have taken part in ‘Out & About’, a creative programme developed by Artscoop and Age UK that challenges conversations around ageing that typically focus on what people can’t do in later life, rather than what they can do.
What older people can do was displayed proudly in a multi-media exhibition at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery. By one window hung a large circle bursting with colour and texture, its surface covered in overlapping patches of felt in emerald green, hot pink and burnt orange. With pom poms dangling by threads below, it evoked a giant dream catcher.
At the next window was a second suspended tondo, the same size, its vivid blue surface decorated with painted elements: flowers, leaves, winding stems and more abstract dabs of colour. Both panels had been handmade by a group of makers from Field House Residential Home, where textile artist Sally Harper had facilitated a creative workshop around circular tables, informing the format of the final artworks.
What these adults made was also informed by their interests, abilities and personalities. There were four groups, who all took part in an initial scoping process with Tom Jones, Director of ‘arts with social purpose’ group, Artscoop, who developed the programme. “I wanted to understand who they are and what they could do before starting any workshops; I went to listen to them before even hinting at creative work”, he explained.
Jones then paired each group with an appropriate artist-facilitator in their community settings where they could collaborate and experiment with learning by doing. At Plough Avenue Retirement Housing participants partnered with artist Sue Guthrie to create two collage panels themed around an uplifting poem written by one participant:
Plough Avenue
This place is dull, you say?
Well, on the dot of midnight,
A certain gleam of a certain star
In the constellation of the Plough,
That was lit when you were born,
Will arrive on time
To intercept a glance
And enter your mind
And far beyond: to your
Imagination.
A melange of cut and pasted papers, photographs of the participants, decorative dots and silhouettes of birds in flight pointed to the active imagination of this group. Also on show was their wicked sense of humour, as they’d had one of their collaged panels turned into a jigsaw puzzle “to replace the one removed from our common room because it was regarded as a fire hazard”.
The exhibited artworks reflected who had made them, as well as where. From a wooden, branch-like structure at the centre of the exhibition were suspended ceramic medallions, each inscribed with nature-inspired patterns, as well as positive phrases such as ‘Life is love’.
Designed to hang on trees, they were created by a multicultural group who meet at Quinton Allotments. Working with photographer Lottie Wilson they wanted to “celebrate not only nature around us but also ourselves as a group of strong individuals”.
Nature continued as a theme in a long wall of drawings by residents at William Lench Court Social Housing. Using delicate pencil, the group made ‘marks with meaning’ based on touching cones and shells, before using coloured marks based on their observations of potted plants in the garden they care for.
Across the displayed drawings, their development and increased confidence was evident. They’d learnt how to make marks that have meaning for them, and for other people, in a matter of weeks, thanks to their facilitator Tom Jones, who not only leads Artscoop but was formerly Professor and Head of Department at the Institute of Art & Design, Birmingham City University.
Two of the participants, Diane and Emilia, said that they’d been matched with Jones because “we were all interested in drawing”. Delighted by their progress in weekly workshops, they reflected that they had “really been taught what to look at and for” and “made incredible progress”.
However, what they valued most was the opportunity to be together: “it was really fantastic to make some lovely friends”. Another highlight for them was the chance to visit the other community groups during ‘tea and talk’ sessions.
Older people are so often confined to limited spheres and have negative beliefs imposed upon them, which they can start to adopt. Several participants commented that they didn’t originally think they could make art but, during the process, realised their creativity ability and potential. As one said, “Art has no age limit.”
This forward-thinking programme proved exactly what older people can do. Concluding with an inspiring group exhibition and reunion at Ikon, participants were invited to see their works displayed together in a major gallery – upon seeing their creativity being celebrated in this way, they erupted with loud whoops of joy, shattering the silence and society’s expectations of them.
Invited to evaluate the process, participants also left thoughtful, moving comments on tags, which were hung along a rope inside the exhibition. “I’m 84 and still energetic and interested in everything” wrote one, while the final word should be given to this writer: “Creativity never stops, or does it start later in life when we have lost our inhibitions? Such beautiful works”.
