Age UK Worcester and Malvern Hills teamed up with Spare Room Arts to run the Creative Friends project, which aims to tackle loneliness and isolation in the community.
After a pilot project run with eight participants during the first lockdown in 2020 proved successful, Worcestershire County Council provided the funds to expand its reach.
Artworks by people from across Worcestershire were on show
Creative Friends was relaunched in January 2022 and saw 380 people sign up to take part.
Each participant was paired with another and given the task to create a piece of art for their new ‘Creative Friend’ on the theme of ‘my happy place’.
Some of the artwork created by Creative Friends participants
The budding artists were due to swap their creations at the end of March but the project proved such a hit, it was extended to May and the artworks featured in Saturday’s exhibition before being taken to their new homes.
Fi Petts and Claire Thomas run the health and wellbeing department at Age UK Worcester and Malvern Hills.
‘Art has no boundaries’
They said all of the charity’s activities before lockdown happened face-to-face and that during the pandemic they had to come up with new ways of connecting people.
“An art project seemed perfect because it got people using their hands and there was no reliance on digital resources,” said Fi.
“The response has been incredible. People want to be creative and to do something for someone else.
“It’s not easy to admit to, but over 50% of people taking part in this project have said they’re lonely. So this is really helping.”
The Royal Porcelain Works in Worcester hosted the exhibition
“Art has no boundaries,” added Claire. “It’s about what you see – your happy place.
“And we supplied all of the equipment so it was free for people to take part.”
Participants will be meeting up again on August 5 to catch up, talk about their experiences and create a new piece of artwork as a group.
This content was originally published here.