Drawing Life - Hastings

Drawing Life brings art to people living with dementia and their caregivers.  Through this work, we aim to inspire carers and give them the skills to work with those they care for to open up creative outlets and encourage individual expression.  This enhances the wellbeing of participants, and in turn combats stigmas associated with dementia, raising awareness of these issues to the wider community. Our training modules showing lots of hints and tips are free and available on our website.

There are free online resources on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/drawinglife

Picasso said it took him a lifetime to learn to paint like a child and Drawing Life puts this typically paradoxical statement to the test.  Drawing Life offers people with nearly a lifetime behind them the chance to respond to a life model with a stick of charcoal and a piece of paper.  People who may or may not have done drawing before express themselves in new and surprising ways.

The drawings reveal something fascinating about life and memory to the artists themselves, they offer carers new subjects to talk about with those who may have lost the art of conversation and they show how people living with dementia have a unique and still relevant viewpoint.