Although ‘Home Sweet Home’ – last year’s toured production about ageing in Britain – has finished, the wellbeing impacts among the older population are ongoing.
Developing relationships across distance was at the heart of the Home Sweet Home touring programme. The partnership between Freedom Studios and Entelechy Arts, situated two hundred miles apart from each other brought together professional and non-professional teams of artists and emerging artists. The success of these long distance connections has been key to the project’s legacy, long after the material artefacts of the programme have been recycled.
Collaboration with older people was central to the project. Part of the political energy for the work was fuelled by a group of elders from Entelechy Arts in London who had been working as mentors with their peers living in residential care homes. They were concerned about the loss of agency experienced by residents who were being supported by a care system under financial pressures and constraints that afforded no time or space to recognise the individual stories and aspirations of a largely invisible and forgotten population.
These concerns energised people’s curiosity about the lives of their contemporaries in other parts of the country. The question: ‘What does it mean to grow old in contemporary Britain? ” sparked a dialogical process between the theatre production team (producers, writer, designer, director) and older creative stakeholders. It gave connection and agency across distance. There were north/ south visits between elders both real (via the train) and virtual (via Skype)... Keep reading on David Slater's blog
Developing relationships across distance was at the heart of the Home Sweet Home touring programme. The partnership between Freedom Studios and Entelechy Arts, situated two hundred miles apart from each other brought together professional and non-professional teams of artists and emerging artists. The success of these long distance connections has been key to the project’s legacy, long after the material artefacts of the programme have been recycled.
Collaboration with older people was central to the project. Part of the political energy for the work was fuelled by a group of elders from Entelechy Arts in London who had been working as mentors with their peers living in residential care homes. They were concerned about the loss of agency experienced by residents who were being supported by a care system under financial pressures and constraints that afforded no time or space to recognise the individual stories and aspirations of a largely invisible and forgotten population.
These concerns energised people’s curiosity about the lives of their contemporaries in other parts of the country. The question: ‘What does it mean to grow old in contemporary Britain? ” sparked a dialogical process between the theatre production team (producers, writer, designer, director) and older creative stakeholders. It gave connection and agency across distance. There were north/ south visits between elders both real (via the train) and virtual (via Skype)... Keep reading on David Slater's blog