New Horizons

Art Shape received £110K from The Big Lottery Fund to launch a project called New Horizons.

This project is based on research conducted by Art Shape in partnership with Age Concern Gloucestershire, ACET (AdEd), Social Services, NIACE, community arts organisations and artists/others working with older people in a range of differing settings around in the county.

The project will run over 2 years and will benefit independent older people, older people in their communities, housebound older people and older people in care settings. It will work to make their achievements visible and create an infrastructure of artists ready to work creatively with older people.

Why Older People?

There are currently 19.8 million people over 50 living in the UK.* Many of these people have gained years of experiences and skills that can be expressed and developed through the arts. The arts are flexible, challenging and wide-ranging and therefore can respond to the social and cultural diversity of this age group. The growing, older generation of today are the 'baby-boomers' now entering their third age, who have expectations, aspirations and wants very different from those of earlier generations.The creative activities proposed in New Horizons offer a range of traditional and new media art forms, mindful that older people share common aspirations with others in society and that these aspirations are not necessarily related to age The project will be a combination of the following elements:

Our work falls into these main areas;

• Arts On Wheels – arts activities brought to groups of independent older people who meet in groups
• Our Lives – Opportunity for older people to express their lives, situations and aspirations through creative arts
• Our Community – older people contributing their knowledge and skills to community development through intergenerational arts based activities
• On The Spot – creative arts mini-sessions to accompany a benefits check, held in doctors’ surgeries/medical practices
• Doorstep Arts – creative work with housebound older people
• Showing Ourselves – annual exhibition of the work produced through the project

Based on Art Shape’s fundamental commitment to equality New Horizons will be absolutely inclusive and will facilitate working in partnership with the organisations listed to deliver the best service possible to its’ participants.

Click here to download the project evaluation