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This book was made possible by funding given to Book of You CIC from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative, so they could work with a Ruthin group. With Groundwork, they run a community funding scheme awarding grants to local community projects. During 2019, shoppers at Tesco in Ruthin used their blue coins to vote for one of three local projects, of which Book of You was one.
Lost in Art is a project aimed at people living in the community with dementia and their carers. The aim of the project is to explore the role of the visual arts in addressing issues which can affect people with dementia, including social isolation, confidence, communication and quality of life and wellbeing. The project was developed with the support of the Dementia Services Development Centre at Bangor University.
Lost in Art started as a pilot project in partnership with Engage Cymru and Denbighshire Social Services in 2010 at venues in Rhyl and Ruthin. From this early pilot, the project has been running at Ruthin Craft Centre since 2011, using the changing gallery exhibitions as inspiration for hands-on making and creating in the Education Studio at the centre.
The project is run and funded by Community Arts, part of Denbighshire Leisure Limited's Active Communities team. Over the years, with the support of Arts Council Wales the project has also run in other venues across Denbighshire and neighbouring counties. In the early days the project was evaluated by Dr Kat Algar-Skaife and Professor Gill Windle from Bangor University and this led to an Arts and Humanities Research council funded UK wide research project called Dementia and Imagination where Lost in Art was the only delivery partner based in Wales.
Lost in Art has received a number of awards for its excellence in good practice including the Hearts for Arts Award for Best Local Authority Arts Project Encouraging Community Cohesion 2018. It is a term-time project that runs in three blocks of 10 to 11 weeks over the year. Weekly workshops take place on a Tuesday afternoon at Ruthin Craft Centre from 1 till 3pm. Participants can self-refer onto the project and in addition health and social care professionals as well as Community Workers/Community Navigators can also signpost people onto the project. Participants do not need prior knowledge or ability in arts and craft - the project is designed for participants to gain health benefits from the process of making as well as the opportunity to gain peer support.
If you are interested in Lost in Art and want to know more, please contact:
Sian Fitzgerald, Arts Development Manager:
sian.fitzgerald@denbighshireleisure.co.uk or call on 07717 540857 or
Jo McGregor, Community Arts Project Co-ordinator:
jo.mcgregor@denbighshireleisure.co.uk or call on 07799 582766
Now hear and see some of the participants themselves and hear why Lost in Art is important to them, and take a look at some of the projects and wonderful work they've created.
Book of You would like to thank everyone who participated in the making of this book including the following:
Eirlys, Tom, Pat, Eurwen, Sue, Steph, Teleri, Arthur, Frank, Sheila, Peter, Ginny, Gen, John, Karen and Nick
Thank you to lead artist Sian Hughes and assistant June McHenry for devising and leading the art workshops and to Ruth Thomas and Ticky Lowe who visited as a guest artist.
Thank you also to Ruthin Craft Centre for hosting the Lost in Art group.
And of course to our funders who made this book possible - Tesco Bags of Help and Groundwork UK.