Creative cups and saucers help encourage conversation in Cornish care homes

Arts charity, Arts for Health Cornwall, is helping to encourage conversation amongst residents in the county’s care homes, through specially designed cups and saucers.

Residents at specialist dementia care home Crossroads House, in Scorrier, have been making the most of a set of specially designed artwork, in the form of a set of crockery.

Each piece in the set bears a different word and was designed by artist Jonty Lees. He said: “I wanted the lasting legacy of my project at Crossroads House to reflect the importance of conversation; it’s not always easy for us to find that point of departure that sparks a conversation – that helps us identify shared aspects of our individual history.”

Mr Lees spent time developing a number of ideas, both original and practical, to bring art into the home. The crockery set was designed in collaboration with residents and staff to encourage and create conversation and memories between the residents.

The set of cups and saucers were created to be used at meal times and during tea breaks, and have become an important part of the home’s daily routine. Each cup and saucer features a word from any random context, acting as a visual prompt to the imagination and to create a response.

Mr Lees carried out research before designing the crockery, which involved testing out different words using flashcards and selecting the top 100 that inspired the most reactions. The crockery designs were then passed to British-Japanese designer Reiko Kaneko who crafted the set using Fine Bone China.

Mr Lees has produced work for some of Cornwall’s biggest art institutions, including Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange. Director of Newlyn Art Gallery, James Green, said: “This deceptively simple idea will have a real and lasting impact, promoting greater contact and engagement amongst the residents, and also with their visitors and the care home staff.”

“Jonty’s work is part of a larger conversation about the relationship between older people and the arts – about what more we can do to provide opportunities for creativity, and what we might learn from encouraging greater scope for acts of imagination in older age.”

Home Service is funded by Arts Council England and The Baring Foundation, which committed more than £250,000 to the project in January 2014.

Home Service is a three-year initiative which will have a lasting impact; other strands of the project include storytelling, dance, theatre and music. Other partners in the project include: Hall for Cornwall, Creativity Works in Bath and North East Somerset, Cornwall Care, Anson Care, Brunel Care and Falmouth University.