The need for improvements in key areas of daily life are well documented in Australia’s Older people and current evidence indicates that the conventional ways of thinking and doing are not always successfully strengthening the quality of life of our older people.

Many of us now recognise that more responsive and creative methods are needed. In our workshops artists collaborate with older people and families and share hand-written memories, sentimental keepsakes, and images to encourage memory and storytelling with their older family members.

During this process of reconnecting with the past, the artists make plaster, sculptural casts of the hands of the older people, recording the conversations and turning them into podcasts.

These collaborations support the older people to be story tellers, giving value to their story and finding new meanings in their lived experiences. And, families receive the works created as a lasting memory of their loved ones.