Creative Journeys Report 2019

54 Creative Journeys the survey asked respondents whether there were any particular qualities that arts facilitators (either internal or external) had that helped the arts activities to be a positive experience for the residents. The key features identified were the need to be positive and upbeat, and to be able to engage with residents and to have good organisational skills. Patience and playfulness were also stated, particularly in taking the time to build relationships with residents and staff. Other aspects mentioned were the tailoring of activities to resident’s interests and for the facilitator to know how to ‘stand back’ and let the resident be creative. If the facilitators try to find out peoples past interests and tailors them it engages people more. (Survey respondent) She is patient, she has all the equipment needed, she is gentle, understanding and knows how to react with residents with poor dexterity, impairment of memory and other difficulties. (Survey respondent) The approach of the facilitator – whether a professional arts facilitator, activities coordinator or otherwise – was fundamental to the creative process and enabling positive impacts of the participatory arts on the social relationships of residents. They needed to be person- centred, with particular skills and qualities to deliver participatory arts, but also flexible and responsive to the particular needs and preferences of older people living in care homes. The next section explores the power that the arts hold in promoting well-being and social impacts for residents. 4.6.3 Power of the arts [M]aking art, being together and creating is a kind of innate human property… Art is one of the things that people do together… I think art is a sort of invitation to be human. It’s an invitation to respond with raw emotion. It’s an invitation to recognise something that you have in common with someone else... (Arts organisations focus group) There is a growing evidence base which supports the health benefits and particularly the positive impact on well-being of participating in arts activities (Bungay et al., 2014; APPG, 2017). Well-being is sometimes considered to be a nebulous construct but from a psychological perspective it has two elements: hedonism and eudaimonia. Where hedonism is happiness and pleasure, eudaimonia is categorised as having meaningful relationships and engagement with activities or people (Swindells et al., 2013). Therefore, in addition to trying to establish quantitative measures of relational and collective bonding as described previously, the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) was also used to establish whether there was a quantifiable difference in the well-being of residents as a result of participating in the arts activities. Humans have engaged in arts practices since Palaeolithic times, and singing and music making were thought to be part of the evolutionary process of social networks and group bonding in Neanderthal man (Fancourt, 2017). In addition to the way in which the activities were delivered by the facilitators, there was also a unique quality to the participatory arts in this research that was powerful in bringing the residents – and staff and relatives – together. These qualities emerged across the qualitative data: firstly, music and other arts stimulated memories but