Whatever people say I am: Past it?

That's what I'm not!

The Knowledge

Most care homes specialise in Dementia or Alzheimer cases. This one specialises in people. The philosophy is simple: See the person not the diagnosis. Nobody chooses to go into a home, and so manageress Annie Hall is determined to make that experience as fun and fulfilling as possible. This is of particular benefit to residents such as Bill, a retired cab driver who is starting to show signs of dementia. The story is based on two years of interviews with staff and residents of a care home during 2018 - 19. Steve Larder's fine line drawings perfectly capture the fun and excitement of this special day. He has previously created a zine about his grandparents.

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Meet the team

Research: Dr Loretta Trickett

The Bigger Picture is an Arts-Council England funded project comprised of a consortium of academics and arts organisations. Their aim is to investigate the impact of inter-generational arts programming on the experiences of exclusion and isolation within minority communities in Nottingham. Dr Loretta Trickett's research has focused on the experiences of the retired and elderly.

Writer: James Walker and others

James is basically a big fat gossip who uses writing as an excuse to natter his life away with strangers. As a journalist of 15 years or so he has been travelling through the minds of folk in Nottingham and telling their stories across various platforms and publications. A recent commission for ArtSpeak involved drawing pen portraits of elderly and vulnerable people. He misses Bill very much and thinks of him often.

James Walker

Artist: Steve Larder

Steve is an artist, illustrator, and publisher of indie-comics and zines. He has been publishing his auto-biographical illustrated zine, Rum Lad since 2005. Issue 12, 'A Memento' was dedicated to his grandparents to preserve not only their lives, but memories that meant something to him - spanning from a written eulogy of their marriage together, to the small ordinary moments that make up a life. Steve lives and works in Nottingham and frequently attends small press events and speaking engagements as well as teaching small publishing workshops.

stevelarder.co.uk

Production: Paul Fillingham

Paul has worked on several research and design projects involving knowledge transfer with workers reaching retirement age. We are at a critical point in history where living memory of the post-war generation is being lost. Paul's late father, a former mineworker was a resident at a care home specialising in dementia. But even when cognitive ability was thought to have disappeared, old photos of Blidworth colliery, Skegness and Mansfield market could still get a response, illustrating the enduring power of images, and revealing a fundamental need to tell stories.

Paul Fillingham