How young artist/facilitators use their unsettled identity to develop creative ageing practice

ABSTRACT

This article explores the practices of three young artist/facilitators, illustrating how they use their own age identity to develop expertise in working with older people in residential care homes. A research process of reflective dialogues reveals that they respond to the arts and drama-based workshop practices at creative ageing organisation Equal Arts with a growing value of their youthfulness. A self-defined ‘unsettled’ nature facilitates their work with older people, some with dementia who also share an ‘unsettled’ identity. The young practitioners are able to operate positively through relationships with older people, as well as re-view and re-new their own identity as artist/facilitators.

KEYWORDS:

• Young artist/facilitators
• creative ageing practice
• responsive expertise

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Kay Hepplewhite is a senior lecturer at Northumbria University. She has published journal articles including RiDE (2016 and 2015) and book chapters in Bloomsbury's Applied Theatre series (2016 and forthcoming).