£1m fund to get elderly people involved in the arts

A £1m fund to help older people in residential care access the arts has been opened by Arts Council England (ACE) and the Baring Foundation.  ACE is seeking proposals from partners representing either care providers or arts organisations to run projects in homes over the next three years. It is currently anticipated that the money will be spent on four large-scale projects that will encourage older people to become actively involved in the arts, both as audience members and as participants. Learning from the projects will be shared with the wider arts and care sectors to help improve engagement with older people in general. More than 400,000 older people are in residential care in England, but the over 75s group are under-represented amongst those taking part in arts activity.