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Welcome to our editorials section, written by members of our team, often in partnership. For best results, use our search function to search by key word, date, author etc. To make the listings more accessible, we have colour coded those editorials that are more than 3 years old in red.
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Creativity: Fulfilling the Promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Older Persons (Farrell Renowden) October 2023Human Rights are a topic featuring heavily in UK politics right now, but whatever your position, I imagine “culture” and “the arts” aren’t the first Human Rights you think of when discussing issues that impact older people. |
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Creative Carers: cultivating connections and confronting challenges (Helen Fountain) October 2023Carers shared deeply personal insights including: “in a creative writing class it reminds you that you have your own life” and “it’s helped me give myself permission to be someone important in my life again”. |
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Local author enriches TeaBooks meeting (Kate Castleden) September 2023I consider myself to be an uncreative person, I’m not musical and I’m terrible at art and craft. I surprised myself when I started writing and realised it was something I could do. |
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Why I work in the Creative Ageing sector (Farrell Renowden) August 2023...but when I spoke to the Commissioner for Older People he rebuffed, “Older people don’t like scriptwriting.” But how did he know...where was the evidence? |
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How older people inspire our work (Kate Castleden) August 2023We know that listening to older people is the first step to making a real difference. When we heard the story of a local resident, let’s call him John, we realised that we needed to take action... |
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How the Platinum Jubilee reminded us of the importance of collective memories (Helen Fountain) August 2023It still never fails to surprise me how many people have extraordinary stories to share, stories which are often viewed as perfectly ordinary by the storyteller but leave the listener in awe! |
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Why am I still making the case to the age sector about the value of creativity? (Farrell Renowden) July 2023Still, after all these years, the voices of older people are not being heard and we need to keep advocating and amplifying what they say they value and what they need… |
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Exploring CS Lewis' Oxford (Kate Castleden) July 2023This month we decided to offer our amazing TeaBooks Volunteers the opportunity to take a closer look at some of the places which inspired one of the intellectual giants of the 20th Century, Clive Staples Lewis. |
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Age of Creativity Festival 2023 Round-Up (Kate Castleden) June 2023What another great year to be involved, with events taking place across the country as well as online. With new resources and opportunities to share your stories, there really was something for everyone! |
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Joining the Fight Against Ageism (Kayleigh Burr) June 2023I would love to live in a world where everyone is celebrated, where Ageing is celebrated and where crows’ feet are celebrated. |
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The Power of Stories (Farrell Renowden) May 2023"..this project has been a personal and professional awakening, hearing how creativity “found me when I needed it most”, “changed the world from black and white to vivid colour” and “changed me as a person in every way conceivable"." |
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How Lived Experience Inspired an A-Z (Helen Fountain) May 2023"Within minutes... a text came through from one of our CALEN members suggesting an A-Z of Creative Ageing, such a simple idea but perfect for the Age of Creativity Festival and ideal for a website-based challenge." |
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(Quick) Stepping out of our comfort zone (Helen Fountain, Maggie Twydell and Janet Parry) April 2023Oxfordshire's Age Friendly Creative Ambassadors share their experience of a recent visit to the Mill Arts Centre in Banbury to see a dance performance - Let’s Play Forever (Remarkable Dance Company) / Because I Can (Eva Recacha). |
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Amplifying the Voices of our Oxfordshire Elders (Helen Fountain) February 2023"For anyone thinking of setting up a Lived Experience group we can heartily recommend it as a highly rewarding and incredibly useful endeavour..." |
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We CAN Make Music (Farrell Renowden) February 2023"You might’ve been good at that but you can be good at this […] I’m here to show everyone that you can make music.” |
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Age of Creativity Website 2.0 (Kate Castleden) February 2023"The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed a change in our websites over the last 18 months..." |
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Celebrating Our Stories (Farrell Renowden) January 2023"Research shows that people with similar life experiences have more in common than people with the same birthday, so why are these stereotypes about who is and isn’t in the creative room not questioned more?" |
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The Power of Partnerships (and Pantomime!) (Helen Fountain) January 2023"Recent activities have reminded me of the value of partnership working and of the power of the arts and culture to support health and wellbeing..." |
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Valuing our Volunteers (Kate Castleden) December 2022"It was great to be reminded of the magic of stories, and how they help us escape from everyday reality and encourage us to imagine different characters and other worlds..." |
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From Lockdown to Lived Experience (By Helen Fountain) November 2022"A local history heritage engagement project getting together in a room, sharing memories, photographs and enjoying tea and cake. How could this happen if we couldn’t meet in person? ” |
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'Creativity comes to us at different times but always the right time' (By Farrell Renowden) November 2022"I am still astounded by the wisdom of the creative people we work with and challenged to think differently about age, ageing and creativity in my practice..." Learn more about the early beginnings of the New National Age Friendly Creative Network. |
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Positive Projects to Boost Wellbeing (Helen Fountain and Madeleine Sugden ) October 2022“Age UK's vision is a world where everyone can love later life. We don't want people just to survive but to thrive. Good mental wellbeing is key to this..." |
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International Day of Older Persons (Kate Castleden) October 2022'It was an opportunity to be reminded of the stark reality that many people aren’t online and, for some, events like this are a lifeline...' |
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Freedom Within a Framework (Farrell Renowden) October 2022‘Co-creation’ is a buzz word that has been around for a while, yet it still appears to mean different things depending on who you talk to'... |
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Framing Oxford - discovering local history in lockdown (Helen Fountain & Mark Lawrence) November 2021A project to support local older people to engage with local history archives, share their photography skills and local history knowledge whilst offering the opportunity to form friendships and create community connections. |
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Oxford Playhouse & Age UK Oxfordshire partner up to create Tea Talks during the lockdown (Beth Sedgwick) ARCHIVED 2020Beth has developed a 30 minute chat session for older people who have limited access to technology this year. Find out how it works. |
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Making the road (Penny Thewlis, CEO, Age UK Oxfordshire) ARCHIVED 2020Penny reflects I on the question, since lockdown...how has the role of creativity changed in the Age sector? |
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Age of Creativity Festival Blog - Week 2 (Farrell Curran) ARCHIVED 2019It's week two and we've been blown away with the number of Festival events this year and the level of engagement we've had on social media. Not only have we connected with events from across the county, but I feel as though I've really got a flavour of the type of work so many of you are doing both in person and online. |
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Age Of Creativity Festival Blog (Farrell Curran) ARCHIVED 2019As we move into the second week of the Age of Creativity Festival 2019, our Festival Manager reflects back on some of the highlights so far from week one. |