The role cultural venues can play in helping us to age creatively

It is estimated around 34,000 people in the North East are living with dementia with this figure set to rise to 40,000 by 2020.

With this growing demand for support services yet traditional day services being squeezed due to funding constraints, alternative methods are needed.

Equal Arts co-director Douglas Hunter has shared his views via Arts Council Englands blog on how cultural venues can help fill the gap and increase their offer for people living with dementia.

Read it in full here.

Our Creative Age sessions are now successfully running in seven arts venues across the North East and Cumbria.

In 2010 Margaret McCallum, 69, from Washington received an early dementia diagnosis.

Referred to Creative Age via the Essence Service, Margaret attends each week with her husband Billy.

“I just love what we do here, it is interesting and everyone is nice. You are here, you create something colourful and it’s exciting. “I might forget what I have done here but I know I am enjoying myself while I am doing it and I have lovely things to take home that I have made and can look back at.”