by Lorna

As part of Dementia Awareness Week 2026, Impact Arts is celebrating the importance of creativity and meaningful connection for people living with dementia at every stage of their journey. Through our Craft Café programme at Viewpoint in Edinburgh, we create welcoming creative spaces where residents can express themselves, connect with others and experience moments of joy through art.

One of those participants is *Lorna.

Lorna is a resident at St Raphael’s Care Home and has been attending Craft Café since September 2024. Craft Café allows residents to take part in artist-led workshops in both community and care home settings, offering creative engagement, social connection and space for self-expression.

From the beginning, Lorna brought warmth, kindness and creativity into the room. She has a keen interest in art and loves spending time with others. A big animal lover with a fondness for music and Jaffa Cakes, Lorna had attended art classes before moving into St Raphael’s and was excited to discover Craft Café within the care home.

As she settled into her new surroundings, Craft Café became a familiar and comforting part of her routine. At first, Lorna would attend for short periods, but over time, her confidence and comfort within the group began to grow. She became more familiar with the artists, staff and fellow participants, building friendships and connections along the way.

Whenever the team passed her in the corridor, Lorna would often smile and say:

“I was looking for you!”

On another occasion, spotting two members of the team together, she warmly greeted them with:

“I saw you two, and I thought ‘there’s my pals!’”

These moments reflect something deeply important about Craft Café. While creativity and artistic expression are central to the sessions, the sense of belonging, familiarity and companionship that develops within the space can be equally meaningful, particularly for people living with mid and later-stage dementia.

Lorna especially enjoys working with watercolour and is often drawn to shades of blue, creating beautiful seascapes inspired by colour and movement. Her artwork has featured in two Craft Café exhibitions, as well as on calendars and greeting cards produced through the project. She takes great pride in seeing her work displayed, often pointing it out with a smile and saying:

“That’s mine.”

Or simply:

“That’s quite good!”

Like many people living with dementia, Lorna’s creative process changes from day to day. At times, she found it difficult to stay focused on painting, becoming distracted by conversations or music within the room. Rather than seeing this as a barrier, the Craft Café team adapted their approach to support the way Lorna naturally wanted to engage with the space.

Through experimentation, they discovered that using limited colour palettes and playful creative constraints helped Lorna reconnect with painting. A collaborative black-and-white mark-making project became a turning point, helping her feel more confident putting brush to paper again.

More recently, the team introduced a technique where paper is placed directly into the paint palette, allowing Lorna to squeeze paint onto the page before blending it with water and brushwork. The process has helped her remain more focused while also opening up exciting new ways of creating expressive abstract artwork.

Throughout every session, Lorna remains a calm, positive and caring presence. She enjoys working independently while still staying engaged with those around her, always entering the room with a smile and a gentle word for others.

Her journey highlights the importance of providing meaningful creative opportunities for people living with dementia beyond the early stages often represented in community programmes. At Craft Café Edinburgh, we believe creativity, connection and self-expression remain important at every stage of life.

As Dementia Awareness Week reminds us, moments of joy, familiarity, pride and friendship matter deeply, and creativity can continue to unlock those moments in powerful ways.

We look forward to seeing Lorna continue exploring new materials, techniques and inspirations at Craft Café, while spending time with her friends and creating many more beautiful paintings along the way.

You can learn more about life at Viewpoint Care Home on their website or get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how our creative programmes like Craft Café are enriching later life.

Impact Arts is a community arts charity based in Scotland. Since 1994, we’ve been delivering creative arts and support programmes for children, young people, adults, families, and older people who are facing disadvantages or barriers to progress in life. Our mission is to tackle inequalities, address poverty, and transform lives through art and creativity.  

We’re delighted to see our commissioned artwork, “Artistic Mosaic Tiling: Showcasing Govan’s Healthcare Legacy,” proudly displayed in the brand new Health Innovation Hub (HiH) in Govan!

Last summer, Impact Arts was commissioned by the University of Glasgow Living Laboratory, in collaboration with Elderpark Housing Association, to deliver Artistic Mosaic Tiling: Showcasing Govan’s Healthcare Legacy. 🎨

Working with local primary schools (St Saviours, Riverside, St Constantine & Pirie Park along with Govan High) and community groups (GalGael, Tea in the Pot, Govan Community Project and Men’s Shed), we delivered a consultation session with each of the groups followed by the making of the mosaics, the sessions also featured smaller paper and clay mosaic workshops. 

The participants created a series of community-inspired mosaic tiles that celebrate Govan’s rich history of healthcare innovation while looking ahead to the future of the new Health Innovation Hub (HiH). Each tile reflects a blend of symbolic and abstract interpretations of science, precision medicine, and STEAM, alongside the participants’ pride and love for their local area. Together, the individual pieces form a striking mosaic that tells the story of Govan’s past, present, and future in healthcare.

We’re incredibly proud to share that the completed artwork is now on display in the Health Innovation Hub, where it can be enjoyed by visitors, staff, and the wider community.

Last week, staff from Impact Arts and members from Craft Café Govan attended one of the opening days of the new building to celebrate its launch and see the artwork in its new home, alongside TEA in the POT, Meet Me in Govan, Govan Community Project, and Gilded Lily. It was fantastic to explore the space, enjoy a guided tour of the lower ground floor, visit the Digital Health Validation Simulation Lab, explore the Co-Design Room and take part in interactive activities.

We also had the privilege of meeting Dugald Cameron, the artist who created the first designs of the ultrasound scanner developed in Glasgow. Dugald later became Director of the Glasgow School of Art and is the last remaining member of the original team who created the ultrasound scanner – making it a very special moment to hear about this important piece of Glasgow’s healthcare innovation history.

At Craft Café Govan, we support those aged 60+ who are looking to renew social networks, connect with their local community and grow in confidence, through creative activity, and wellbeing through arts and community engagement. Seeing the mosaic tiles come together and be permanently displayed in such an inspiring space is a wonderful celebration of community creativity and collaboration.

We’re delighted that the artwork can now be seen by all who visit the Health Innovation Hub – a lasting tribute to Govan’s innovation, creativity, and community spirit.

Impact Arts is a community arts charity based in Scotland. Since 1994, we’ve been delivering creative arts and support programmes for children, young people, adults, families, and older people who are facing disadvantages or barriers to progress in life. Our mission is to tackle inequalities, address poverty, and transform lives through art and creativity.  

Last week our Craft Café Govan members launched their Back Court Concert exhibition at The Boardwalk.

The amazing work of 50 Craft Café members was celebrated with a beautiful showcase of their work from the past year. From an Indian ink project to watercolours from the community garden. As well as individual artwork from members past and present.

The main event was the Back Court Concerts project, celebrating the playful performances the members put on in the back courts as kids. Including a miniature tenements set, a crankie shadow puppet machine, and some performances by the members.

Thank you to everyone who came along and helped celebrate our amazing members. The exhibition will be on display till 17th November at The Boardwalk and we highly recommend you pop in to see the wonderful, nostalgic pieces of art!

Location: The Boardwalk, 105 Brunswick St, Glasgow

We are celebrating the creative achievements of our Craft Cafe Edinburgh members. The Spring exhibition features art made between May 2022 and February 2023 in the three Viewpoint care homes in Edinburgh.

Artwork from Lennox House Care Home (above)

The work on display celebrates the creative achievements of residents from St. Raphael’s Care Home, Marian House Care Home, and Lennox House Care Home, who have attended Craft Cafe. The collection demonstrates a wide range of themes, interests, styles, and techniques – and aims to highlight the uniqueness of each person’s creative expression.

Artwork from Marian House Care Home (above)

It is an honour to be a part of people’s creative journeys; it is a pleasure to listen to the stories of our members and support them to play and experiment with art. Last year saw the return of friends and family to our Craft Cafes. We have sadly said goodbye to our lovely members at Lennox, following the closure of this care home in December 2022. However, we look forward to welcoming Viewpoint tenants to Craft Café again for the first time since 2020.

Artwork from St Raphael’s Care Home (above)

Thank you so much to all the members for their contributions to Craft Café, and this exhibition.

If you have any questions about the collection or about the work we do at Craft Café, please feel free to get in touch with Sarah Derron at sarah.derron@impactarts.co.uk or 07585 130068.

Older people attending Impact Arts’ Craft Café workshops in Govan have been making a number of recipes for environmentally-friendly cleaning products.

Part of a project they were working on earlier this year, the group have created laundry powder and multi-purpose cleaner using ingredients like white vinegar and soda crystals.

The project arose from
conversations between the members about the natural cleaning products their
families used in their youth, how good they were and how many of them still use
them now.

They decided to develop this interest and researched and trialed a
number of recipes, before creating a ‘recipe’ sheet, giving
some background information on natural ingredients followed by the recipes. The
graphics for these were also designed by the members.

We are delighted to share
them with you! Click here to access the PDF.

The aim of the project was to cut down on harsh chemicals and plastic waste while also cutting down costs.

For more about our Craft Cafe workshops, visit the older people’s work section of our website.



As you’ll have seen all over our social media channels, we’ve been posting stories, quotes, photos, videos and case studies all about Craft Cafe Govan, which was facing closure at the end of March due to funding pressures.

As well as raising the money necessary to #KeepGovanCrafting, we wanted to raise awareness of the incredible good the service does in celebrating the creative achievements of older people while breaking down isolation and loneliness in a demographic particularly affected by these.

We were absolutely thrilled to raise £3,590 in a month through our Crowdfunder and although we fell short of our target, we have also been able to access other support including £4,993 from Glasgow’s European Championships Our Place Fund as voted for by members of the public.

At end March we learned that there would be continuation of People & Communities funding into 2018/19 and we have now submitted our application and are eagerly awaiting the outcome.

The money raised through crowdfunding and public vote has been absolutely crucial in making sure the service is sustained, and Impact Arts has pledged to continue running Craft Café three days a week entirely free for the almost 100 members that attend regularly while we work to secure other pots of funding which will keep the Craft Café running on a longer term basis.

We want to say – on behalf of the Craft Café members, staff and volunteers – a heartfelt thank you to everyone who donated, voted and helped spread the word about the campaign.

Special thank you also to Scottish Government for their support throughout this period, particularly Nicola Sturgeon MSP and Humza Yousaf MSP.

It has also been hugely worthwhile in helping raise the profile of the service – and the value of creative activities in tackling social issues older people face more generally.

We will continue to keep you updated about the funding situation as soon as we hear anything – but for now, thank you so much for keeping Govan crafting!

Craft Café Govan runs on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Elderpark Centre in Govan. If you are interested in coming along, please contact Lead Tutor Charlotte Craig on 07793081951 or emailcharlotte.craig@impactarts.co.uk.


We are thrilled to announce that artist Lesley Redfern, daughter of one of our longest attending Craft Cafe members in Edinburgh, will be exhibiting her artwork at the Morningside Craft Café Gallery and workshop space later this month.

Lesley is a photographer and filmmaker. She also attends Craft Cafe workshops in Edinburgh every morning with her mother Greta to work on various projects, while putting herself through a photography degree with Open College of the Arts.

The show, entitled Metamorphosis, is part of Lesley’s final submission. It relates to the journey that her mother is on as her dementia progresses. The collection of work depicts and visually articulates the effects on the brain, memory, life and moments of someone living with dementia.

An honest yet gentle approach to a delicate subject, the Craft Cafe Gallery is the perfect setting for an artistic response to the changes caused by dementia.

Metamorphosis will be open to the public from Friday 28th April until Monday 1st May (10am – 4pm) at the Craft Cafe, Marian House, Oswald Road Edinburgh, EH9 2HE.

For more about the Craft Cafe and Impact Arts’ work with older people, please visit this section of our website.



A special exhibition of artwork produced by older people is to open in Paisley next week.

“Memories” is an original collection of multimedia artwork created by older people who take part in our Craft Café workshops in Paisley, Barrhead and Johnstone.

Following a launch on Tuesday 28th February 2017, the artwork will be on display at Paisley Museum and Art Galleries from March 1st until to March 4th, with members of the public encouraged to come along and appreciate the craft behind the work.

The collection was inspired by reminiscing about childhood, wartime, family and nightlife. Craft Café members then worked for a number of weeks on artwork of various kinds, including drawings, paintings, textiles, heraldry and glass decorations.

Anne Marie Wilson is the lead tutor for Craft Café workshops in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire.

She said: “It’s really exciting for the members of the Craft Cafes to have this exhibition open to the public, and especially in a beautiful setting like Paisley Museum and Art Galleries.

“They have worked incredibly hard putting this collection together, using techniques that some were not familiar with before. They have created a fantastic end result for the public, touching on some memories that people will laugh and cry at, and enjoy delving into.

“It’s incredibly important that people are appreciated in later life, whether creatively or otherwise. Exhibitions like this one help to show older people they are valued, and I hope many people can make it along and see the skill and effort involved.”

The “Memories” exhibition will be open between 11am and 4pm from Wednesday 1st March until Saturday 4th March 2017.

cc photography exhibition