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 CafĂ© 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.

In March we opened the doors of our new venue in Glasgow. The Boardwalk is a vibrant space for hire – with sprung-floors for dancers; a 120-seater theatre; and flexible meeting rooms. Hiring space in The Boardwalk helps fund the creative engagement work we do with communities across central Scotland.

Our launch showcased not just the space, but the work of Impact Arts participants – from our older people’s Craft Cafe members who sewed quilts and made paintings, to our youth projects like Creative Pathways and CashBack who worked on installations using film, ceramics and illustration. We had a silent disco with music from our criminal justice project, CoCo, and upcycled homewares from our tenancy sustainment programmes.

It made us proud to have past participant Sian Clark performing, and our Sketchy Youths running a screen printing workshop. Thank you to everyone who supported us, and offered kind wishes, on the day. We hope to see you back through our doors soon!

All photographs by Tiu Makkonen