Gesture and handling: Designing a non-linguistic art-based process for Creative Ageing Opening Spaces project

The relocation to aged care can represent a savage dislocation from the small day-to-day tasks and relationships that accumulate across an individual’s long and well-lived life. Theatre arts offer a wide scope for expressive and therapeutic needs in such contexts. This article examines the value of embodied practices to support non-verbal interactions for older participants. It presents examples of the hand-based activities we used and discusses the way these were drawn on to design the art-based methodology for the Creative Ageing Opening Spaces research project in Melbourne, Australia. Participant experiences are discussed and recommendations are made for art-led design processes, which value non-linguistic sensory practices as genuinely meaningful for creating uplifting care opportunities for older people.