With Age Comes.

With Age Comes… was an Arts Council England and Brighton and Hove Council-funded intergenerational project with 11 Senior Housing Schemes, Sussex University and younger people from local secondary schools in Brighton and Hove. The project run by Circo Rum Ba Ba in collaboration with Shared History involved creative workshops and celebratory cabarets which encouraged shared narratives and positive identities to improve self-esteem and well-being and to help build brighter communities. (September – November 2023)

We ran workshops in secondary schools with year 10s and 11s, and with students, challenging preconceived ideas around age and talking about how we can view older people in a three dimensional way. We also ran workshops in senior housing schemes where people often feel isolated and lonely. The workshops revolved around sharing narratives, creating communities and learning about each other. We then brought the young and the old together for intergenerational workshops at the senior housing schemes making collages using old photos and images from each decade since the 1930’s during which the seniors and younger people talked to each other about their lives and shared stories.

We also worked with a day scheme and a housing scheme for people with dementia and memory challenges, The Somerset Centre and Brooke Mead.

We celebrated the new friendships made with 10 celebratory cabaret events where we performed our show L’HOTEL to the intergenerational audiences and presented the framed collages to the senior housing schemes and to the secondary schools and university.