CHILDREN and care home residents came together to create a host of pieces for an art exhibition.

The Rose Martha Court care home in Leigh Road, Leigh hosted the exhibition which showcased the work of residents from four care homes across Southend and Basildon, working in collaboration with pre-school children from the areas.

The exhibition was the culmination of a ten-week pilot project called Creative Hearts.

Louise King, founder of the project was pleased with how the morning exhibition was received.

She said: “It was a brilliant event and it helped to build relationships between these two generations.

“The project has been a big help to residents as normally it’s very quiet in the home and they spend a lot of time reminiscing about the past, this project meant the children were coming in, they were laughing and having fun and it just meant the residents were creating new experiences for themselves.”

Each child was paired with a resident to create a piece of art for the exhibition.

Louise said having the pairs helped the residents who physically struggled to pick up paint brushes in order to create their works.

Louise added: “Everything was so collaborative at each sessions, the children working with the residents really made for interesting pieces.”