Crafts and successful ageing: The Découpage Guild Australia

Community arts can provide older people with opportunities to enhance their quality of life, provide a sense of fulfillment and create a space for teaching, learning and sharing. Our research question asks how and why do older Australian people who are active in society engage with craft? This article discusses one particular case study from a larger ongoing joint research project, ‘Well-being and ageing: Community, diversity and the arts in Victoria’. The project, which began in 2008, has been undertaken by academic researchers from two metropolitan Australian universities in Melbourne, Victoria (Deakin University and Monash University). This research has entailed a number of case studies of individual visual and performing arts community organizations that cater for older people, active in the community. This phenomenological qualitative case study sought in-depth understandings of the group of découpers (all members of the Découpage Guild Australia). Phenomenological research entails an exploration of participants’ lifeworlds, experiences, understandings and perceptions. The data are reported under three overarching themes: Learning and Teaching; Being Creative; and Well-being. The study demonstrates that craft engagement can provide participants with new learning experiences, teaching opportunities in a collaborative community, an outlet for their creativity, which fosters an enhanced sense of self and well-being.