arthur+martha Community Interest Company, is an arts and health organisation that runs art/poetry workshops with older people in hospitals and the community in North West England. We use experimental techniques, often combining text and image to make pieces that are capable of many readings, many resonance's. We aim to produce work that is innovative and beautiful, stretching ideas of what older people can achieve, encouraging successful ageing. 

We help participants to create work that acknowledges personal narratives, documenting and celebrating their own lives in art and poetry. Our exhibitions, publications and web-presence promote cultural life in Stockport – where most of our sessions take place - and spread awareness of it regionally and nationally.

Our new pilot project Kindness has centred on working with older Jewish people, including holocaust survivors, living at a residential home in Manchester, exploring ideas of the holocaust, displacement and what it means to have a refugee background.

We are currently collaborating with researchers from the Invest to Save Project at Manchester Metropolitan University, investigating the impact of this kind of work on the health of participants: their groundbreaking research will be used to formulate future government arts and health policy.