Arcare Aged Care Celebrates Artistic Talents With 2022 Card Art Competition

Arcare communities across Australia showcased their talent, creativity, and individual flare in Arcare’s third annual Card Art competition. Residents from across Arcare’s 47 aged care residences in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, were encouraged to create original card designs to be included in Arcare’s greeting card range for 2022-2023.

Launched in July, Arcare set out to find four card designs for greeting cards for two categories - All Occasion and Season’s Greetings.

Close to 100 paintings, sketches, watercolours, photographs, and craft projects were submitted to this year’s competition by Arcare residents and art groups, and while the competition was incredibly tough due to the high calibre of submissions, the top designs were narrowed down for public voting.

After receiving close to 500 votes, four winning artworks were selected in August:

• All Occasion NSW: Jenny Cavill, 82 years old, Arcare Glenhaven
• All Occasion QLD: Debbie Murphy, 80 years old, Arcare Seven Hills
• All Occasion VIC: Wendy Burgis, 84 years old, Arcare Balnarring (pictured)
• Season’s Greetings National: Linda Woodward, 83 years old, Arcare Logan Reserve

The winning artworks will be professionally printed as cards and distributed to Arcare residents, families and team members. All winners also receive a pack of cards showcasing their artworks and a gift voucher.

All winners across Arcare, were ecstatic to have won their chosen category. “It’s an incredible achievement and I never thought I could win amongst the incredible talent from the other residents” resident, Wendy Burgis, from Arcare Balnarring (VIC) said.

The winners said that they’ve enjoyed painting, drawing, and demonstrating their creativity since they were young children.

“My mother used to paint ink sketches and that’s where my talents and interest started with mother. I remember I was in Grade 5 at the Junction Park State School and they had a concertina between the classrooms, where we had to display our best pastel drawings. With pastels, I drew a creek with trees and their reflections. The inspector of our artwork had sent a letter to my parents saying it was the best artwork he had seen,” resident, Linda Woodward, from Arcare Logan Reserve (QLD) said.

Arcare Aged Care CEO Colin Singh shared that the art competition is still achieving its aim of creating a sense of pride, accomplishment and excitement among the residents.

“Residents are joining art groups and painting new artworks in anticipation for the competition; the talent and creativity we have seen this year continues to be amazing and we look forward to seeing who the public votes for this year.”

“We look forward to seeing what designs the residents will come up with in next year’s Card Competition.”

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