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Festival of Minds and Bodies

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Past
  • Free
  • Festival
A group of festival performers wearing colourful clothes, colourful make-up and striking poses. They are standing in front of cream curtains. Two mirrors are suspended in mid-air and another mirror is on the ground. The mirrors show reflections of the festival performers.
Festival of Minds & Bodies, Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Come and celebrate minds and bodies in all their different forms at a festival inspired by our new ‘Being Human‘ exhibition. This will be a weekend of events including performances, conversations, workshops and films. Join artists, activists and researchers to challenge assumptions about what’s ‘normal’ and what we value.

All events will have step-free access and most events will be relaxed, which means that if you need to, you are welcome to move around and make noise at any time. Resting points will be available throughout the building and there will be a Chill-Out Room for those wanting a break from the festivities.

Dates

, –
Past
, –
Past

Past events

Saturday 30 November 2019

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  • Performance
Anti-Social Prescribing
Reading Room
Visit Dolly Sen to receive an “anti-social prescription” such as a walking group to nowhere or an anger mismanagement course, or one of several other useless activities. Dolly created these prescriptions as a response to the increasing trend of prescribing activities that emphasise an individual’s responsibility instead of dealing with the underlying issues causing them difficulties.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

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  • Performance
Screensaver Series
The Forum
Watch this dance performance created by Janine Harrington, which evokes the patterns and continuous activity of a screensaver.
  • Relaxed

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  • Discussion
Powerful Portraits
The Studio
Hear from artist Deborah Kelly and artist, activist and drag star Danny Smith about the process of making a life-sized collage portrait of Danny with members of the public.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

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  • Gallery tour
Medicine Man tours
Medicine Man gallery
Join a tour of our Medicine Man gallery led by S I Martin as he explores the origins of some of the objects on display and what they reveal about mainstream attitudes to African bodies and knowledge.

Full event details

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  • Workshop
Poems Made from Words Found in the Bin
Reading Room
Drop in for five to ten minutes to the tables in the Reading Room to write a poem around pieces of shredded documents found in the bins.

Full event details

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  • Performance
Tangled
Gallery 1
Meet in Gallery 1 (Play Well) to join artists from BLINK Dance on a colourful sensory journey. The direction that the performance takes will be shaped by everyone in the audience.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

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  • Discussion
The Trouble with Charity
Henry Wellcome Auditorium
Listen to a panel discussing different perspectives on representations of disabled people, then share your own questions or thoughts.
  • Speech-to-text
  • Relaxed

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  • Performance
Alaska
The Studio
Join Cheryl Martin for an intimate performance about how she survived depression, asylums – even being black at Cambridge in the 1980s – and found a way to thrive.

Full event details

  • Speech-to-text

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  • Performance
Girl Meets Boy: Unravelled
Reading Room
Take a seat or grab a cushion in the Reading Room and enjoy ‘Girl Meets Boy: Unravelled’, a series of colourful and inclusive performances about the weird and wonderful world of millennial mating.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

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  • Workshop
Sharing Voices
Viewing Room
Take part in a workshop where you will explore how to stretch and play with sounds in a way that is fun, challenging, moving and sometimes ridiculous.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

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  • Screening
Me, My Mouth And I
Henry Wellcome Auditorium
Watch ‘Me, My Mouth and I’, artist Jess Thom’s funny and moving film, which will get you thinking about disability, representation and social exclusion.

Full event details

  • Speech-to-text
  • Audio described
  • Relaxed

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  • Performance
Help the Normals
Throughout our building
Look out for Dolly Sen roaming the building with her collecting tin for fictional charity Help the Normals.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

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  • Performance
An Evening with Tito Bone
Henry Wellcome Auditorium
Join us for an evening hosted by Tito Bone and featuring a variety of guests, including drag artists, poets and spoken-word performers.

Full event details

  • Audio described
  • Speech-to-text
  • Relaxed

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  • Performance
Out
The Forum
Watch Out, a duet that defiantly challenges homophobia and transphobia. The performance reclaims dancehall and celebrates vogue culture.

Full event details

  • Speech-to-text

Sunday 1 December 2019

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–

  • Performance
Anti-Social Prescribing
Reading Room
Visit Dolly Sen to receive an “anti-social prescription” such as a walking group to nowhere or an anger mismanagement course, or one of several other useless activities. Dolly created these prescriptions as a response to the increasing trend of prescribing activities that emphasise an individual’s responsibility instead of dealing with the underlying issues causing them difficulties.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

–

–

–

–

  • Gallery tour
Medicine Man tours
Medicine Man gallery
Join a tour of our Medicine Man gallery led by S I Martin as he explores the origins of some of the objects on display and what they reveal about mainstream attitudes to African bodies and knowledge.

Full event details

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  • Workshop
Sick Zine-Making
The Forum
Take part in these zine-making workshops about our bodies and minds, and what it’s like to live in yours.

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  • Workshop
Poems Made from Words Found in the Bin
Reading Room
Drop in for five to ten minutes to the tables in the Reading Room to write a poem around pieces of shredded documents found in the bins.

Full event details

–

  • Discussion
The Politics of Deafness
Henry Wellcome Auditorium
Come and explore different perspectives on D/deaf identity politics.

Full event details

  • Speech-to-text
  • Relaxed

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  • Performance
Tangled
Gallery 1
Meet in Gallery 1 (Play Well) to join artists from BLINK Dance on a colourful sensory journey. The direction that the performance takes will be shaped by everyone in the audience.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

–

  • Performance
Alaska
The Studio
Join Cheryl Martin for an intimate performance about how she survived depression, asylums – even being black at Cambridge in the 1980s – and found a way to thrive.

Full event details

  • Speech-to-text

–

  • Performance
Girl Meets Boy: Unravelled
Reading Room
Take a seat or grab a cushion in the Reading Room and enjoy ‘Girl Meets Boy: Unravelled’, a series of colourful and inclusive performances about the weird and wonderful world of millennial mating.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

–

–

  • Workshop
Sharing Voices
Viewing Room
Take part in a workshop where you will explore how to stretch and play with sounds in a way that is fun, challenging, moving and sometimes ridiculous.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

–

  • Screening
Who Cares?
Henry Wellcome Auditorium
Attend a screening of a nine-minute film featuring support workers, learning disabled and autistic people discussing their relationships in a selection of moving portraits.

Full event details

  • Speech-to-text
  • Relaxed

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  • Performance
Help the Normals
Throughout our building
Look out for Dolly Sen roaming the building with her collecting tin for fictional charity Help the Normals.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

–

  • Discussion
Body Image
Henry Wellcome Auditorium
Come and hear historical and contemporary perspectives on how we see ourselves and others.

Full event details

  • Speech-to-text
  • Relaxed

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  • Workshop
Wiki 101
The Studio
Bring along your laptop and help us to improve the way that histories of diverse minds and bodies are represented online in this workshop with Kelly Foster. You can use images from Wellcome Collection and edit Wikipedia, the world’s biggest encyclopaedia. We will provide training for beginners but experienced editors are welcome too.

Full event details

  • Relaxed

Saturday 15 February 2020

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  • Chill out
Chill-Out Room
The Studio
Any time that you want to find a space away from the programme of activities, you can come to the Chill-Out Room to relax or lie down.

Full event details

Sunday 16 February 2020

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  • Chill out
Chill-Out Room
The Studio
Any time that you want to find a space away from the programme of activities, you can come to the Chill-Out Room to relax or lie down.

Full event details

Need to know

Location

This is an event with several different activities. Check specific sub-events for their locations.

Multi-part programme

This is a large-scale event with several different activities, which may include drop-in sessions, scheduled performances, workshops or talks. Check specific activities for details and to see if you need to book a ticket or just show up. Spaces for drop-in activities are limited and may run out if we are busy.

For more information, please visit our Accessibility page. If you have any queries about accessibility, please email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call

Our event terms and conditions

About your collaborator

Touretteshero

Founded in 2010, multi-award-winning inclusive arts company Touretteshero share the humour and creativity of Tourette’s syndrome with the widest possible audience. Using Tourette’s as a catalyst, their mission is to create a socially just world for disabled and non-disabled people through their cultural practice.