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Climate Day Takeover

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  • Free
  • Festival
  • British Sign Language interpreted
  • Relaxed
Visitors engaging in a creative workshop assisted by a Visitor Experience Facilitator.
Event in the Wellcome Studio, Photo: Steven Pocock. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

What you’ll do

Join us for a day of activities to explore what the climate means to you. You’ll have the chance to take part in a range of workshops, hear from speakers and look at historical items from our collections, as we reflect on our relationship to the climate – past, present and future.

Scroll down for full details, times and locations. Please note that some events require advance booking.

A BSL interpreter will be available throughout the day – you can ask a member of staff if you need support.

If you want a break from the activities at any point in the day, you can head to our Chill-Out Room to lie down or relax. There will be low lighting, comfortable seating, cushions, mats, ear defenders, earplugs and sensory toys. 

Dates

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Events

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  • Workshop
What the Water Does
The Studio
Take part in a Japanese suminagashi water marbling workshop – a practice where ink is gently floated on water and then transferred to paper, creating one-of-a-kind swirling patterns – led by our facilitator, Rebekah. You’ll then compare your handmade creations to suminagashi-inspired designs generated by AI. Both rely on water: in traditional suminagashi, water is essential for marbling, while AI depends on vast amounts of water to cool data centres and power its models, contributing to the ongoing climate crisis. You’ll be invited to reflect on a vital question: what is the better use of water?
  • British Sign Language interpreted

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  • Session
Water Meditation
Gallery 1
Come along to a guided meditation and storytelling session in our ‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ exhibition, led by our facilitator, Isabelle. By contemplating stories and memories, we invite you to recentre and unwind with sounds and visual prompts connected to water. Please note that although BSL interpretation may not be possible throughout this session, visual prompts will be available to guide you.
Just turn up
  • Hearing loop

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  • Session
A Climate of Change
Viewing Room
Join our Library Experience and Engagement Facilitators, Elfed, Océane, and Polly, to look at items from our collections related to climate activism. You’ll be shown a range of historical materials, and have the chance to learn about the ways we’ve looked after our environment over time.
Just turn up
  • Audio described
  • Hearing loop

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  • Discussion
Climate Listening Circle
Wellcome Kitchen
Come along to a conversation about climate change and our feelings towards it. As a group, we’ll be discussing topics such as eco-anxiety and solastalgia – a form of emotional or existential distress caused by negatively perceived environmental change. This discussion will be led by facilitators Jake and Sarah, who will have prompts for you to help share your own experiences and perspectives. You’re free to say as much or as little as you’d like. Or you can just listen.
Check for tickets

Tickets via Eventbrite

  • British Sign Language interpreted
  • Hearing loop
  • Relaxed

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  • Workshop
DIY Water Hacks
The Studio
Drop in to a workshop led by our facilitator, Solange, where we’ll be demonstrating DIY water purification and testing hacks using household objects and easy-to-access materials. You’ll have the chance to try some of our hacks and learn about easy ways to clean and purify water.
Just turn up
  • Relaxed

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  • Workshop
Plants, Rain, Garden and Grow
The Forum
Join Holly from our Visitor Experience and Engagement team to learn more about the history of plants, health and medicine and their links to gardening. We’ll also be thinking about our relationship to rain, inspired by our ‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’ exhibition. We’ll begin by looking at materials from our collection, and you’ll then have the chance to design your own card using seeded paper, which you can take away and plant. Please note, this event may not be suitable for people with allergies to seeds. For full allergen information, follow the link below to our Eventbrite page.
Check for tickets

Tickets via Eventbrite

  • British Sign Language interpreted
  • Hearing loop
  • Relaxed

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  • Session
The Great Stink
Reading Room
Experience an interactive, smell-led session, led by our facilitator Grace, to explore the Great Stink of 1858 – an event in Central London in which hot weather exacerbated the smell of human and industrial waste that was present on the banks of the River Thames. We’ll be discussing how this led to the rapid development of the London sewer system, and how the climate crisis has impacted our sewer system today. Alongside this, there will be a selection of scents evoking the story of London’s sewers that you will be invited to smell.
Just turn up
  • British Sign Language interpreted
  • Hearing loop

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  • Session
water-givers, memory-keepers, and the shifting forces
Gallery 1
Join Aleks from our Visitor Experience and Engagement team for a slow-looking session. We’ll be looking at an installation in our ‘Thirst’ exhibition by Karan Shrestha called ‘water-givers, memory-keepers, and the shifting forces’. Slow looking is a form of active learning that allows everyone the opportunity to engage with art and objects on their own terms and at their own pace. People will be invited to spend time looking at the piece in more detail and learn more about what the piece can reveal about contemporary issues facing people living in Nepal.
Just turn up
  • British Sign Language interpreted

Need to know

Location

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

British Sign Language interpreted

This event will have British Sign Language interpretation.

Relaxed

This is a relaxed event, which means that if you need to, you are welcome to move around and make noise at any time.

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 contributors

A headshot of Grace Higgins Brown smiling into the camera

Grace Higgins Brown

Grace is an artist and writer who uses scent as a tool for exploring and engaging with artworks, histories, and memories. She has a long standing interest in the sewers and its important relationship to cities and the people who inhabit them. Grace works at Wellcome Collection as a Visitor Experience & Engagement Facilitator.

Aleks Jagielski

(he/him)

Aleks is a facilitator at Wellcome Collection and a writer with background in community engagement. Outside of Wellcome, he works with the Museum of Transology.

A headshot of Holly Houlton smiling into the camera.

Holly Houlton

(she/her)

Holly is a Visitor Experience and Engagement Facilitator at Wellcome Collection with a background in the visual arts, photography and writing. She uses a variety of facilitation techniques to encourage visitors to connect with artworks and items from the collection; with the aim of creating meaningful and memorable experiences.

Jake Blackavar

(he/they)

Jake Blackavar is a Visitor Experience & Engagement Facilitator at Wellcome Collection. They encourage a question-led approach to gallery tours and run a variety of creative workshops. They help lead ‘Conversations about Death’ - an ongoing series of events at Wellcome to enable open discussion of tender subjects.

Solange LaRose

(she/her)

Solange is a Visitor Experience & Engagement Facilitator, creating exciting, engaging and thought-provoking experiences for visitors to the Wellcome Collection. Solange has a professional background in the higher education sector and has supported students at all stages of their learning. Solange has a particular interest in archaeology and ancient material culture.

Elfed Selman

Elfed Selman

(he/him)

Elfed is a Library Experience and Engagement Facilitator at Wellcome Collection, with a background in outreach evaluation in the heritage sector. Elfed is fascinated by the sensory experiences places of heritage have to offer and how each sense can inspire a re-interpretation of collections. He is especially interested in oral history and the insight it gives into people's personalities and experiences.  

Black and white photo of the head and shoulders of a young woman. Her head is tilted to one side, she is smiling and looking at the camera.

Rebekah Lindo

(she/her)

Rebekah is a Visitor Experience & Engagement Facilitator at Wellcome Collection. She's interested in exploring the connection between creativity and the self, and has a background in biomedical sciences, and science communication.

Black and white photograph of the head and shoulders of a young woman with short dark hair and round glasses. The woman is looking up and to the right.

Polly Bodetto

(she/they)

Polly is a Library Experience and Engagement Facilitator at Wellcome with a background in Art History. They have a keen interest in folklore, mythology, and comparative religions. When they are not at Wellcome, they can be found picking up trinkets off the forest floor.

Sarah Dabbs

Sarah Dabbs

(she/her)

Sarah is a Visitor Experience & Engagement Facilitator at Wellcome Collection, a medical doctor and a writer. She loves all things medical history, especially around medieval concepts of medicine, Georgian and Dickensian London, and maritime folklore.

A headshot of Océane, who is staring into the camera and smiling.

Océane Lacanau

Océane is a Library Experience and Engagement Facilitator at Wellcome. She revels in everything creative and whimsical. She has a specific fondness for books and video games and how they allow you to become an active learner when it comes to the many conditions of the human psyche. 

Photograph of Isabelle Gapomo

Isabelle Gapomo

Isabelle Gapomo is a Facilitator at Wellcome Collection, fostering critical engagement with narratives of Human Health, History, and Diversity. She connects archival insights to contemporary wellbeing issues, using her curatorial practice to reveal stories of health equity and social belonging.