Exhibitions

These joyful exhibitions will leave you walking on sunshine.

Explore the diversity of euphoric experiences and the effect of positive emotion on the body.

Joy is uplifting. It can be intense but brief, and leaves you wanting more. Some find joy while losing themselves on the dance floor, others while catching up with friends over a meal.

This exhibition shares with you a diversity of euphoric experiences and the effect of positive emotion on the body. Joy can bring catharsis, build resilience and bring people together.

New commissions by Harold Offeh, Amalia Pica and David Shrigley, plus artworks and historical objects dating back to the 15th century, guide you along some of the many paths to joy that different communities have sought, even in difficult times.

You will need to book a free ticket to enter the exhibition.

Exhibition highlights

A complete set of gallery captions is available to read online. Large-print captions are also available in the gallery.

Our digital gallery guide for ‘Joy’ and ‘Tranquillity’ features 24 perspectives from medicine, science, religion and poetry, and audio descriptions of some artworks. It is available as audio, BSL and complete transcripts. Handsets are also available in the gallery, but we encourage you to bring your own device and headphones.

A family guide for people with children aged 3–11 is available in the gallery.

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Joy exhibition

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We’ll be in Gallery 2. To get there, go up the stairs or take the lift to level 1.

Gallery 2

An uplifting double header — we could have spent an hour in that forest.

Take a deeper look at feelings of peace and balance.

Tranquillity brings peace and balance, helping you to reconnect with yourself and your surroundings. There may be a wonderful simplicity to experiencing such calm feelings, but they are complex and difficult to attain.

This exhibition offers new commissions that take a deeper look, such as Jasleen Kaur’s playful critique of the wellness industry and Chrystel Lebas’s sublime multisensory tribute to forests and how they affect our health. 

Historical artefacts, from a régime du corps medieval wellbeing manual to the notebooks that Octavia E Butler used as self-encouragement, show you some of the different ways that individuals pursue moments of tranquillity. 

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Tranquillity exhibition

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We’ll be in Gallery 1. When you enter Wellcome Collection, it’s on the left on level 0.    

Gallery 1

Tranquillity

This installation featuring five short films explores the question of being human during Covid-19 through poetry and monologues. 

The project was led by 15 young people from Copenhagen Youth Project, and features perspectives drawn from local communities in Caledonian and Barnsbury wards (‘Cally’), accompanied by footage from Black Lives Matter protests. 

The monologues are performed by Moses Gomes-Santos and the poem by Samuel King with background music produced by Armani ‘Amzdatkid’ Malone, an attendee at Copenhagen Youth Project. The production was led by Blanguage.

This project is part of Wellcome Collection’s Youth Programme in partnership with Copenhagen Youth Project.

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What does it mean to be human now? Four views by CYP x CALLY

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Installation

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We’ll be in the Forum. To get there, take the lift or stairs up to level 1 and then follow the signs through the ‘Being Human’ gallery.

The Forum

Four views by CYP x CALLY

Drop in to the Reading Room to take part in artist Oreet Ashery’s project.

Ashery invites you to consider how you feel about your own mental and physical health. Add your response to a growing collection of intimate, moving, funny and frank accounts of health submitted by our visitors. A changing selection of responses will be displayed in the installation over the coming months, opening up the space for shared contemplation.

This project was originally part of Ashery’s recent exhibition at Wellcome Collection, ‘Misbehaving Bodies: Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery’, which explored lived experiences of care and chronic illness.

Listen to the audio (55 mins, featuring  readers Jordan Ajadi, Alexis De Sousa, Lizzy Le Quesne, and Madinah Thompson).

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Do you consider yourself healthy? Oreet Ashery

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We’ll be in the Reading Room on level 2. You can walk up the spiral staircase to the Reading Room door, or take the lift up and then head left from the Library Desk.

Reading Room

Do you consider yourself healthy?

At every turn the visitor will find something to fascinate.

This permanent gallery explores trust, identity and health in a changing world.

Being Human explores what it means to be human in the 21st century. It reflects our hopes and fears about new forms of medical knowledge, and our changing relationships with ourselves, each other and the world.

Featuring 50 artworks and objects, the gallery is divided into four sections: Genetics, Minds & Bodies, Infection, and Environmental Breakdown. Discover a refugee astronaut carrying their belongings to an unknown destination, sniff a perfumed bronze sculpture that smells of breast milk, listen to an epidemic jukebox, and watch a fast-food outlet slowly flood.

A complete set of gallery captions is available to read online.

Recorded audio descriptions of every exhibit and a highlights tour are available on the VocalEyes website. 

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Being Human gallery

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Permanent

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We’ll be in the ‘Being Human’ gallery, which you can find by taking the stairs or the lift to level 1.

Being Human

Our new permanent gallery explores trust, identity and health in a changing world.

Sir Henry Wellcome was a collector who, through his agents, amassed well over a million books, paintings and objects from around the world, aiming to tell a global story of health and medicine.  

‘Medicine Man’ is our free permanent display of a small part of that huge collection. The exhibition shows extraordinary examples of the many ways in which people, through time and across cultures, have sought to understand the workings of the human body, to protect themselves, and care for one another.

It includes a wide range of objects relating to sex, birth and death, a unique collection of votive offerings, and a range of extraordinary anatomical models in wood, ivory and wax dating back to the 17th century. 

Colonial power shaped how the collection was put together and understood. You can experience a series of interventions in the exhibition in which artists and writers respond to an exhibit of their choice. Addressing the collection’s colonial legacies, their responses will highlight human stories that previous histories of health and medicine have hidden or ignored. 

He also created  one of the world's great museums: a vast stockpile of evidence about our  universal interest in health and the body.

More than 150 years after his birth in 1853, this exhibition reunites  a cross-section of extraordinary objects from his collection, ranging  from diagnostic dolls to Japanese sex aids, and from Napoleon's  toothbrush to George III's hair. It also provides a very different  perspective on some of our own obsessions with medicine and health.

In 'Medicine Man' some objects are gathered  by type and others by broad cross-cultural themes. Seven other objects  are presented individually and are examined by a variety of commentators  from different backgrounds, to show that one object can mean many  different things and tell many different stories.

Borrow a free digital guide and learn about Henry Wellcome's wonderful curios (available in English, French and BSL).

Some non-flash photography is permitted in this exhibition. See our photography policy.

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Medicine Man gallery

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Henry Wellcome was a man of many parts: entrepreneur, philanthropist, patron of science and pioneer of aerial photography. 

We’ll be in the ‘Medicine Man’ gallery. You can find it by taking the stairs or the lift to level 1.

Medicine Man

This free permanent exhibition in central London reunites a cross-section of extraordinary objects about science, medicine, health and the body from Henry Wellcome's collection.

Artist Sop explores alternative strategies for self-care during the Covid-19 pandemic through a series of meditative sound works.

As someone in the “clinically extremely vulnerable” category, Sop was forced to shield during the pandemic. They narrate the process of building a secret den in a cemetery at the edges of a wood near where they live. The den provides a space for respite, deeply connected to nature: a structure of protection and safety in which to take shelter.

The Den 1 was commissioned and supported by Artquest through the WFH Residency and by Unlimited, with funding from Arts Council England.

Related to this exhibition

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The Den, an installation by artist, Sop

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The Den

What is the role of empathy in healthcare?

‘Standardized Patient’ is a two-sided video installation by US artist Kerry Tribe that explores how simulated, or ‘standardized’, patients are used to train medical students.

Actors perform as patients with different medical and personal histories, preparing the students for the human connection that forms a critical part of any care relationship. The encounters range from a young woman seeking advice on sexual health – and a broken heart – to end-of-life care for a man estranged from his daughter. These are complex human experiences that cut much deeper than a simple diagnosis.

Kerry Tribe discusses Standardized Patient

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Standardized Patient,  a two-sided video installation by US artist Kerry Tribe

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Standardized Patient

What is the role of empathy in healthcare? Kerry Tribe's video installation explores the use of simulated, or ‘standardized’ patients in training medical students.

While we are closed, you can see and listen to the 'Inclusive Futures' installation online. 

Visit Inclusive Futures to see and hear ideas for how to make the world a better place for everyone. This colourful display was designed by participants and artists from Heart n Soul at The Hub, a research project led by autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

There are design ideas and personal perspectives from the people who created them on display. You can listen to interviews about the project and contribute your own ideas.

Heart n Soul at The Hub are thinking inclusively about alternative futures as part of their project’s research into the value of difference. They are the current Wellcome Hub research residency. 

‘Inclusive Futures’ is created in collaboration with The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. 

Award-winning creative arts company and charity Heart n Soul are residents of The Hub from 2018 to 2020. Their research project is led by people with learning disabilities and autistic people, and is about exploring the value of difference and questioning what is ’normal’.

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Heart n Soul at The Hub

Heart n Soul at The Hub website

Creator

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Inclusive Futures

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We’ll be on the Level 1 Landing, which is just oustide the entrance to Being Human, Medicine Man and Gallery 2.

Level 1 Landing

Visit the installation ‘Inclusive Futures’ to see and hear ideas for how to make the world a better place for everyone. Designed by Heart n Soul at The Hub, the display includes interviews and personal perspectives from the people who created it.

"Takes playing seriously.... not so seriously that it kicks the fun out of it"

Why do we play? How important is it for all of us, young or old? What does it mean to play well? We invite you to consider the impact of play in our lives.

‘Play Well’ explores how play transforms both childhood and society. Using displays of historic toys and games, artworks and design, this exhibition investigates how play develops social bonds, emotional resilience and physical wellbeing. The exhibition includes: images of children at play in the street, in playgrounds and beyond; makeshift and commercially produced toys; digital games and a larp (live-action role play) space by artist Adam James. 

The exhibition is open to people of all ages, but there are limited opportunities for interaction and handling objects.

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Play Well exhibition

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Play Well

Why do we play? How important is it for all of us, young or old? What does it mean to play well?

An invigorating – if ultimately heartbreaking – experience.

Our free exhibition brings together two artists who explore the representation of chronic illness and reclaim the idea of ‘misbehaving bodies’.

Influential photographer Jo Spence’s (1934–92) work documents her diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent healthcare regime throughout the 1980s. Her raw and confrontational photography is shown alongside Oreet Ashery’s (b. 1966) award-winning miniseries ‘Revisiting Genesis’, 2016. Ashery’s politically engaged work explores loss and the lived experience of chronic illness in the digital era. In October 2019, a new commission by Ashery, exploring the recent death of her father, will be added. 

Follow your own path through this exhibition, challenge your understanding of ‘misbehaving’ or ‘untypical’ bodies, and reflect on how illness shapes identity. 

In this exhibition

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Misbehaving Bodies exhibition

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Free exhibition in central London opening May 2019 featuring the influential photography of Jo Spence and artwork of  Oreet Ashery. Features Spence's renowned self-portraits in the series 'The Picture of Health?' 1982-86 and Ashery's 'Revisiting Genesis'.

Misbehaving Bodies

Misbehaving Bodies: Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery

Free central London exhibition featuring the photography of Jo Spence and the moving image and performance artwork from Oreet Ashery. Opens 30 May 2019.

What can magic and conjuring tell us about the human mind? Our exhibition brings together the worlds of psychology and entertainment in search of the truth about deception.

Explore how our biases affect our perception and whether our senses can be hacked. Discover spirit photography, magic props and psychology experiments to see how magic works on – and in – the mind of the spectator.

Artefacts on display from the world of magic include the head of the gorilla costume worn by Derren Brown, Harry Houdini’s ‘Bell Box’, Tommy Cooper’s fez, and Paul Daniels’s sawing-in-half box.

Six times per week you can enjoy performances in the gallery explaining the psychology behind the magic. The gallery will be busy during these performances. 

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Smoke and Mirrors exhibition - Houdini's Water-Filled-Torture poster, Museums Sheffield

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Now closed. Free exhibition in central London that brought together the worlds of psychology and entertainment and featured Harry Houdini's ‘Bell Box’.

Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic

Free magic and psychology exhibition in central London, open 11 April to 15 September 2019.

Visit the Wall of Change to see a mural of objects and spaces reimagined by participants and artists from Heart n Soul at The Hub, a research project led by autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Heart n Soul are thinking inclusively about alternative futures as part of their project’s research into the value of difference. Their designs, created in collaboration with The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, include can openers that work at a push of a button and hospitals that you would actually enjoy visiting. 

Feel inspired to choose something in your own life to change or redesign – sit down, grab a pencil and paper and sketch or describe your idea. Then you can add it to the wall or tweet it to #wallofchange for it to become part of Heart n Soul’s research.

The artwork for the Wall of Change was created by Ben Connors in collaboration with Heart n Soul participants and artists.

Curator

Curators

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Wall of Change, installation by Heart n Soul

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Heart n Soul’s Wall of Change

Explore how we might reimagine everyday objects and spaces and take inspiration from designs by participants and artists from Heart n Soul at The Hub, a research project led by autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Walk inside an innovative mobile clinic, and follow its development from the early prototypes to the first complete version. 

Doctors working in remote locations often deliver emergency services from temporary structures – these need to be flexible yet robust, easy to transport and build, and able to adapt to different climates. 

Independent humanitarian charity Doctors of the World were frustrated with the available options, usually tents or shipping containers. They worked with architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, and engineers BuroHappold and ChapmanBDSP to produce the Global Clinic, designed to provide effective, adaptable healthcare in emergency situations and remote locations. 

This installation includes Made Well, which explores how flat-pack technology can respond to the needs of refugees.

Doctors of the World are currently fundraising to deploy the clinic in a location where their care is needed.

Made Well

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The Global Clinic

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Part of Living with Buildings, our health and architecture exhibition in central London. Walk through an innovative mobile clinic designed to provide effective, adaptable healthcare in emergency situations.

Global Clinic

Upstairs on level 1, walk through our innovative mobile clinic, which will provide effective, adaptable healthcare in emergency situations.  Part of our free health and architecture exhibition, ‘Living with Buildings’.

An ambitious, expansive and hugely enjoyable exhibition

We’re surrounded by buildings all the time, but how do they affect our physical and mental health?

Explore the role colour can play in making us feel better, see a pioneering mobile clinic designed to provide adaptable healthcare in emergency situations and examine the history and continuing reality of how we design for health.

Featuring works by Andreas Gursky, Rachel Whiteread and Martha Rosler, as well as buildings designed by Goldfinger, Lubetkin and Aalto, this exhibition examines some of the ways in which architects, planners and designers influence our health, self-esteem and ideas about society.

Consider the urgent connections between our homes and our health and look anew at the future of our built environment in this major exhibition.

From Dickensian London to the bold experiments of postwar urban planners, and from healing spaces for cancer patients to the role architecture can play in global healthcare provision, we look anew at the buildings that surround and shape us.

In Gallery 1, explore the pivotal influence of urban planning on our health and wellbeing through maps charting poverty in Victorian London and designs for garden cities and ideal villages. Discover the architectural design principles that inspired London’s health centres and their contribution to the treatment of tuberculosis. 

The exhibition includes works by Andreas Gursky, Rachel Whiteread and Martha Rosler, buildings designed by Lubetkin, Goldfinger and Aalto, and a new commission by artist Giles Round exploring the role colour can play in making us feel better. 

Free exhibition in London exploring architecture and health. Examines the positive and negative influence buildings have on our health and wellbeing.

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Wellcome collection