Name: Head Space
Location: Wellcome Collection

Join us for a quick cup of coffee and a pastry, afternoon tea, or a light meal with a glass of wine.

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Café

Gallery tour

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Daily Guided Tours and Discussions

Come and browse a selection of our quirky gifts and books.

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Shop

Enjoy delicious lunches, drinks and afternoon tea on level 2.

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Restaurant

Artist Deborah Kelly invites you to join a series of free workshops to collectively devise and realise an intimate life-sized portrait of artist, activist and drag star Danny Smith.

You’ll explore craft skills and artistic approaches to creating collage, and collaborate with others in a series of unhurried, hands-on, open-ended tasks. The collages you make will be created from discarded reference books and magazines.

The portrait that you make of Danny will become a part of our collection and will be on display in the ‘Being Human’ exhibition.

There will be nine sessions in total and you’ll need to be able to attend a minimum of two. You’ll need to arrive at the beginning, but you can leave earlier if necessary.

Deborah Kelly has been investigating the expansion of the humble, lo-fi art of collage since 2011. Her epic collaborative portrait project ‘No Human Being Is Illegal’ was commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney, then toured Australia 2014–18. In November–December 2019 she is Artist-in-Residence at the Wellcome Trust in London.

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Deborah Kelly

Artist

Danny Smith is a multimedia artist whose art embraces performance, film, drawing, painting and photography. He says, “First I was a baby and I was handsome, then when I was a teenager I became more who I am. My art comes from my heart.” Recent exhibitions include ‘Rising’, a group show by Shadowlight Artists at two venues, the Old Fire Station Gallery and Modern Art Oxford. He is currently on an international tour with Drag Syndrome.

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Danny Smith

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

Collaborator

<p>A practical activity where you will create something or develop skills.</p>

Workshop

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Workshop at Wellcome Collection

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We’ll be in a space called Henry’s. To get there, go to the Information Point and you’ll be escorted up and through the staff doors to this behind-the-scenes space.

Henry’s

Join a series of free collage workshops with our Artist-in-Residence Deborah Kelly.

Collective Collage Workshops

Share experiences of grief from many different areas of life, whether related to death or not. Often people find it hard to talk frankly about grief. This is a space where everyone is invited to speak or listen, whatever their experience. 

Facilitators Sam Butler and David Harradine from This Grief Thing will open up the conversation to think, talk and learn about grief. There are limited spaces to allow for every participant to share if they wish to. Booking early is advisable.

David Harradine is co-founder and joint Artistic Director of Fevered Sleep. As well as making work with Fevered Sleep, he works independently through collaboration with artists, designers and performance makers. David is a winner of the Jerwood Young Directors Award, and has a doctorate in Performance Studies from the University of London.

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David Harradine

This Grief Thing's website

Facilitator

Sam Butler graduated from Middlesex University in 1995 and is the co-founder and joint Artistic Director of Fevered Sleep. As well as performing in much of the company’s early work, she co-devises, designs and directs most of the work, both for adults and for children. Sam also works as a freelance lecturer, workshop leader, mentor and artist.

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Sam Butler

<p>A chance to hear about and talk about ideas with others.</p>

Discussion

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Wellcome Collection event

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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

Booking a ticket for a free event does not guarantee a place on the day. Doors usually open 15 minutes before an event starts and we advise arriving before the scheduled start time to claim a place. We hold some spaces for people with access requirements. If you have any access requests or requirements, email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

First come, first served

Think, talk and learn about grief in a space where everyone is invited to speak or listen, whatever their experience.

Grief Gatherings

14 to 19-year-olds

Led by experts from the worlds of science and art, this symposium will encourage students to research the role of play in social learning and explore how children’s play reflects, alters and adapts to the world around them. Students will learn through talks and discussions, a gallery visit and facilitated activities, as well as interactive workshops.

This event is inspired by our new exhibition, ‘Play Well’, opening in October 2019.

A preparation pack will be sent out in advance of the symposium to prepare students and teachers for the activities.

This event is suitable for post-16 students studying psychology, sociology or health and social care.

Michael Rosen is one of the best-loved figures in the children’s book world, renowned for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster and education campaigner. His books include ‘Michael Rosen’s Book of Play’, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, ‘Michael Rosen’s Sad Book’ and ‘Totally Wonderful Miss Plumberry’. He is Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London.

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Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen’s official website

Contributor

Karen Newell is co-founder of ToyLikeMe, an arts-based, not-for-profit organisation. ToyLikeMe celebrates the powers of disability representation in toys to boost self- esteem and grow open minds.

Karen Newell

ToyLikeMe website

Dr Matluba Khan is a research fellow at UCL interested in built-environment, pedagogy and play.  

Dr Matluba Khan

More about Matluba Khan

Easy Peasy are a group of creators, researchers and educators, dedicated to helping families discover, create, play and share learning games. They use use technology to bring families together in new and exciting ways that spark imagination, joy and learning in homes everywhere: 

Easy Peasy

Easy Peasy website

Symposium

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Study Day

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

Throughout the building

Your school or college can book a maximum of two study days per term. To secure your booking, you'll need to complete and return the required forms promptly.

All study days and events are free, but we charge a fee for cancellation or significant changes to your group size made within three weeks of your visit. Both policies are explained fully in the agreement we ask you to sign ahead of your visit.

School booking conditions

A symposium for post-16 students to research the role of play in social learning and explore how children’s play reflects, alters and adapts to the world around them.

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Medicine Now gallery

Active and engaging, to drive your students' creative and critical skills.

Study Days

Perspectives on Play

Join former Children’s Laureate and bestselling author Michael Rosen to hear his thoughts on play. In his new Book of Play to accompany our ‘Play Well’ exhibition, Rosen highlights the importance of play for creativity, resilience and so much more. Come and hear his suggestions of silliness and activities that will help us get more play into our lives. There will be a chance to ask questions.

Philippa Perry is a psychotherapist, agony aunt and author of ‘The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read’. A faculty member of the School of Life, she has worked on the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The Age of Emotion’ and contributed towards the radio documentary ‘Humiliation’. 

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Philippa Perry

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30977825

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There will be an induction loop at this event for visitors with hearing aids. 

Hearing loop

We’ll be in the Henry Wellcome Auditorium. To get there, take the stairs or the lift down to level –1.

Henry Wellcome Auditorium

Join former Children’s Laureate and bestselling author Michael Rosen, who will share his thoughts on play.

Why Play Matters

Join Dalian Adofo, an educator and filmmaker who shares knowledge and stories about African spirituality, for a tour of the ‘Medicine Man’ exhibition.

You’ll hear his personal views and insights into the exhibition and have an opportunity to ask questions.

Dalian Adofo is an educational consultant, academic researcher and filmmaker. Ancestral Voices is the educational initiative he set up with his wife in 2010 as a means of preserving and sharing information about African spirituality and its cosmological philosophies and practices. Its learning resources include two documentary films, a book, and an online course, ‘Living an African Spiritual-Centred Life’.

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Dalian Adofo

Guide

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

Medicine Man gallery

Spaces are first come, first served and may run out if we are busy so you may wish to arrive early. If you have any access requests or requirements, email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

Limited spaces available

Join Dalian Adofo, an educator and filmmaker who shares knowledge and stories about African spirituality, for a tour of the ‘Medicine Man‘ exhibition.

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Teeth exhibition

In these tours, we invite experts in connected fields to bring their unique perspectives to our exhibitions.

Perspective Tours

Perspective Tour with Dalian Adofo

Come and celebrate the publication of ‘How We Die is How We Live Only More So’, a collection of writing exploring vulnerability and intimacy, death and dying in the digital era, and the politics of illness. Co-edited by Oreet Ashery and George Vasey, the publication archives Ashery’s work from 2014 – 2019 and includes new writing from Rizvana Bradley, T J Demos, Mason Leaver-Yap, Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz and Imani Robertson.

A performative reading by Imani Robinson. 

A Q & A with Oreet Ashery and the other contributors, chaired by George Vasey.

Oreet Ashery (b.1966 Jerusalem) is a UK-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes time-based image, performance, text, sound and music. In 2017, Ashery won the 10th Film London Jarman Award, and her work has been exhibited and performed all over the world. She is currently an associate professor of Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. 

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Christa Holka, 2016.

Oreet Ashery

Oreet Ashery’s website

George Vasey is co-curator of the ‘Misbehaving Bodies’ exhibition.

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George Vasey

An interview with George Vasey

Editor

Imani Robinson is a London-based writer, live art practitioner, plant lover and prison abolitionist. They completed their MA in Forensic Architecture at the Centre for Research Architecture in 2019. They are one half of Languid Hands, an artistic and curatorial collaboration with DJ, filmmaker and curator Rabz Lansiquot.

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Imani Robinson

T J Demos is an award-winning writer and professor of visual culture at University of California, Santa Cruz, and Director of its Center for Creative Ecologies. He has co-curated exhibitions in Madrid and Nottingham, and writes widely about contemporary art, global politics and ecology. His most recent book is ‘Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today’ (Sternberg Press, 2017). 

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T J Demos

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Misbehaving Bodies event at Wellcome Collection

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This event will have live speech-to-text transcription for visitors who are deaf, deafened and hard of hearing. If you would like to come along, email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

This event will be audio described for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Places are free but very limited. If you would like to come along, email access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

Speech-to-text

Come and celebrate the publication of the collection ‘How We Die is How We Live Only More So’, with talks and readings. Topics the book explores include death and dying in the digital era, and the politics of illness.

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A series of events featuring artist Oreet Ashery that bring together many voices to discuss care, social and personal loss and digital legacies of death and dying.

Misbehaving Bodies: events with Oreet Ashery

How We Die is How We Live Only More So

Join artist and psychological therapist Rosy Martin in a one-day workshop that will introduce you to phototherapy using existing images from family albums. Martin was a key collaborator of Jo Spence and together they pioneered the use of photographs as a route to explore personal identities, hidden feelings and submerged memories.

Working with family albums can help tell stories about family history and offer clues as to why early experiences continue to affect our lives. Working in pairs and as a group, you will use counselling techniques to share and empathise through discussions, writing and listening.

Once you’ve signed up by email, you will be advised what to prepare in advance.

This is a workshop rather than a formal counselling session.

Rosy Martin is an artist-photographer, psychological therapist, workshop leader, lecturer and writer. Her work explores the relationships between memory, identities and unconscious processes through photography, digital imagery and the moving image. Together with Jo Spence, she pioneered re-enactment phototherapy from 1983, and continues to develop this practice.

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Rosy Martin

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We’ll be in the Studio and the Forum on level 1. When you enter Wellcome Collection, head up the stairs or take the lift, then follow the signs through the ‘Being Human’ gallery.

The Studio and the Forum

Join artist and psychological therapist Rosy Martin in a one-day workshop using photographs as a route to explore personal identities, hidden feelings and submerged memories.

Family Album Workshop

Drop in and join artist and researcher Jessie McLaughlin for creative activities exploring consent in relation to the structures and institutions that surround us, and the language we use. 

If you come along between 12.00 and 13.00, you will be joined by artist Davinia-Ann Robinson. The focus of the discussion will be about structures of power related to the definition of the term erotic, specifically in relation to women of colour. 

Jessie McLaughlin is an amateur artist, curator and wannabe footballer and boxer. They work from a soft, queer, brown (and sometimes sad) perspective, examining structures of privilege, oppression and exclusion, and searching for joy and community.

Jessie McLaughlin

Jessie McLaughlin’s website

Artist Davinia-Ann Robinson’s practice explores the cultural politics of emotions and the ways emotions affect female bodies of colour, navigating through patriarchal and colonial spaces in Western culture. Robinson examines the related notions of how black women are viewed as the ‘Other’ and ‘un-woman’, and how they are displaced into the periphery of Western society. 

Davinia-Ann Robinson

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Misbehaving Bodies drop in workshop

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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

Drop in and join artist and researcher Jessie McLaughlin for creative activities exploring consent in relation to the structures and institutions that surround us, and the language we use.

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