Wellcome Collection - This October: Living with Buildings opens, Daylighting and Stammering

Wellcome's free museum and library for the incurably curious

Somers Town, a Social Laboratory SAT 6, 13 & 20 OCT, 15.00–17.00 FRI 12 & 19 OCT, 15.00–17.00 FREE EVENT | BOOK ONLINE FROM 28 SEP Join this guided walking tour through the radical history of Somers Town, a place of architectural and institutional experimentation. We will explore the buildings and people that shaped the local area’s history of social deprivation and progressive politics. This tour will start at Wellcome Collection before heading offsite. This walk will be suitable for all fitness levels, but please get in touch if you have any accessibility queries. Capacity is limited, so book soon to ensure your place.

Living with Buildings: Health and Architecture 4 OCT 2018–3 MAR 2019 FREE EXHIBITION | DROP IN Spanning two galleries, our major new exhibition examines some of the ways in which architecture and the built environment interact with concerns about health and wellbeing. From the slums of 19th-century London to the bold experiments of postwar urban planners to therapeutic spaces for people affected by cancer, look anew at the buildings that surround us and shape us. Image: Tony Ray-Jones/RIBA Collections

Living with Buildings: On Health and Architecture NEW BOOK | OUT NOW “A remarkable book; gripping and often very moving” – Robert Macfarlane Iain Sinclair embarks on a series of expeditions –  through London, Marseille, Mexico and the Outer Hebrides – exploring the relationships between sickness and structure, and between art, architecture, social planning and health. Part investigation, part travelogue, Living with Buildings brings the spaces we inhabit to life as never before. Available from Wellcome Shop.

Daylighting THU 18–SUN 21 OCT FREE EVENT | DROP IN Join Amy Sharrocks, Clare Qualmann, Madeleine Hodge and many more artists to build DAYLIGHT, a collaborative artwork in the form of a newspaper that explores the presence of women through their art and ideas. Who are your heroes? Who have we forgotten? Explore the interconnections of art, activism, politics, health and expression in live printing workshops, performance, discussions and continuous collective writing. Join us to typeset vital women back into history. Image: Stephen Blunt

Heart n Soul: Our Voice, Our Way WED 24–SUN 28 OCT FREE | DROP IN Drop into this immersive audiovisual installation from creative arts company Heart n Soul – featuring their artists, staff, volunteers and friends – to hear the stories of people with and without learning disabilities. Heart n Soul are the new residents of The Hub. Their project will explore ideas of human value, difference and love from the viewpoint of people with learning disabilities and autism. To start discussing these ideas, there will be a ‘Chat Up’ event called ‘What Is Normal?’ that accompanies the installation. Join Heart n Soul on Thursday 25 October for this informal conversation and a surprise performance.

Library Insights: Surgery and emotions THU 11 OCT, 18.00–19.00 FREE EVENT | BOOK FROM 28 SEP Emotions play a pivotal role in the surgical theatre, but do we want our surgeons to be stoic and dispassionate or caring and sympathetic? Hear two talks contrasting the era of pre-anaesthetic surgery with the cultural portrayals of post-World War II surgeons. This is a fascinating exploration of a rarefied world that includes a look at the first-hand accounts of the famous surgical siblings John and Charles Bell.

Packed Lunch: StammeringWED 10 OCT, 13.00-14.00 FREE EVENT | FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Experimental psychologist Naheem Bashir is using brain imaging and stimulation to investigate the neurological basis for stammering and the development of therapeutic treatments. Stammering can affect people's education, career choices, personal relationships and mental health, but little is known about it. Join Naheem to find out about his pioneering research and his own experiences of living with stammering.

The Liver in Bed Two: A case of compassionate anxiety WED 24 OCT, 13.00-14.30 & 16.00-17.30 THU 25 OCT, 16.00-17.30 & 19.00-20.30 FREE EVENT | DROP IN Join the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and East 15 Acting School as they draw on archival material from Wellcome's library to create a unique performance and workshop marking 70 years of the NHS. This interactive performance celebrates Isabel Menzies Lyth’s work on anxiety management and processes as applied in the NHS nursing service.

BEYOND WELLCOME

Book Surgery SAT 6 OCT, 11.00-17.00 FREE EVENT | DROP IN Wellcome Collection is partnering with Books Are My Bag (BAMB), the annual campaign celebrating bookshops in the UK, on Bookshop Day (6 October). Pop in to our Book Surgery and have your next read prescribed by the book doctors – and claim a free limited edition Wellcome Book Prize BAMB bag designed by Katie Scott.