All About London: Wellcome Collection - This November: "We could have spent an hour in that forest"

Saturday, 30 October 2021

Wellcome Collection - This November: "We could have spent an hour in that forest"

A free museum and library exploring health and human experience

Photograph of a dark exhibition gallery space showing 4 separate large free-standing walls on which photographic prints of large forest scenes are displayed, filling the entire walls. The prints show tall tree trunks, green leaf canopy cover and ground level ferns. To the left of the gallery view is a circular padded green seat which wraps around a vertical iron girder. Sitting cross legged on the seat is a woman with long black hair, a white blouse and yellow leggings. She has an orange shawl around her neck and is wearing a black face covering. She is spotlit from a light almost directly above her. In the distance are two more visitors with their backs to the camera, standing looking at one of the forest scenes. To their right is a small green padded stool.

Tranquillity

Until 9 Jan 2022

Free | Exhibition | Part of On Happiness season

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

Alongside contemporary and historical objects, two newly commissioned installations explore experiences of tranquillity. Jasleen Kaur invites you to spend time in a mock yoga studio while reflecting on themes of cultural appropriation in the self-care industry. Meanwhile, Chrystel Lebas’s multisensory installation features some of the oldest forests in the world at twilight, translating the awe of being in these ancient landscapes. Both projects ask us to think deeply about our own practices of wellbeing.

Book your free ticket now

Events & exhibitions

An illustrated image made up of cut out pieces of paper in blue and green that resemble mountains, with a pink circle that resembles a setting sun

Hello Happiness podcast: Tranquillity

The Wellcome Collection podcast

Free | Online | Available on iTunes, Spotify and all podcast platforms

In this episode of our podcast exploring the meaning of positive emotions, Moya Lothian-McLean asks young people, a psychologist, a brain injury survivor and hospital staff how they find moments of calm, and artist Rhiannon Armstrong shares a meditation that reminds us of our right to rest, wherever we are.

A photograph of a tablet lying down on a table, on the screen is a photographic portrait of Nan Dorrego Carreira. There are video call icons at the top of the screen with a red phone icon, "PEOPLE" and "CHAT". Around the tablet on the table are collage materials, a ruler, and a penknife.

(Un)happy Queers

Thu 11 Nov, 16:00–17:30

Sat 20 Nov, 12.00–13.30

Workshop | Free | Online Event | Speech-to-text | Auto-captioned

Do we have to be less queer to be happier? Join Nan Carreira in rethinking narratives around happiness within the LGBTQ+ experience using materials held at Wellcome Collection.

You’ll have the opportunity to create a collage using images from our collections to create your own narrative of queer people and happiness.

Photograph of the Wellcome Collection Reading Room from above, with a red carpet and green couch and chairs in centre frame, and book shelves in the background.

Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word Writing Award

Applications open until 22 Nov

Writer's development opportunity

Do you have a big idea for a non-fiction book touching on health and being human? Wellcome Collection is looking for aspiring writers from under-represented backgrounds to join our pilot mentoring scheme with Spread the Word. Judged by Dr Camilla Pang, Dr Annabel Sowemimo and Raymond Antrobus, this award offers a £2,000 bursary, mentoring, masterclasses and more.

Photo of a laptop with a video chat image of a woman in a black polo neck. On the table are a potted plant, a glass jar with stationery inside and a notepad, post-it notes and a pencil.

Medical Involvement in the Early Modern Slave Trade

Tue 30 Nov, 17.30–18.30

Seminar | Online | Free | Auto-captioned

Dr Hannah Murphy explores the practical role of medical experts in the construction of the early modern slave trade. Using travel narratives, ship surgeon’s journals and printed books in Wellcome Collection, Hannah will provide a broad overview of the dynamics at play as medical practitioners competed for expertise and authority over new conceptions of human difference.

The book cover for The War of Nerves on a blue background, featuring a series of colourful squares, concentric circles and a photograph of a face

The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind by Martin Sixsmith

Available 11 Nov

Book | £25

More than any other conflict, the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. Nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures – not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts and fears. A gripping account of fear itself – and in today's uncertain times, it is more resonant than ever.

Screenshot of a YouTube video, featuring a person in a shirt with red strawberries on it, standing in front of the Medicine Man galleries in Wellcome Collection, with an illustration of the eye of horus superimposed on top, and the caption "An Eye of Horus was often made out of Egyptian mud" at the bottom

Learning Resources

Free online activities for students

Encourage any teachers or students you know to try our free, online learning resources linked to our

collections and events. Teachers can use them with their students in the classroom, to set as homework or as home-learning activities.

We offer 'Themed Thinking' history resources for Year 9 students, and 'Enrich Your Studies' sixth-form resources for A-level Biology, Art, Sociology, Psychology and BTEC Health and Social Care.

Discover more online

Stories

Colourful artwork. The artwork shows a person writing in a spiral-bound notebook. They are wearing a green cardigan with a necklace and are holding a pen in their right hand. Their nails are painted and are wearing a ring. From the pen nib, vines extend across the notebook pages, wrapping around the person's hand and over onto the wooden table they are sat at. At the top of the artwork there are daffodils which are growing from behind the table in front of a yellow wall.

Ritual

Serial

Rebecca Tamás, poet and environmental non-fiction writer, guest edits a series of articles exploring how ritual can help us to connect more deeply to the difference of the nonhuman, and ground us in our environments. Each writer demonstrates that ritual can be a way into understanding the living world, and our own bodies and minds, at a time of environmental crisis.

View all Stories

Beyond Wellcome

Staging Cities

Podcast from Theatrum Mundi | Launching 11 Nov

This new podcast from Theatrum Mundi looks at ideas at the intersection of stagecraft, architecture and urban planning. Staging Cities accompany a series of books, co-published with nai010 publishers from Rotterdam.

A photograph of David Attenborough in front of an illustration of a tree with a person pushing a child on a swing

Why We Need Biodiversity with Sir David Attenborough

Animation from The Royal Society

The Royal Society’s new animated film Why we need biodiversity, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, explores the purpose and plight of nature and our planet’s ecosystems. The film is accompanied by a Q&A providing answers to 16 of the most asked questions about biodiversity and why it matters.