Wellcome Collection

Wellcome Collection
Location within Greater London
Established 2007
Location Euston Road
London, NW1
United Kingdom
Coordinates 51°31′33″N 0°08′02″W / 51.52582°N 0.13385°W / 51.52582; -0.13385
Type Museum and exhibitions
Visitors Over 500,000 per annum
Director Dr Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes
Curator James Peto, Head Curator, Temporary Exhibitions
Public transit access London Underground Euston Square
National Rail Euston
Website http://www.wellcomecollection.org

Wellcome Collection is a museum based at 183 Euston Road, London, displaying an unusual mixture of medical artifacts and original artworks exploring 'ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art'.[1] Founded in 2007, Wellcome Collection now attracts over 500,000 visitors per year and is advertised as 'the free destination for the incurably curious'. The venue offers visitors contemporary and historic exhibitions and collections, lively public events, the world-renowned Wellcome Library, a café, a bookshop and conference facilities.

History and development

Wellcome Collection is part of the Wellcome Trust, founded by Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853–1936). An extensive and enthusiastic traveller, Henry Wellcome amassed a huge collection of books, paintings and objects, on the theme of historical development of medicine worldwide. There was an earlier Wellcome Historical Medical Museum at 54a Wigmore Street, housing artifacts from around the world.[2]

The Wellcome Trust moved its administrative offices into their new Gibbs Building (designed for the Trust by Michael Hopkins and Partners) on the adjoining site in Euston Road, completed 2004: thereby creating an opportunity for a new public venue in the old Wellcome Building. The collection opened to the public in June 2007.[3] Due to its historical holdings, the Wellcome Collection is a member of The London Museums of Health & Medicine group.[4]

Having been open since 2007, Wellcome Collection re-opened with additional public spaces in October 2015.[5]

Wellcome Library

Three leeches attend a grasshopper, prescribing a course of bloodletting, cartoon by Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard c.1832. Wellcome Library collections.

The Wellcome Library provides access to collections of books, manuscripts, archives, films and pictures on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day[6]

The Hub

Located on the 5th floor of the Collection, The Hub is a space for researchers and other creative minds to collaborate. The first residents of The Hub, Hubbub, are exploring the dynamics of "rest, noise, tumult, activity and work" from October 2014 to July 2016.[7] In October 2016 a group exploring dementia and the arts will begin their residency.[8]

The Reading Room

Refurbished in 2015 as part of the Wellcome Collection's 2015 renovation,[5] the Reading Room is an "innovative hybrid of gallery, library and events space" open to the public.

The collections

The first printout of the human genome to be presented as a series of books.

The collection is divided into several spaces. The "Medicine Man" area is a permanent display of a small part of Henry Wellcome's collection. "Medicine Now" is a permanent exhibition combining art, mixed media displays and objects to present some aspects of modern medicine and of the work of the Wellcome Trust. This area features a postcard wall where visitors are encouraged to contribute drawings.

The main exhibition space hosts a changing programme of events and exhibitions. The space has included work by Felicity Powell and Bobby Baker.

The building foyer and public areas usually include a 1950 work by Pablo Picasso[9] (originally on a wall in John Desmond Bernal's flat in Torrington Square) and one by Anthony Gormley.[10] However these are not on view during building works (2013–2014). A figure by Marc Quinn [11] was originally lying unprotected on the stone floor, then moved inside a glass case, and is also not currently on view.

Exhibitions

Date Exhibition Details
Permanent Medicine Now About
Permanent Medicine Man About
4 February 2016 - 16 October 2016 States of Mind: Tracing the edges of consciousness About
14 April 2016 - 31 July 2016 THIS IS A VOICE About
19 November 2015 - 28 February 2016 Tibet’s Secret Temple About
15 October 2015 - 3 January 2016 Ann Veronica Janssens: yellowbluepink About
22 October 2015 - 25 October 2015 Light Transmission About
22 July 2015 - 18 October 2015 Alice Anderson: Memory Movement Memory Objects About
15 September 2015 - 27 September 2015 Raw Emotion About
20 November 2014 - 20 September 2015 The Institute of Sexology About
26 February 2015 - 21 June 2015 Forensics: The anatomy of crime About
28 April 2015 - 4 May 2015 For Now We See About
1 May 2015 - 4 May 2015 Non in Luce About
1 May 2015 - 4 May 2015 Modernity’s Candle and the Ways of the Pathless Deep About
1 May 2015 - 4 May 2015 Slow Story Slide Show About
2 April 2015 - 26 April 2015 Forensic Identity About
28 October 2014 - 9 November 2014 The Human Emporium About
2 September 2014 - 21 September 2014 Unravelled About
24 June 2014 - 12 October 2014 An Idiosyncratic A to Z of the Human Condition About
15 May 2014 - 10 August 2014 The Generosity Plates About
10 May 2014 - 15 May 2014 Module Units About
14 November 2013 - 16 March 2014 Foreign Bodies, Common Ground About
19 September 2013 - 27 October 2013 Thinking with the body: Mind and movement in the work of Wayne McGregor - Random Dance About
6 June 2013 - 31 July 2013 First Time Out 2013 About
11 May 2013 - 12 May 2013 Collection of the Everyday About
28 March 2013 - 30 June 2013 Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan About
15 November 2012 - 24 February 2013 Death: A self-portrait About
18 October 2012 - 11 November 2012 Georgie Meadows: Stitched Drawings About
19 July 2012 - 16 October 2012 Superhuman About
22 June 2012 - 11 July 2012 Super Thinking About
1 June 2012 - 1 June 2013 Memory Trace at the Wellcome Trust About
29 March 2012 - 17 June 2012 Brains: The mind as matter About
6 October 2011 - 26 February 2012 Felicity Powell - Charmed Life: The solace of objects About
6 October 2011 - 26 February 2012 Infinitas Gracias: Mexican miracle paintings About
24 March 2011 - 31 August 2011 Dirt: The filthy reality of everyday life About
2 March 2011 - 20 March 2011 Ars Moriendi: The art of dying About
20 January 2011 - 22 August 2011 First Time Out About
9 December 2010 - 16 January 2011 Aura Satz: Sound Seam About
11 November 2010 - 27 February 2011 High Society About
10 June 2010 - 26 September 2010 Skin About
26 November 2009 - 6 April 2010 Identity About
30 July 2009 - 18 October 2009 Exquisite Bodies About
1 April 2009 - 28 June 2009 Madness & Modernity About
19 March 2009 - 2 August 2009 Bobby Baker's Diary Drawings About
22 November 2008 - 15 February 2009 War and Medicine About
23 July 2008 - 28 September 2008 Skeletons About
29 May 2008 - 30 June 2008 Twenty Six Things About
9 April 2008 - 19 May 2008 Life Before Death About
29 November 2007 - 9 March 2008 Sleeping & Dreaming About
21 June 2007 - 17 September 2007 The Heart About

See also

References

  1. ↑ Art Fund. "Museum of the Year". Art Fund.
  2. ↑ "Error". wellcome.ac.uk.
  3. ↑ Photograph: Felix Clay/freelance. "The Wellcome Collection". the Guardian.
  4. ↑ "Medical Museums". medicalmuseums.org. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  5. 1 2 Houghton, Lauren (23 February 2015). "Wellcome Collection to reopen after £17.5m refurb". Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Wellcome Library - Home". wellcomelibrary.org.
  7. ↑ "Hubbub 'about' page".
  8. ↑ "Exploration of dementia announced as second project of The Hub at Wellcome Collection". 24 March 2016.
  9. ↑ "Bernal's Picasso Goes On Show In London At Wellcome Collection". culture24.org.uk.
  10. ↑ "Antony Gormley". Telegraph.co.uk.
  11. ↑ White Cube. "Exhibitions - White Cube". whitecube.com.
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