Wellcome Collection to explore world of care

The Wellcome Collection, a museum in London which explores health and what it means to be human, is holding an event on what it means to care, to be cared for, to be caring and to be a carer.

The event Handle with Care on Friday 6 July will encompass live performances, conversations and a live radio show.

The radio show will be broadcast live in the building and streamed online and will be presented by Nikki Bedi from BBC World Service The Arts Hour and BBC Radio 4 Loose Ends and JP Devlin from BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live. Wellcome Collection’s very own CareRadio will feature interviews and music and host discussions exploring topics including children in care and the language of kindness.

In addition, there will be a specially created Care Café where carers can gather and share their thoughts on what it takes to give and receive care.

Lois Weaver, co-curator of Handle With Care is an artist, activist and professor of contemporary performance at Queen Mary University of London.

She said: “It seems harder and harder to maintain an attitude of caring in such an uncaring world and now more than ever it seems necessary for us to find ways to sit down in good company and talk to each other. The Care Café at Wellcome Collection’s Friday Late Spectacular ‘Handle With Care’ offers just that. It is 2 full hours carved out of a busy schedules when we can simply sit and talk with others in a cafe-like setting.

“It allows us to take comfort in that gathering, without having to respond to anyone else's particular need or answer any urgent call to action. The Care Café for Handle with Care hopes to provide carers in particular the time and space to acknowledge something of their own vulnerability, perhaps express their own needs and share their own desires to both give and receive Care.”

Further discussions will take place in sessions running like dinner parties, with members of the public debating topics across the table, and a ‘Public Studio’ workshop will explore how digital technologies can be used to support those who are dying.

Author, Lucy Hutson will reveal her experience of three weeks spent in a psychiatric unit, considering the state of current care structures as well as utopian possibilities for the future.

Guests will also have the chance to have a chat and a cocktail with London-based arts charity, ‘Magic Me,’ whose volunteers deliver cocktail parties at care homes to provide residents with the opportunity to socialise with one another.

All the events on the night are free and the majority of activities are drop-in but some talks and events require booking.

To book tickets go to https://wellcomecollection.org/events/Wv2HziAAAOcE8Txh