Wellcome Collection
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Established | 2007 |
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Location | Euston Road London, NW1 United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 51°31′33″N 0°08′02″W / 51.52582°N 0.13385°W |
Type | Museum, library |
Visitors | c750,000 per annum |
Director | Dr Simon Chaplin |
Public transit access | ![]() ![]() |
Website | https://wellcomecollection.org |
Wellcome Collection is a museum and library 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 700,000 visitors per year[citation needed][2] 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
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wellcome_Museum_staff%2C_c._1915._Unknown_photographer._The_Wellcome_Collection%2C_London.jpg/220px-Wellcome_Museum_staff%2C_c._1915._Unknown_photographer._The_Wellcome_Collection%2C_London.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Hall_of_Statuary%2C_Wellcome_Historical_Medical_Museum%2C_Wigmore_Street%2C_London%2C_c._1926._Unknown_photographer._The_Wellcome_Collection%2C_London.jpg/220px-Hall_of_Statuary%2C_Wellcome_Historical_Medical_Museum%2C_Wigmore_Street%2C_London%2C_c._1926._Unknown_photographer._The_Wellcome_Collection%2C_London.jpg)
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.[3]
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.[4] Due to its historical holdings, the Wellcome Collection is a member of The London Museums of Health & Medicine group.[5]
Having been open since 2007, Wellcome Collection re-opened with additional public spaces in October 2015.[6]
Wellcome Library
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Three_leeches_in_the_role_of_physicians_attend_a_grasshopper_in_the_role_of_the_patient_and_announce_a_course_of_bloodletting_Wellcome_V0011722.jpg/220px-Three_leeches_in_the_role_of_physicians_attend_a_grasshopper_in_the_role_of_the_patient_and_announce_a_course_of_bloodletting_Wellcome_V0011722.jpg)
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[7]
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.[8] In October 2016 a group exploring dementia and the arts will begin their residency.[9]
The Reading Room
Refurbished in 2015 as part of the Wellcome Collection's 2015 renovation,[6] the Reading Room is an "innovative hybrid of gallery, library and events space" open to the public.
The collections
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/One_of_the_halls_of_the_Wellcome_Collection%2C_London.jpg/220px-One_of_the_halls_of_the_Wellcome_Collection%2C_London.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Wellcome_genome_bookcase.png/220px-Wellcome_genome_bookcase.png)
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[10] (originally on a wall in John Desmond Bernal's flat in Torrington Square) and one by Anthony Gormley.[11] A figure by Marc Quinn [12] 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 |
8 March 2018 - 27 August 2018 | Somewhere in Between | About |
16 November 2017 - 8 April 2018 | Ayurvedic Man: encounters with Indian medicine | About |
7 September 2017 - 14 January 2018 | Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? | About |
22 June 2017 - 8 October 2017 | A museum of modern nature | About |
23 February 2017 - 25 June 2017 | Electricity: The spark of life | About |
1 December 2016 - 21 May 2017 | Making Nature: How we see animals | About |
15 September 2016 - 15 January 2017 | Bedlam: the asylum and beyond | 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
- ^ Art Fund. "Museum of the Year". Art Fund.
- ^ http://www.archdaily.com/642210/wellcome-collection-london-transformation-wilkinson-eyre-architects
- ^ "Error". wellcome.ac.uk.
- ^ Photograph: Felix Clay/freelance. "The Wellcome Collection". the Guardian.
- ^ "Medical Museums". medicalmuseums.org. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
- ^ a b Houghton, Lauren (23 February 2015). "Wellcome Collection to reopen after £17.5m refurb". Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ "Wellcome Library - Home". wellcomelibrary.org.
- ^ "Hubbub 'about' page".
- ^ "Exploration of dementia announced as second project of The Hub at Wellcome Collection". 24 March 2016.
- ^ "Bernal's Picasso Goes On Show In London At Wellcome Collection". culture24.org.uk.
- ^ "Antony Gormley". Telegraph.co.uk.
- ^ White Cube. "Exhibitions - White Cube". whitecube.com.
External links
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