In the imortal words of Dante Hicks, “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” this being a bonus stop before my trip to the Handel Hendrix House. I had time to kill and had decided to visit the Wellcome Collection on Euston Road and thought that I’d just do the permanent collection, but on arrival I spotted an exhibition called The Coming of Age which sounded interesting, so I did that instead.
What is Age?
The Wellcome Collection is part of the Wellcome Trust, “a charitable foundation focused on health research,” so the exhibitions all have a health dimension. As the signs in the toilets said, the Wellcome Collection is a “free museum & library exploring health & human experience.”
Like so many, I am of an age where my body and mind have a different opinion on what that age actually is. My body’s 60, but my mind’s 20, so you can imagine my horror when literally the first sign in the exhibition said: “In this exhibition, we give specific ages where possible and use the term ‘older people’ (defined by the United Nations as those over 60).” I do not feel that I am an “older person”, but who’s to argue with the UN?
The exhibition told the story of age and ageing through a series of images and objects such as a group of prints depicting the oldest people to have lived, based on spurious data in most cases, a cryogenic tank for freeing a head, and a copy of The Game of Life. There were also a few interesting photos from Instagram where “older people” had created striking and playfull images on being old.
Very Accessible
For a museum focused on health issues it should come as no great surprise that the exhibition itself was very accessible. This included tactile lines on the floor for route guidance, very much like those you find in street pavements marking the route to a pedestrian crossing.
There was also a really excellent audio guide available, and, all the text from the signage is available on line to read. All for free.
That said it was therefore surprising that the light was positioned such that it casted a shadow making titles hard to read!
A Healthy Visit
Having such a diverse set of objects to view made it a really enjoyable experience, much more so than my ultimate destination! Now I’ll need to plan a trip back to see the rest of the place.
