Press release

Seize the Day and attend Wellcome Collection’s late event

Wellcome Collection opens late on Friday 2 November for Seize the Day, an evening you will live to remember. Experience a brush with death and explore what death might have to tell us about life through talks, activities and performance. Seize the Day runs from 19.00 to 23.00 and comes ahead of Wellcome Collection’s major winter exhibition ‘Death: A Self-Portrait’.

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you choose to do today? How would you like to be remembered after you die? And what would you like to achieve before you go? Ponder these questions while enjoying stimulating talks, enchanting stories from around the world and activities throughout the galleries.

Enjoy a drink while listening to a Dixieland jazz band, then decorate a coffin, pick up some dance steps in our special 'last dance' class and design your ideal fantasy funeral.

The evening will include:

There will also be a range of speakers:

  • Joanna Ebenstein, founder of the Morbid Anatomy blog and library, on facing up to death through art
  • David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, University of Cambridge, on the statistics of death
  • Frank Swain, author of 'How to Make a Zombie: The real life (and death) science of reanimation and mind control' (out next spring).

Join us to embrace the inevitability of death and celebrate while we still can with Seize the Day at Wellcome Collection from 19.00 to 23.00 on Friday 2 November. Entry is free. Drop in any time. Talks will be ticketed, and tickets will be available on the night from 19.00.