October 2016 events at the World Museum Liverpool

October half-term is fast approaching and we are pleased to announce that we are hosting another Day of the Dead celebration on Wednesday 26^th October from 1pm – 4pm, in partnership with the World Museum Liverpool. Our event is free, fun and family friendly. There will be art based activities, Mexican music, a wishing tree and our specially decorated altar honouring those that have gone before us.

If you would like to add a picture to our altar, please bring it along. We will have some craft items to help you personalise the frame and we encourage you to leave a message on the back, sharing a memory about them. Your image will join others from past events, alongside our skull decorations and bright flowers. If you need us to print off your photograph, please email it to us before the event.

We can often talk about difficult subjects a lot easier when we're doing something therapeutic. Arts and crafts can be enjoyed while we talk about the topic of death, or reminisce about loved ones who have died. A lot of us don't have the opportunity to talk openly about those we have lost, as some people shy away from it for fear of upsetting others. We believe in keeping alive the memories of people who have been important to us, and that them dying does not mean we cannot talk fondly of them and the impact they had.

There will also be two more Day of the Dead events, ran exclusively by the World Museum Liverpool on Saturday 29^th and Sunday 30^th October. More information can be found here.

There is also an exciting exhibition at the museum, which is also connected to the topic of death, which runs until 26th February 2017 – Animal Mummies Revealed. This fascinating exhibition explores ancient Egyptian animal mummies, prepared in their millions as votive offerings to the gods.

Featuring mummified specimens such as jackals, crocodiles, cats and birds, the exhibition will also include a recreation of a subterranean animal catacomb, creating an immersive and atmospheric experience.

Mummified jackal, Oriental Museum, Durham, Copyright Kate Wightman, taken from Liverpool Museum website

Using animal mummies from a variety of UK collections, the exhibition will also look at the use of science, such as CT imaging, to learn more about the subject. Find out more here.

Dying Matters Awareness Week 2016

it takes a village...

9 - 15^th May

If ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, it also takes a village to support someone who is dying and their family. For this year's Dying Matters Awareness Week, we will be celebrating everyone who has ever cared for someone who has died, and ask you to share your stories.

We have adopted the theme ‘it takes a village’ from Scotland’s Good Life Good Death Good Grief as it fits better with the work we’re doing on Compassionate Cities and the Dying Well Charter. Dying Matters are using the theme ‘The Big Conversation’ and again using the #YODO (You Only Die Once)

Our events run from Monday 9^th to Friday 13^th May. We have partnered with Sunflowers CancerSupport, Siren Café, World Museum Liverpool and Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool to deliver a range of events and activities across the five days.

On Monday 9^th May from 12pm (note revised time which differs from poster) Sunflowers are hosting a Meet the Owls event for anyone living with or beyond cancer. Relax in the company of the owls from Hack Back CIC. This opportunity is for over 18s only and is free for anyone affected by cancer (patients, survivors and carers). Places are limited so please book your place by emailing ekennedy@liverpoolsunflowers.com or visit the Sunflowers website #lifebeyondcancer

Image taken from Hack Back CIC

Tuesday sees us back at the popular Siren Food and Coffee Bar on St James Street from 3-5pm with an open table with cake and tea. We’ll be displaying our Day of the Dead photographs and decorated skulls and remembering our late loved ones whilst sharing stories of compassion and care happening around our city. Our new Topic of Death Cards will be available to play alongside our 5 Things booklet and promotional magnets and bookmarks.

Image taken from Siren Liverpool

We also want to collect your stories of local end of life heroes - whether it is looking after an aging parent, working as a nurse, or cooking a meal for a bereaved neighbour, every day, people help each other through the difficult times that can come with death, dying and bereavement.

We’ll be back briefly at Sunflowers to ask their existing art group to produce some compassionate art relating to end of life. Then we’ll be over in the Wirral for their End of Life Care – One Year On event to see how the other side of the river are delivering their work on the Dying Well Charter and Compassionate Cities.

Thursday we’ll be hosting a stall in the World Museum from 3-5 called ‘Meet the Mayas’. Our collaborative art piece from the Day of the Dead craft celebrations in February will be on display alongside some skulls, ancient artefacts and personalised photo frames honouring the dead. You can also join us for a game of cards – our new Topic of Death Cards, which have proved extremely popular.

Our collaborative art piece is almost complete

Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool have organised an event to thank their supporters who have made such a positive difference in helping them to support people living with a terminal illness. This celebratory event, ‘It takes a community’, is on Friday from 4-7pm in the hospice, which is situated in the beautiful Woolton Village.

Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool

We hope you can join us at one or more of our events. Even if you can’t make it, we’d still like to hear your stories about how people in your village have helped someone nearing end of life. Please email rachael.mcmeacock@mariecurie.org.uk if you want to get involved. Let’s share the love and compassion.

Day of the Dead Crafts @ World Museum Liverpool

February half-term 2016

We’re excited to announce three new events during February half-term at the World Museum Liverpool. Suitable for all of the family, we will have a number of craft tables for you to get creative at using milk bottles, plant pots, paper skeletons, frames and much more. Take your customised piece home with you or donate it to our special Day of the Dead altar.

One of our donated and decorated milk bottles

We want your help to make our altar as beautiful, colourful and meaningful as possible. Bring along a photograph of your late loved one and personalise one of our photograph frames. Through the medium of art, we can share happy memories of those that have died and help to keep their memory alive. We’re providing a safe space to remember and honour those that have gone before us.

Families having fun at our crafts table in November 2015

If you would like to donate anything relevant to the altar, such as skulls, artificial flowers, vases or gothic ornaments please get in touch or bring them along to one of our events. If you would like to share a photograph or story about someone who has died, but are unable to make any of the events, please email us.

Personalised skulls and frame from the team at The Bucket Project 

The first event is on Monday 15^th February from 10am to 12pm. The second is on Friday 19^th February from 1-4pm with the final event on Sunday 21^st also from 1-4pm. You will find us on the first floor of the World Museum by the Treasure House Theatre.

Adam performing at a previous event in the Treasure House Theatre

We must say a huge thank you to Adam and the team at World Museum Liverpool for working with us again on our popular Day of the Dead celebrations.  It’s a great venue where adults and children are willing to engage and interact with what can be a difficult subject.

Day of the Dead Mexico: Summary

Our celebrations for Day of the Dead at the end of November were a huge success. We would like to thank Liverpool Central Library and WorldMuseum Liverpool for being gracious hosts and providing the perfect settings for people of all ages to engage on the topic of death.

The first event took place at Central Library and we had people there from start to finish, with approximately 40 people visiting our stand and around 15 stopping to have a chat. Grandparents with their grandchildren spoke about their late loved ones; a mother shared stories of her daughter that she felt she couldn’t openly discuss with many others; two teenage girls brought photographs of their beloved grandad and pet dog; and a mother with her friend and three children decorated a frame and left a beautiful message for their ‘Pop’. 

 Section of our Day of the Dead altar

We were so busy that we ran out of frames after the first hour! The stock was replenished before the next day of celebrations and crafts at the World Museum on Sunday 29^th November. And it was a good job we did. Numerous families joined us in the Treasure House Theatre and our craft tables were extremely popular, with almost 100 people visiting us and getting involved. A huge thank you to Adam for drumming up interest while simultaneously promoting the Destination Space Exhibition in his astronaut costume!

Our crafters busily decorating

Our crafts table had glittery stickers, plasticine and frames to decorate, alongside printed pictures of the Day of the Dead skulls to colour in. We had some beautiful submissions that we are hoping to display at our next event. Others loved their customised pictures so much, they took them home with them, but we were lucky enough to capture a couple of pictures of them showing them off.

 Our amazing artists proudly displaying their works of art 

               

The events were extremely popular, and we were asked when the next one will be. One young girl had attended our previous Day of the Dead Celebrations in the museum in Dying Matters AwarenessWeek 2014 and said she’d be back when we do another one! Initial talks about another event in half-term week early next year, have begun. If it does go ahead, it will be even more craft based and interactive. Watch this space for news of upcoming events.