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.

Into the Labyrinth...

This is the first post of 2016 from The Bucket Project and I originally intended to write about resolutions, the New Year and remembrance. Instead, I find myself drawn to writing about the death of David Bowie, which was announced today.

While many other articles are focusing on his influential music career and how he defined the 70s; I’m fondly reminiscing about my favourite childhood film from the 80s - Labyrinth. I’d watch this film obsessively and would annoyingly recite the script as I watched and rewinding if I got one word wrong. The influence that this movie had on me can’t be measured in any unit I’m aware of.

 David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth, 1986

The key message I took from the fantasy film is that life isn’t fair. But we can deal with that and anything life throws at us, if we have those we love around us and take time to help out others in times of need. No one is getting out of this alive so let’s live the best life we can, and help others to do the same.

The Goblin King, Jareth, may have been the villain of my favourite film, but his fantasy character oozed charisma and charm and was the person who delivered the key message the most. It is strange how something as simple as a childhood movie can shape attitudes and behaviours in our adult lives. I, for one, carry this deep message with me in daily life and it helps me get through tough situations. If I ever find myself saying “it’s not fair” my mind responds with “no, it’s not fair, but life goes on.” And I have Labyrinth to thank for that.

"Time is short"

Sadly, David Bowie and Jim Henson won’t get the chance to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of this iconic film on 27^th June 2016, though David Bowie did get a last chance to celebrate his recent 69^th family with loved ones.

I won’t end with a New Year message, but rather with a hope that you enjoy every day in your own ways, make many happy memories and look after each other.

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. 

Remembrance Events in Liverpool

28-29th November 2015

Our Day of the Dead celebrations are taking place this weekend in Liverpool City Centre at the Central Library and World Museum. Over the road at St George’s Hall, you can also pay your respects and view the beautiful poppy installation, Weeping Window, which will be on public display until January 17.

Photograph taken from Liverpool Echo

Remembering the dead can be a community experience, and although it may not appear to be everybody’s cup of tea, around 150,000 people came to see the poppies at St George's Hall in the first week they went on show. This astounding number is more than all of the people who saw the Weeping Window installation on show at a Northumberland museum over seven weeks.

Paul Cummins, who created the sculpture with designer Tom Piper, paid tribute to the people of Liverpool in a letter to the ECHO. He said: “I was so overwhelmed and delighted by the impressive display of Weeping Window at St George’s Hall. I was especially taken aback at the way that people of Liverpool have taken the installation to heart, showcasing their appreciation for the project and the install of Weeping Window itself.”

Weeping Window initially formed part of the larger installation, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, which was on display at the Tower of London in 2014. Every ceramic flower represents a life lost by British and Commonwealth forces in WWI.

The display at the Tower of London

Photograph taken from Defence Imagery MOD

So if you’re in the city this weekend to see the Weeping Window, do a bit of shopping or visit one of the many attractions Liverpool has to offer – then call into Liverpool Central Library or the World Museum. Keeping the memory of late loved ones alive is a positive way to deal with loss. We don’t talk about the lives of the dead comfortably enough, and just because they’re gone from our view, doesn’t mean they are gone from our hearts.

Photo from The Bucket Project 

Bring along a photograph for our Day of the Dead altar at either event and we’ll have some frames available for you to use. Take time to personalise yours at our special craft station. If you haven’t got a photo we can use, you and any children you bring, may like to draw a picture, colour in or just write a few words. 

Photo from The Bucket Project 

Day of the Dead "Mexico" Celebrations

November 2015

Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a Mexican holiday typically celebrated on 1st and 2nd November. The purpose of these days is to celebrate and remember those that have died. Too often, we don't get the chance to talk about our loved ones who have passed, as some people shy away from what they perceive to be "morbid." Keeping the memory alive of those important to us can help with the grieving process, no matter how long it has been. We learn to live with our grief and trying to forget about the dead doesn't often help. We provide a safe space to remember, chat and leave a memorial photograph on our beautifully decorated altar.

Photograph from our November 2014 celebration

The tradition of honouring our ancestors and remembering the dead has a long standing history. All Souls' and All Saints' Days are observed on the same dates as the Day of the Dead. In modern times, people continue to create colourful altars adorned with photographs of departed loved ones, paper flowers, decorated skulls, candles and offerings of food that the deceased enjoyed whilst saying nice things and sharing happy stories of the deceased.

Our hand-decorated sugar skulls, mug and snow globe

These events help recognise that death is a natural part of the human experience; a continuum with birth, childhood and growing up. On these days, the dead re-join the community to share in the celebrations with their loved ones. We want to remember the dead throughout the year and will be organising a number of events at various locations.

Our next Day of the Dead celebrations are connected to Mexico. The prestigious venues have either a recent exhibition, or have just had one linked to Mexico. Recently, the World Museum was the only UK location to host the Mayas exhibition - you can find images of the fascinating objects that were on display here: Mayas: revelation of an endless time.

Liverpool Central Library are hosting Frida and Me: an exhibition about Frida Kahlo, who died in 1954 at the age of 47, and who is widely regarded as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Using Frida’s self-portrait as the main axis and guide, children will be able to question themselves about notions of their own life, and while playing, can get involved in several notions of art.

Both celebrations are completely free and suitable for all ages. These events could be a useful way of talking about death with children in a positive and friendly atmosphere with tools to help and direct your conversations. 

The first Day of the Dead event is on Saturday 28th November 2015 at Liverpool Central Library from 1-3pm.

Liverpool Central Library

Photograph taken from Wikipedia

The second event is on Sunday 29th November 2015 at the World Museum from 2-4pm.

World Museum Liverpool

Photograph taken from Wikipedia

Alongside our colourful altar will be a craft stall where you can decorate your own frame. Bring along a photograph or send us one in advance and we'll print it for you. We'd love it if you would also share a story about the person who died to accompany their photograph. Please email Rachael for more information.

Decorated frames on our beautiful altar

End of Year Four!

 

Having finished our fourth year of engaging the community about death, dying and loss and excitedly entering our fifth; we are proud to present The Bucket Project Annual Report 2014 to 2015 We’ve learned some lessons and built on successes over the past twelve months; utilising data from a number of surveys, research and direct experience.

Front cover of our report

 

We’ve launched new tools for engagement, a practical guide and thought provoking posters, which have all been well received. We have more ideas than time to accomplish them so prioritising our activities has become key. Our Day of the Dead celebrations continue to be the most popular events and will be something we will roll out throughout the year, as our primary method of engagement.

 

Some of our tools, posters and decorations

 

Whilst Dying Matters Week 2015 had huge support from partners and members, most events were not as well attended as we had hoped. We have identified potential problem areas and have developed solutions.

Death and dying is moving up the agenda of national and local government. Liverpool has adopted the Dying Well Community Charter, Public Health are advocating new approaches to end of life care and Compassionate Communities is being developed alongside Healthy Cities. We aim to continue working with the right people in key positions to keep the topic of death alive.

You can read the report in full here: The Bucket Project Annual Report 2014 to 2015 or on the Downloads page.