The Cult of Beauty visual story

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Visiting Wellcome Collection visual story

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Heart n Soul’s The Beautiful Octopus Club © Tim Mitchell

The Beautiful Octopus Club visual story

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Wellcome Collection

Accessibility at Wellcome Collection visual story

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Hard Graft Exhibition at Wellcome Collection

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Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights visual story

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Jason and the Adventure of 254, an exhibition by Jason Wilsher-Mills at Wellcome Collection. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert

Jason and the Adventure of 254 visual story

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The Kola Nut Cannot Be Contained, a display at Wellcome Collection. Gallery Photo: Eszter Bonyi

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The Kola Nut Cannot Be Contained visual story

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Beauty Sensorium, 2023, Renaissance Goo x Baum & Leahy. Gallery Photo: Benjamin Gilbert

Introduction to ‘The Cult of Beauty’ 

Information to help you plan and prepare for your visit.

‘The Cult of Beauty’ is an exhibition.

The exhibition is at Wellcome Collection.

It is in Gallery 1 on level 0 of the building, on the same level as the entrance, to the left of the Information Desk.

The exhibition started on 26 October 2023. 

click on this link: Visiting Wellcome Collection visual story.

‘The Cult of Beauty‘ exhibition is about:

• How ideas about beauty are different for different people.

• How the beauty industry is connected to health and wellbeing.

• The Ideals of Beauty is about the shapes that people find beautiful.

• The Industry of Beauty is about the business behind beauty products.

• Subverting Beauty is about celebrating different ways to be beautiful.

There are 200 different objects and artworks in the exhibition.

Some of the videos have sound you can hear through speakers.

Some of the videos have sound via headsets and headphones.

Some of the works are on open display but can’t be touched.

Some of the works have content that some people may find upsetting. There are warnings on the labels next to these works.

You can see the location of this content on the exhibition map, labelled with an exclamation mark symbol.

The Ideals of Beauty is about the shapes that people find beautiful.

These figures are copies of Roman sculptures. They are made of plaster. Please do not touch.

This is an animated film showing a naked body that changes position and shape.

This is a ladder made of hair and ceramics. It is about racism towards Chinese people. Please do not touch.

The Industry of Beauty is about the business behind beauty products.

This room is about homemade beauty products of the past. It has sound, smell and sculptures that you can touch.

These beauty products have been designed to be accessible and good for the environment. You are welcome to touch.

This head is painted in a special eyeshadow that sparkles when you take a picture of it on your phone’s camera. Please don’t touch.

Subverting Beauty is about celebrating different ways to be beautiful.

This film shows drag-show artists in a royal palace. It is in a dark room, with bean bags on the floor.

‘(Almost) all of my dead mother’s beautiful things’

This large hanging sculpture in the centre is made up of many objects that belonged to the artist’s mother.

‘Mirror, mirror on the wall: Beauty unravelled in the virtual scroll’

This room looks like the mirrors in a nightclub bathroom. It has mirrors, bright screens and projections.

There are different accessible guides that are available at the start of the exhibition.

The digital guide has audio described (AD) and British Sign Language (BSL) tours of the exhibition.

You can watch or listen by scanning QR codes with a smartphone.

Or you can listen to AD by picking up a touch-button handset and pressing the number of the audio stop.

Please ask a member of gallery staff for help with digital guides.

Text transcripts of audio-only content are also available in the gallery. 

We’re providing a series of ‘Lights Up’ sessions during the exhibition.

At a 'Lights Up' session the lights in the gallery will be brighter and more even.

For dates, times and booking information, click on this link.

We’re providing three Relaxed Openings during the exhibition.

At a Relaxed Opening, the lights in the gallery will be more even and there will be fewer people.

For dates and times of Relaxed Openings, and to book your ticket, click on this link.

The Cult of Beauty visual story

What’s on this page

Introduction to ‘The Cult of Beauty’