A Graceful Death blog for Dying Matters and Other Fab Things

I set up the exhibition a week today.  A week tomorrow, the exhibition opens, and in the evening we will host a small Opening Event, which will be filmed by EBS, Educational Broadcasting System, South Korea.

EBS are making a documentary in three parts to bring to the attention of the South Korean audience, the importance of not avoiding end of life discussions and preparations.  A Graceful Death is a very small part of their filming schedule, they are filming many different events during Dying Matters Awareness Week, and they are asking questions and listening to very eminent speakers in the UK on end of life matters.  The film crew, the producer and the organiser/translator from the documentary Docuprime were here in the studio yesterday filming and they are a good, professional, interesting and very high thinking outfit.  They flew in from South Korea to film in the UK, and we will see them again at the Opening Event next Tuesday.

I am delighted to have Dying Matters Association publish a blog about A Graceful Death, and in order for you to have instant access to it, click here -

http://dyingmatters.org/blog/graceful-death-art-dying

The South Korean producer of Docuprime in the studio yesterday filming interviews with Claire Rudland, who has a portrait in AGD, and me, with a drawing of Claire I did for the camera.  

The programme of events for this A Graceful Death week - to book your place please email Peter Wells on Peter.Wells@bsuh.nhs.uk or just turn up on the day.

Programme of Speakers and Events for the A Graceful Death exhibition in St Peter's Church, next to Preston Manor, Preston Park, Brighton BN1 6SD

There are more postings about the exhibition, please do have a look below this one to find out more.

This programme will run within the exhibition itself.  The paintings, films, music and poetry will be within the church from 10am to 10pm daily from Tuesday 20 May to Friday 23 May.  You will be able to spend time with the paintings, you will be able to speak to me, to the AGD team, you will be able to write your thoughts and you will be able to eat cake.  Always cake available.  Because there is so much to say on the subject of end of life, we are delighted to present the events and talks below, and thank everyone for their support and expertise.

Tuesday 20 May 6pm Private View - formally opened by Glynn Jones, Chair to the Friends of Brighton & Hove Hospitals  and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex followed by introductory talk by the artist Antonia Rolls.  Harp music played by Jane Saunders.

Wednesday 21 May 2 to 4pm:  Session 1 Planning Dying - Much can be done way ahead of someone dying; raising awareness is not as difficult as it seems. 

Panel speakers : Eleanor Langridge Dementia Speaker on EOLC; Rachel Reed - Palliative Care Lecturer, St Barnabas Hospice Worthing; Rev Canon Peter Wells, Senior Chaplain, BSUH.

Panel chair: Alan Bedford - Former NHS Chief Executive, Non Executive Director Martlets Hospice.

Wednesday 21 May 6 to 7pm: Session 2 Dementia Information Session - Nigel Spencer Dementia Friends Champion.

Thursday 22 May 2 to 4pm: Session 3 Supporting Dying - Being alongside patients and families - knowing what help is at hand.

Panel speakers: Dr Mark Bayliss, Consultant in Elderly Medicine BSUH; Dr Simone Ali, Consultant in Palliative Medicine at the Martlets Hospice Hove; Nigel Spencer, Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner, St Catherines Hospice Crawley.

Panel chair: Professor Bobbie Farsides BSMS

Thursday 22 May 6 to 8pm : Session 4 An early Evening Salon on The Art of Dying - Ars Moriendi.

Contributors: Dr Muna AlJawad, Consultant in Elderly Medicine, BSUH,  Medical Students at BSMS, Rev Robert Eastern, Chaplain to Brighton College.

Friday 23 May 2 - 4pm: Session 5 Communicating with the Dying - Having a conversation - are the dying any different to the rest of us?

Panel speakers: Dr Catherine Gleeson, Palliative Care Consultant, St Catherines Hospice, Crawley; Dr Rose Turner, Palliative Care Consultant, the Martlets Hospice, Hove; Dawn Allen, Chaplain, the Martlets Hospice, Hove.

Panel chair: Professor Bobbie Farsides BSMS

Friday 23 May 6 - 8pm: Session 6 Working with the dying - Taboo or not Taboo, that is the question?

Panel speakers:  Antonia Rolls, A Graceful Death Artist; Mandy Preece, Soul Midwife for Macmillan Unit, Christchurch Hospital.

Panel chair: Nigel Spencer, Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner, St Catherines Hospice, Crawley

Friday 23 May 20h30 Closing thoughts to end of exhibition.

All events are free to attend but due to limited seating and high level of interest booking recommended via email to Peter.wells@bsuh.nhs.uk

Donations to support the exhibition welcome 

Our poster for the next A Graceful Death exhibition in Preston Park, Brighton.

You are warmly invited to the exhibition below. An update of our speakers and topics will follow by the end of the week.

Grateful thanks to the excellent Team AGD Brighton

• Nigel Spencer - palliative care nurse at St Catherine's Hospice, hypnotherapist for cancer sufferers 

• Revd Canon Peter Wells, senior chaplain at Royal Sussex County Hospital

•  Rachel Reed George, lecturer in palliative care at St Barnabas Hospice

• Rhona Reedie, graphic artist and designer

AGD in Preston Park, Brighton, this May. Exhibition, Public Discussions, Events and Presentations

A Graceful Death exhibition and project is part of Dying Matters Awareness Week.

Steve, in Worthing Hospital.  The first face I saw as I walked into the room was afraid, vulnerable.  The second face was seconds later, when he had composed his expression so that he was in control for all the people that would be coming and going for the day.

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The A Graceful Death exhibition is coming to Brighton.

 St Peter's Church, next to Preston Manor, Preston Park, Brighton BN1 6SD.

Opening Tuesday 20 May and closing Friday 23 May.  

10am to 10pm.   Entrance Free, donations and contributions accepted (and encouraged)

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The A Graceful Death exhibition in Preston Park, Brighton, is part of Dying Matters Awareness Week, and part of the Brighton Fringe Festival. 

You are invited to take part in the events planned for the week, each day covers a different aspect of end of life.

2 - 4pm daily and 6 - 8 in the evenings.   

Suggested Donation for these public debates and discussions - £5

Wednesday 21  May "Planning Dying"
Thursday 22 May "Supporting the Dying"
Friday 23 May "Communicating with the Dying"

Discussions chaired by 

 Bobbie Farsides, Professor of Clinical & Biomedical Ethics, Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Alan Bedford, Non Exec Director Martlets Hospice, child protection consultant & former NHS CEO.

Speakers include palliative care consultants and nurses, end of life care staff, hospital chaplains, consultants in care of the elderly, soul midwife Mandy Preece, and me, talking about telling the stories of the dying through art and words.

Plus Dementia Information Sessions by Dementia Friends Champion Nigel Spencer.

Check back on this site soon for the names of the speakers

The A Graceful Death exhibition is an experience, not just an exhibition.  Fifty two paintings, portraits of people who have agreed to tell their story, paintings representing the process of grief, and poetry sent in by visitors to the exhibition moved to express their own stories and thoughts.  Music, composed for the exhibition by musician Lizzie Hornby, will be playing plus filmed interviews of sitters talking about their dying by photographer Eileen Rafferty.   A film about the work of A Graceful Death made by Neill Blume will also be showing

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The A Graceful Death experience is made up of your response.  The paintings are powerful, raw, honest, loving, uplifting and real.  The words from each sitter accompanying the portraits are unsentimental and profound, it will be hard not to be moved and hard not to want to question this process of dying, of the end of life. This is what I want.  I want to know what you are thinking, what the end of life means to you, and how you respond to these stories and images.  I ask my sitters two main questions - Who are you? and What do you want to say?  This is very important during all of our lives, but most important at the very end.  My sitters want to be seen and heard, they want their images and what they say to help people face the subject of dying.  None of them expected it, it was always a shock.  By taking part in this important exhibition, they are saying that you still have the time to prepare.  Use the time, so that unlike them, you are ready.

Claire Rudland, the latest sitter for the A Graceful Death Exhibition.  Claire's words for this painting are below

"A landmark the consultant said is the two years coming up since the end of my treatment as the end of this year. The longer I'm OK, the better my chances. This is what spurs me on, to do these things while I can, and for as long as I can. It doesn't mean that I don't 'brick it' sometimes but that is part of the excitement of pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I may have said I didn't travel for ten years because I was afraid of flying and what happened? I got a life threatening disease anyway. I realised that when my time is up, it's up, whatever I will be doing, wherever I am. So now, the gift of cancer, conversely, has given me the gift of life, the gift of living. I'm no longer afraid of death as I've 'been there'. No way do I want to die, and it would be lovely to go slowly in the safe haven of the Hospice, say, when my time comes, but who knows? None of us know. It would be nice if it's not a violent death, none of us want that. I couldn't sleep this morning, so decided to message you."

Grateful thanks to Team AGD Brighton for all the hard work and dedication -

Nigel Spencer, palliative care nurse at St Catherine's Hospice and hypnotherapist for cancer sufferers, Revd Canon Peter Wells, senior chaplain Royal Sussex County Hospital and
Rachel Reed George, lecturer in palliative care St Barnabas Hospice.

If you want to know more, email me on antonia.rolls1@btinternet.com.  Updates on this site as they happen.  See you at the exhibition.