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Museum of Homelessness reveals opening date and programme details

Museum of Homelessness at dusk (Lucinda MacPherson)

An immersive exhibition, a politics and social affairs show, and workshops are among the offering for the London museum’s opening day

The Museum of Homelessness is set to open the doors of its first bricks-and-mortar location next month, with an immersive exhibition and series of events.

Its debut exhibition in the new space, ‘How to Survive the Apocalypse’, will greet its first visitors on 24th May 2024.

The space at Manor House Lodge in Finsbury Park, London, will also be home to ‘Deep Dive’ a Sunday politics and social affairs show hosted by museum co-directors Matt and Jess Turtle, which will be presented in-person and online with guests.

Voices in homelessness organising, mental health campaigning and creativity will organise at the space in its ‘Knowledge is Survival’ workshops, which will share guides for rehab, the mental health system, the asylum process and more.

Also revealed is community focused art, gardening, community meals, sexual health drop-ins, legal rights clinics, grief spaces, trauma informed coaching, and recovery groups, provided throughout the week.

The museum’s interior and garden have been designed from scratch by people with experience of homelessness. Inside, a new installation wallriot by artist gobscure, will be a bespoke room for the UK’s only dedicated homelessness archive, and a “total reimagining of what a museum space can be.”

Museum Director Jess Turtle said: “We’re building a new kind of museum – a place where everyone is welcome. There’s nowhere else that’s doing what we do, or responding to the deepening crisis in the UK like we are. We can’t wait to share our new home and our work with the public to get more people involved in making change for the better.”

“Over the last decade, we’ve shown how people with experience of homelessness understand how best to respond to an emergency and can work together to get things done. It’s these lessons from our community that sit at the heart of our first season in Finsbury Park.”