St Elizabeth Hospice has announced it will be installing an art wall on Ipswich Waterfront to mark Dying Matters Awareness Week 2023.
Located opposite Dance East, on St Peter’s Dock, the installation will encourage the local community to write, in chalk provided, their ambitions for what they wish to do before they die, in a ‘bucket list’ style piece of art.
The news follows a successful funding application by the independent Suffolk charity to the Central Area Committee to help fund the project, which aims to encourage conversations around the taboo subject of death.
Hugh McElhinney, Volunteer Community Manager at St Elizabeth Hospice, said: “It is a fantastic opportunity for the hospice to be able to bring the ‘Before I Die’ wall initiative to Ipswich and we thank Ipswich Borough Council and Art Eat Events for their support with facilitating this.
“This will be a unique way for St Elizabeth Hospice to mark Dying Matters Awareness Week 2023, but also one which we hope will encourage the community to open up conversations with friends and loved ones concerning death and how we can all support one another with death, loss and grief.
Ipswich Borough Councillor, Colin Kreidewolf, said: “I am delighted St Elizabeth Hospice has brought Compassionate Communities to Ipswich Waterfront, allowing Ipswich people to participate in this poignant and thought-provoking project.”
The 8-metre wall will be on Ipswich’s Waterfront for the month of May, coinciding with ‘Dying Matters Awareness Week’ (8th-14thMay), an annual national initiative which encourages communities, individuals and organisations to come together and open up the conversation around death, dying and bereavement.
The ‘Before I Die’ wall is a global participatory art project and in Ipswich will contribute to the missions of St Elizabeth Hospice and its facilitation of the ‘Compassionate Communities’ work in the local area.
As well as opening up conversations, the ‘Before I Die’ wall, will also signpost the community to other support services via a QR code included alongside the mural.
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About St Elizabeth Hospice
St Elizabeth Hospice improves life for people in East Suffolk, Great Yarmouth and Waveney living with a progressive or life-limiting illness. Our work is centred on an individual’s needs, which means specialist support, whenever and wherever it is needed, whether at home, in the community or at the hospice. Through medicine and therapy we ease pain; we give life purpose and make life liveable.
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