Produced by Artsadmin

Arrivals + Departures premiered in Autumn 2020 at Somerset House (September - November) and spent 12 months touring to BAM, New York(March-April) around the UK and went to Theater Spektkal, Zurich, in September 2021. On the 5th July 2022 it will open it’s summer tour, starting at One Embassy Gardens, Nine Elms for the Battersea Arts Centre, and then being shown at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park and moving to Thrift Festival in September 2022.

Arrivals + Departures takes the recognisable form of an arrivals and departures board, displaying the names of people submitted by the public as a way of celebrating the birth date of a significant person (arrival) or commemorating a death (departure). Capturing both the joy and sadness of an arrivals hall or departure lounge, visitors and passers-by can choose to contribute names as a way to acknowledge, celebrate and commemorate. Names may range from the personal to the political, from our unsung personal heroes to national treasures, as they are shared on the large-scale artwork via a live interaction with a guide or online at: www.arrivalsanddepartures.net.

Integral to the artwork are a series of free site specific events, talks and workshops inviting people to engage more deeply with the themes of life and death in expansive ways. These include Birth and Death Cafés, Drawings of the Departed (artist Sophie Herheximar creating live portraits of people whose names have been submitted to the boards), YARA + DAVINA’S Song Request Show (Radio request shows of songs people want for the their own funeral and why), Death Dance ( Brooklyn Dance Collective) and a live reading of all the stories by Lemn Sissey. Talks and podcasts include the incredible Rev Claire MacDonald’s All the Names We Are , and include The Power of Naming, What does Grief look like in 2021? 

A series of digital take-overs with special guests respond to specific themes ranging from Women & Feminism, to Environmental, Social, Racial Justice, Immigrant rights and Disability. In these instances, the act of naming, specifically those that may often be excluded, can be a radical act in and of itself, openly encouraging participants to respond to the boards in different ways. 

Arrivals + Departures has been supported through commissioning funds from Artsadmin, Without Walls, Freedom Festival (Hull) and Norfolk & Norwich Festival and with funding from the Create To Connect > Create to Impact network through the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and public funding through Arts Council England.

​Development phase of Arrivals + Departure (2018) supported by In Situ Network through the Creative Europe programme of European Union, Without Wall's Blueprint programme and Seedbed Residency at 101.