Do you experience anxiety or are you one of those people who calmly sails through life, no matter how strong the stormy winds are howling around you?  Particularly relevant in these uncertain times of the coronavirus, the Science Gallery’s exhibition at the turn of the year focused on the wide-ranging issues about living with anxiety – the bad sides, the positive and creative sides, and the research work being carried out into medical health, in its collaboration with scientists, artists and health service users.

At the heart of ‘On Edge – Living in a World of Anxiety’ was a space for coming together, for calmness and for contemplation where visitors were invited to contribute to the environment by creatively weaving material into the fabric structure or to pick up one of the many books to read, while elsewhere the Science Gallery explored the subject through the results of dialogue with health service users and moved into related areas such as anxiety about the impact of climate change.

Spaces for contemplation are in short supply at the current time – gardens and open spaces are essential to help people deal with anxiety, thus it is important that they remain open and are used appropriately, especially in the urban concentrations of cities such as London where many people do not have access to outdoor spaces.