Key Points
- The Close to Home Liverpool exhibition will run at the historic Cunard Building from 3 September to 10 October 2026.
- Award-winning artist Mark Storor created the installation with Merseyside community arts organisation Heart of Glass.
- The exhibition brings together more than seven years of work from The Suicide Chronicles, involving people affected by suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and bereavement by suicide.
- The six-week residency will feature art, live performance, poetry, music, film, digital installations, sculpture, animation and photography.
- World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September and World Mental Health Day on 10 October will both take place during the exhibition.
- Heart of Glass chief executive Patrick Fox said the first six chapters involved 50 people affected by suicide, with Close to Home serving as the project’s seventh chapter.
- Liverpool City Council, Culture Liverpool and Public Health Liverpool are partners, with funding from Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
- Support information will be available at the exhibition, which carries a content advisory because it deals with suicide and bereavement.
- Councillor Harry Doyle said suicide remains a public-health priority for Liverpool and that art and culture can create space for conversations and access to support.
Liverpool (Liverpool standard) August 28, 2026 — Close to Home Liverpool exhibition is scheduled to open at the Cunard Building on 3 September, bringing together art made with people whose lives have been affected by suicide, suicidal thoughts, attempts and bereavement.
The six-week project, which runs until 10 October, has been developed by artist Mark Storor in collaboration with Heart of Glass, a Merseyside-based community arts organisation. It is the latest stage of The Suicide Chronicles, a long-running collaborative arts programme which has worked with communities and individuals in England, Ireland and Wales.
Culture Liverpool said Close to Home is designed as a space for contemplation, reflection and collective witnessing rather than a conventional exhibition alone. The programme is built on lived and living experience, with organisers aiming to create an environment where difficult experiences can be shared, considered and acknowledged.
The timing means the residency will encompass two international awareness dates: World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September and World Mental Health Day on 10 October. The organisers have said the project will seek to connect artistic work with public conversation, reflection and routes to support.
Close to Home is not presented as an account of a single person’s experience. Instead, it draws together six previous “Chronicles” created during more than seven years of work. The resulting Liverpool presentation is described by the project as its seventh chapter.
When and where will Close to Home take place?
The exhibition and associated public programme will be based at Liverpool’s Cunard Building, a landmark on the city’s waterfront. It is due to run from Thursday 3 September until Saturday 10 October 2026.
Culture Liverpool said the residency will be animated by a range of artistic forms, including live performance, poetry, music, film, digital installations, sculptures, animation and photography. The programme will also include conversations with invited guests and partner events in St Helens.
Organisers have indicated that audiences will be invited to spend time with the individual works and stories that make up The Suicide Chronicles. The wider aim is to create opportunities for people to reflect, connect and seek help where needed.
The exhibition comes with a content advisory. Culture Liverpool states that Close to Home explores lived and living experiences of suicide and bereavement. It does not depict suicide, but it covers themes that some visitors may find emotionally difficult. Support information will be available throughout visits, and people will be encouraged to engage with the exhibition in the way that feels appropriate for them.
How did The Suicide Chronicles begin?
The Suicide Chronicles began after Heart of Glass commissioned Mark Storor in 2018 to explore difficult questions arising from the impact of suicide.
According to Culture Liverpool, the commission was developed at a time when St Helens had the highest suicide rate in England and Wales. The project emerged in response to accounts of loss within the town and a need to find a way for communities to address experiences that can be hard to discuss openly.
Over time, the project brought together varied experiences. These include women bereaved by the suicide of partners, farmers and their relationship with land amid concerns about suicide within farming communities, intergenerational accounts of the impact of a teenager’s death on a community, and perspectives from first responders dealing with suicide on the frontline.
Patrick Fox, chief executive of Heart of Glass, said the scale and duration of the programme had not been anticipated when work started in 2018.
As reported by Culture Liverpool, Fox said: “When we started the project with Mark in 2018, we had no expectation of how long it would last or where it would take us. We quickly realised after the first Chronicle this was an artistic interrogation we had to carry forward to encompass as many voices and experiences as possible, to give them the time and space to be seen and heard.”
Fox said six Chronicles had involved 50 people directly affected by suicide. He also referred to research suggesting that one suicide can affect approximately 135 people, describing the broader impact on families, communities and society.
He said each Chronicle had been shaped by the people involved and the period in which it was produced, but that the works collectively illustrated the complex and multi-layered nature of bereavement by suicide. He identified Close to Home as the seventh chapter of that process.
What has Mark Storor said about the project?
Storor said the Liverpool residency will be the first time all six Chronicles have been brought into one location to address, collectively, what suicide means for communities.
As reported by Culture Liverpool, he said: “Close to Home will bring all six Chronicles into one space, addressing together, for the first time, what is happening in our communities as the result of suicide.”
He added that the project should not be viewed as an endpoint. Instead, he described it as part of a continuing process which began in St Helens and expanded as people shared their stories and experiences.
Storor said the exhibition is “as much about life as it is about death”, and that it gives visitors the chance to consider their relationships with themselves, other people and the wider world. He said he hoped people affected by suicide might find strength in seeing the stories of others collectively witnessed, and might recognise a role for art in remembrance, relief, renewed outlook and resilience.
The artist’s approach has centred on co-creation rather than using personal experiences only as material for an artwork. The works have been developed through sustained collaboration with people and communities, with each form — from photography and film to performance and sculpture intended to reflect particular stories.
What do Liverpool partners say about suicide stigma?
Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, Councillor Harry Doyle, said the project addresses a continuing public-health concern for the city.
As reported by Culture Liverpool, Councillor Doyle said:
“Suicide remains a public health priority for Liverpool and our prevention work continues to grow, but the fact that we still don’t talk openly about suicide and it remains a ‘taboo’ subject is one of the biggest challenges in our work.”
He said Culture Liverpool and Public Health Liverpool were proud to be working with Heart of Glass on the project. Councillor Doyle added that collaboration through art and culture could help communities learn, reflect and access support.
He said open conversations about mental health and suicide can be difficult but important, adding that research indicates such discussions can raise awareness, challenge stigma, encourage people to ask for help and support wellbeing.
The project is presented in partnership with Liverpool City Council, Culture Liverpool and Public Health Liverpool. It has received funding from Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Background: Why is this development significant?
The development brings a community-based artistic project about suicide to a prominent public building in Liverpool city centre. Its foundation lies in work begun in St Helens in 2018, where Heart of Glass and Storor sought to establish a collaborative model for approaching experiences often discussed privately or not at all.
The exhibition also arrives amid wider use of public art to make mental-health issues visible. Earlier in 2026, Liverpool man Joe Jones planned The Field 4300 Lights, an installation of 4,300 lights intended to represent male lives lost to suicide in England during 2024. Jones said he wanted to make a crisis that can be unseen more visible to visitors.
While The Field 4300 Lights and Close to Home are separate projects with different organisers and formats, both show how Liverpool-area initiatives are using public creative work to address mental health, suicide and bereavement. Close to Home differs in its longer-term collaborative development and its inclusion of multiple personal accounts gathered across several years and regions.
Prediction: How could Close to Home affect Liverpool audiences?
For Liverpool residents, families affected by suicide, community groups and people working in health, education, culture and support services, Close to Home may create a more visible setting for conversations that are often difficult to begin. Its location in the Cunard Building could make the subject accessible to people who would not ordinarily attend a specialist mental-health event.
The exhibition may also give affected visitors a chance to see experiences of bereavement, suicidal thoughts or attempts represented through several artistic forms rather than discussed only through statistics or clinical language. Organisers have specifically said the residency will include support information and opportunities for conversation, which could help visitors identify relevant services or encourage wider discussion within families and communities.
Its impact will depend on how audiences engage with the programme and whether the planned conversations and support links continue beyond the six-week display. The project’s stated intention is to leave a legacy of reflection, connection and help-seeking rather than simply stage a temporary exhibition.
