Northumbria University researcher brings death-positive arts festival to libraries across England

An arts festival exploring death, dying and end-of-life choices — led by a Northumbria University academic — is set to transform public libraries across England this May and June.

The Afterlives Arts Festival, directed by Dr Stacey Pitsillides, Associate Professor at Northumbria's School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries, will take place at Newcastle City Library (8–9 May), Exeter (16–17 May) and Redbridge (6–7 June) 2026. Backed by Arts Council England and sponsored by Co-op Funeralcare, the free, family-friendly festival is expected to engage over 15,000 people across 36 events.

Dr Pitsillides has spent nearly a decade at the forefront of the Death Positive Library movement — a growing national network that uses books, art, film and community events to help people engage openly with death and dying as a health and societal issue. Her research at the intersection of death, creativity and technology was the academic driving force behind the UK's first Death Positive Library Service, established at Redbridge Library in east London in 2017.

Newcastle City Library joined the collaboration in 2019, funded by the Wellcome Trust, Carnegie UK and the Wolfson Foundation, and developed in partnership with Northumbria University. The project has since won the Edge Award for social innovation and, in 2025, the national Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative.

"Libraries are places where ritual and imagination coincide," said Dr Pitsillides. "Our Afterlives festival will meet people where they are — with art, stories and experiences that make talking about death feel human, joyful and real."

The Afterlives Arts Festival now brings this model to a national stage for the first time, introducing Exeter and the rural communities served by Libraries Unlimited to the death-positive approach. The three partner library services together reach a combined population of over one million people and welcome more than 1.6 million visitors to their central libraries each year.

The centrepiece of the festival is Immortelles — a major new public artwork commissioned from Moving Parts Arts, the Newcastle-based visual and performing arts organisation. Led by Artistic Director Kerrin Tatwood, community workshops at each location will invite residents to contribute their own icons, treasures and symbols to the final installations, leaving a lasting legacy in each library.

The wider programme features an array of artists and organisations, including Luna Arts' A Seat at the Table (conversations around food and memory), natural burial workshops suitable for children by Dead Good CIC, immersive film nights with Wayfaring Cinema, MOTH Studio's Symbols of Death installation, eco-burial exhibits from Resting Reef, and Soul Paint — an award-winning VR experience exploring the inner world through digital painting.

The festival responds to a significant national need. Research by Marie Curie found that 84 per cent of people want to talk about death, yet only 14 per cent have done so, while funeral costs have risen 134 per cent since 2004. Evidence from previous Death Positive Library initiatives shows that 85 per cent of participants left feeling more confident discussing end-of-life choices.

The Afterlives Arts Festival is led by Newcastle City Library in partnership with Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure, Libraries Unlimited and Northumbria University.

For full programme details, visit afterlives.uk