The archive · Public & Social · Marketing decision · 2021
A Drop of Hope turned a vaccination centre into evolving poetry its visitors wrote
Thousands of visitors' reflections at the Francis Crick vaccination centre became layered poems by 12 poets-in-residence, added over time.
The Francis Crick Institute
What it had to solve
At the Francis Crick Institute, a vaccination centre drew thousands of people during the pandemic, each arriving with their own experience of the past year and of receiving the vaccine. The project asked how to hold that shared moment, and decided the building itself could show it.
How it works
A Drop of Hope was a participatory art project at a vaccination centre housed in the Francis Crick Institute. Its material was the community itself: thousands of visitor contributions reflecting on their experiences of the pandemic and of receiving the vaccine.
The collected words were handed to 12 poets-in-residence, whose poems formed the basis of a layered and dynamic spatial collage of poetry and colour. Because the display sat where people came to be vaccinated, it could grow in real time.
New poems and colours were added as visits continued, turning individual actions into visible accumulation: each person coming for a jab added a layer to a shared work, so the whole read as one evolving statement rather than a fixed poster.
Why it lands
- It used the place people were already in rather than asking them to go anywhere new, so taking part cost nothing extra.
- Handing thousands of raw voices to 12 poets raised them into art instead of leaving them as anonymous comments.
- Because poems and colours accumulated over time, visitors saw their own visit change the building — feedback a poster campaign cannot give.
- It recast a clinical moment as a collective one, giving the vaccination centre a civic meaning beyond the queue.
What it did
The centre became a record of the pandemic written by the people living through it: each person's visit added a layer to a shared artwork, and the project was credited in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
In a high-anxiety public moment, invite people to leave a trace: the same crowd that waits in line can author the space that holds them.
Since then
The project was credited in the D&AD awards archive, where its page remains as a reference for participatory public work. Its model — letting thousands of small contributions accumulate into one public artwork — stayed as an example of how a functional public-health space can carry meaning written by the people who pass through it.
Sources
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