Art and Science meet at a free public grief event in Portugal

In the Lisbon area? I’m bringing The Grief Gallery to the National Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Lisbon on Sunday 31 August, 2025, at the invitation of artist Marco Fedele di Catrano.

Guided Tour & Conversation: The Grief Gallery with Charlene Lam

O Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (MUHNAC) da Universidade de Lisboa

Rua da Escola Politécnica 56, Lisbon

Sun 31 Aug, 11am-12:30pm
Free Admission
Meeting Point: Entry Foyer

As part of Empty Spaces Between Ladders, Marco Fedele di Catrano’s exhibition at the Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon, artist and curator Charlene Lam will lead a guided tour through the exhibition and the museum’s spaces, sharing the inspiration behind her creative project The Grief Gallery.

The museum, a place of conservation, holds within it a profound tension: life and death are intertwined across its collections of creatures, plants, minerals, specimens, and evolutionary histories. Objects and bodies are preserved for study, their processes of change interrupted—time stopped by formalin, taxidermy, or other human intervention.

What do we leave behind?
Bodies and belongings.
Memories and mementos.

Together, we will reflect on questions of life, death, and our human impulse to preserve:

• In what ways does loss shift our perceptions of objects, time, space, and life itself?
• How do we choose which stories and objects get the spotlight?
• What roles might private and public spaces play as repositories for memory and memorials?
  

Participants are invited to bring a meaningful object—something from their own life or belonging to a loved one—to share with the group in this collective exploration of remembrance.

Questions? Hello@CharleneLam.com

August 2025

Get In Touch

• hello@charlenelam.com

SPEAKING

Book me to be a grief speaker for your community or event.

Grief coach Charlene Lam reflects on Mother’s Day

I was 35 when my mom died. After more than a decade of marking Mother’s Day without her, I still find myself bracing for the holiday when it comes around.

Some years are easier than others. I throw flowers in the river, or dedicate something delicious to my mother. (She loved cheesecake and Belgian waffles.) Other years, I just try to ignore the day. (If you’re struggling with how to approach Mother’s Day as a griever, I always advocate for doing what is right for you.)

This year, I’ve been sitting with the realization that my mom also lost her mother in her mid-30s. My Pau Pau died of cancer when I was 5 years old, so the photo above must have been taken not that long prior.

I’m feeling so much compassion for my mom, dealing with her mother’s death and raising a daughter without her own mom’s guidance.

In turn, I feel so much compassion for myself — for little me confused by the death of her beloved grandmother, for 35-year-old me stunned by the sudden loss of her mom.

(And I contemplate further how my mom would have been chagrined to have me experiencing a similar loss at a similar age.)

I’m feeling so much tenderness and compassion … for all of us who are living our lives without the human beings who were our guides and anchors.

Take super good care of yourself, fellow griever, no matter which loss you’re processing, no matter what your relationship was like, no matter how long it’s been. 💖

May 2025

Get In Touch

• hello@charlenelam.com

SPEAKING

Book me to be a grief speaker for your community or event.