United Kingdom
helen@birthrites.org.uk
A unique programme of lectures, workshops, seminars and one-to-one tutorials around the Birth Rites Collection, the world’s first and only contemporary art collection dedicated to the subject of childbirth.
Birth Rites Collection’s Summer School is an intensive programme that will introduce you to the collection and facilitate a dialogue between you, your practice, this year’s themes and the artworks. The course is led by artist and BRC Curator, Helen Knowles and artist Dr. Leni Dothan. The course will empower you to articulate your own practice and responses to the collection in a supportive environment whilst exploring critical perspectives in the field of birth.
Midwives, academics, curators, artists, medics, health professionals, art historians, policy advisors and the general public, who are interested in childbirth through the lens of art, are all welcome. As a participant, you will enter the course with your own skill set and finish, with bespoke visual, filmic and/or performative material, to be used thereafter in your own future work.
Workshops include exploring the ethical, political and visual discourses of birth via text, film, and performance. Additionally, this year, we present a unique opportunity to engage with a curated selection of works from the collection that are not ordinarily accessible to the public. In a dedicated space (in person & online), these pieces will enrich participants' engagement of the summer school themes.
Through lectures by leading artists in the field, we will introduce different perspectives to initiate in-depth discussions.
Themes include:
–Navigating mortality—from preterm birth to post-partum
–Artistic responses to preterm birth.
–How the collection informs and unpacks different perspectives in midwifery, medicine and education, and its potential to improve practice and policy.
–The Collection’s impact on feminist art practices and the rehabilitation of visual discourses of birth into art history.
–Censorship of artworks on birth, institutional responses, ethics and the law
Speakers include: Griselda Pollock (online keynote), Anna Perach, Hannah Conway, Courtney Conrad, Catherine Williamson, Andrea Khora, Helen Knowles and Leni Dothan, with more announced soon.
We offer two modalities for this course: one in person, as an intensive four-day program at the University of Kent, and one weekly online course over four weeks, that participants can join from anywhere in the world.
Four-day course (in-person):
Dates: July 7–10, 10–5pm BST (with some late evenings) / Location: University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom / Cost: 650GBP per person / 500GBP concession (for practicing artists, students, and those with a low income). / Capacity: 15 places per course / Accommodation: On-campus accommodation is available at an additional cost.
Four-week course (online):
Dates: Wednesdays, June 11– July 2, 7–9:30pm BST and Saturday, June 28, 2–5pm BST. All lectures, workshops, and discussions will take place online. / Cost: 550GBP per person / 400GBP concession.
A 100GBP deposit is required to secure a place for either course. There is one bursary place available.
To book your place or for more information, visit the Summer School page on the Birth Rites Collection website, or email helen[at]birthrites.org.uk.
