Baltic x MOTHEROTHER: Continuing the Conversation on Care
Hosted by MOTHEROTHER and Baltic, this day-long event is designed for artists and art-workers who are also parents and carers, arts organisations and institutions, as well as anyone interested in issues relating to care in the art sector.
MOTHEROTHER is an inclusive and supportive collective for artists who are also caregivers. Here the term caregiver applies to the broad spectrum of parents, guardians and carers across our community.
This special event will bring together artists, academics, activists and curators, including Tahmina Alia, Dyana Gravina, Hettie Judah, Lady Kitt, Lauren McLaughlin, Rebecca Morrill and Martina Mullaney, as well as representatives from The NewBridge Project, Helix Arts and Baltic to lead a variety of talks, discussions and activities exploring:
- Inclusivity and support for art-working parents and carers
- Sustainability of self, practice and community for art-working parents and carers
The needs of the caregiver are at the heart of the organisation of the event, as such we will be offering free on-site support for dependants, child-friendly activities and refreshments. You will be able to come and go as you need, and we will encourage a warm and friendly atmosphere where dependent noise and activity is expected.
MOTHEROTHER is supportive network and artist-led initiative for artists with parenting and caregiving responsibilities. Founded by Sue Loughlin and supported by Lady Kitt, Dan Russell and Cheryl Gavin.
Schedule for the day
10.00 | Doors open and refreshments
10.15 | Welcome
10.30 | Introductory Talk with Martina Mullaney
Continuing the Conversation on Care: Transcending Audiences
11.15 | Sustainability
An exploratory conversation with Dyana Gravina, Martina Mullaney and Lauren McLaughlin on:
- Sustaining oneself as artist parent/carer
- Sustaining one’s practice as artist parent/carer
- Sustaining an artist parent/carer community
12:00 | Lunch Break
12:50 | Break Out Groups
Group A - Dyana Gravina Round Table
Group B - Lauren McLaughlin Round Table
Group C - Martina Mullaney Round Table
Group D - The NewBridge Project on Care in Practice and Policy
Group E - Helix Arts on Caring Creatively: Participants; Practitioners; Partnerships
Group F - Hettie Judah and Rebeccaa Morrill in Conversation – Mother in the Expanded Field
OR visit the Sustain installation to relax and reflect with Lady Kitt.
13:40 | Comfort Break
13:50 | Keynote with Hettie Judah
Continuing the Conversation on Care: Building a sustainable practice at the intersection of care, art and ecology
14:40 | Spoken Word Performance by Tahmina Ali
14: 50 | Comfort Break
15:00 | Towards Inclusion:
An exploratory solutions-based conversation with Tahmina Ali, Hetti Judah and Lady Kitt on:
- Activism, socially engaged practices and policy related action around inclusion of artist parents & carers
- Experiences of marginalised artist parents & carers underrepresented in the artworld
15:50 | Reflecting on the day
16:00 | Thanks
Opportunity for a guided tour of the Hannah Perry Exhibition
Tahmina Alia
Tahmina Alia was born in Bangladesh and migrated to England with her family in the early Nineties. She has spent her years living in the North East of England and discovered her love of poetry in her early twenties after co-hosting a poetry event with her sister. Since then, she has gone on to perform spoken work at many events and festivals, as well as presenting her own radio show, curated events, and setting up her own spoken work night called Strictly Spoken.
Dyana Gravina
Dyana Gravina (They/She) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, birth Doula and activist, mover, and community builder. She is the founding director of Procreate Project and the Mother House Studios, a pioneering arts organisation and artists studios dedicated to (m)others and primary care givers. They have been creating models of integrated care that have inspired systemic change across the cultural sectors.
Under this umbrella, Dyana has developed for over a decade curatorial and activist practices that pushes the boundaries of what we showcase, where we showcase it and how people experience it. Her performance actions, performative lectures and writing has been seen and heard in the UK and internationally collaborating with East Street Arts, Wellcome Collection, The Science Gallery London, The New York Times, The Yard Theatre, Institute Centre of Photography ICP ( NYC), Art Basel / Richard Saltoun Gallery, Minusoffspace (Vienna), Unit London, Menoparkas Gallery (Kaunas), Gruentaler9 (Berlin) to mention a few.
Her interdisciplinary artistic and socially engaged practices highlight themes like politics of migration and class, intergenerational feminist collective organizing, care, sexualities and genealogies, pushing for decentralised networks of knowledge sharing and collective memories. Dyana’s artworks combine writing, movement, actions, photography, sculptural installations and sound-video interventions.
Hettie Judah
Hettie Judah is a writer and curator. Recent books include How Not To Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents) (Lund Humphries, 2022), Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones (John Murray, London, 2022/ Penguin, NY, 2023), and Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood was published in the UK and Europe by Thames & Hudson on 4 July 2024, and in the US and Canada on 3 September 2024. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian, Frieze and The Times Literary Supplement, and writes a monthly column for Apollo magazine.
Hettie is curator of the Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood which opened at the Arnolfini in Bristol on 9 March 2024, and is currently on show at MAC in Birmingham.
Following publication of her 2020 study on the impact of motherhood on artists’ careers, in 2021 she worked with a group of artists to draw up the manifesto How Not To Exclude Artist Parents, now available in 16 languages. In 2022, together with Jo Harrison, Hettie co-founded the Art Working Parents Alliance - a supportive network and campaigning group for curators, academics, gallerists, technicians, educators and others working in the arts.
Lady Kitt
Lady Kitt is a Disabled sculptor, parent & researcher. They call their work ‘Mess Making as Social Glue, driven by an insatiable curiosity about the social functions of stuff that gets called art’. Kitt creates vibrantly colourful, collaborative installations from recycled paper, reused fabric and raw clay which they call ‘folk-art shrines’. Kitt is interested in how these environments might mischievously re-craft the sites they temporarily inhabit. Asking "how can impermanent sculpturechange a space to help us better understand & experience access, ecological care and shared emotional heritage?”
Kitt is a trustee for Crafts Council and a MIMA Advisory Board member. Kitt’s work has won the VAMHN Arts Award 2023, been longlisted for both the 2023 and 2024 Aesthetica Art Prize, shown at Atlanta Contemporary (USA), Saatchi Gallery (UK), National Centre on Restorative Justice (USA), QUEERCIRCLE (UK) & Charlston Trust (UK).
Lauren McLaughlin
Lauren McLaughlin is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator based in Aberdeen. Lauren graduated with BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, London in 2012, and MA Applied Arts & Social Practice from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh in 2021. Lauren has exhibited throughout the UK and Internationally; including recent group exhibitions at The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; Bayfront Park, Sarasota, Florida; Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool and AIR Gallery, Manchester. Her work is included in the Birth Rites Collection; and she has been commissioned to write for a number of publications and platforms including We Can’t Afford to Work for Love (2024), An Artist and A Mother (2023), This is Gender (In)Equality (2023) and Unfinished Business (2022).
Rebecca Morrill
Rebecca Morrill is an art book editor, writer and former curator. Currently Executive Commissioning Editor at HENI Publishing, she was previously Commissioning Editor at Phaidon Press where she oversaw survey books including the Great Women Artists and Vitamin series. Having championed Hettie Judah's Acts of Creation: Motherhood in Art in its earliest stages, she returned to the project to freelance copyedit the book in 2023.
Martina Mullaney
Dr Martina Mullaney is a practicing artist and academic. She is the research Co-Ordinator for FilmEU European University at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland. Formally the Irish Post Doc. Researcher for the joint funded Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK)/Irish Research Council Feminist Art Making Histories Project. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art, London and AHRC-funded Ph.D. from the University of Reading. Her research asks ‘how art on and of maternity can transcend its own audience? She convened the international Missing Mother Conference online during lockdown conditions in 2021.She is a recipient of the Red Mansion Art Prize, London, and China, she has been artist in residence with BALENCIAGA, Paris, The British Council in Sri Lanka, and Tbilisi, Georgia, The Gallery of Photography, Dublin. Her work has shown at Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, Franekel Gallery, San Francisco, Artwall Gallery, Prague and Cork Film Center, Ireland. She founded Enemies of Good Art in London after the birth of her child. Events took place at; Tate Modern, the ICA, Southbank Centre and Chisenhale Gallery.Tranzit Display Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic and Galerija Nova, Zagreb in 2015. Enemies of God Art also broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM
Sue Loughlin
Sue Loughlin is the founder of MOTHEROTHER, a project which arose from her frustrations as a mother returning to her art practice after an extended period away from the artworld. Through MOTHEROTHER Sue hopes to provide mutual support for other artists experiencing similar issues and evolve a way of working through the unfavourable climate created for artists with caregiving roles. Sue’s practice is rooted in installation, sculpture and painting, and encompasses education, social engagement, curation and production. Her work is motivated by the shifting political, ideological and socio-economic landscape, as viewed through the lens of a mother of two girls.
Let us know
If you have any queries or require assistance please telephone 0191 478 1810 or send us an email.
MOTHEROTHER
A supportive network for artists with parenting and caregiving responsibilities
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