Birth Rites Collection’s Summer School is a unique programme of lectures, workshops, seminars and one-to-one tutorials. Four intensive days will introduce you to the collection and facilitate a dialogue between you, your practice and the artworks. The course is led by artist & BRC Curator Helen Knowles and artist Dr. Leni Dothan.
BRC Summer School
1 - 4 July 2024
University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NZ
In-person: £550 per person / £400 concession for practising artists, students and those with a low income. (10 full-price places per course, 10 concession rate places). Discounted accommodation is available on-campus at the University of Kent.
Online: This year we are also offering a tiered rate for online access to a series of live and recorded lectures, for 2 weeks. £250 per person.
The programme:
Birth Rites Collection Summer School 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 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 a bespoke multi-media pack of visual, textual, auditory, photographic, filmic and performative material, to be used thereafter in your own future work.
This year, workshops include reflecting on the themes of aesthetics, ethics, politics and the visual discourses of birth through visual and written materials with the emphasis on learning how to stage and document performances. Through lectures by leading artists in the field, we will introduce different perspectives to initiate in-depth discussions.
Summer School speakers:
The Birth Rites Collection Summer School attracts artists, curators, filmmakers and academics as annual guest speakers. 2024 speakers will include: Helen Knowles, Dr. Leni Dothan, Barbara Rosenthal, Puck Verkade, Ana Casas Broda, Sarah Maple, Dyana Gravina and Dr. Hannah Ballou.
Helen Knowles (b.1975) is an artist and curator of the Birth Rites Collection currently housed in the University of Kent. Her collaborative, new media practice has included working with indigenous communities in Putumayo, Colombia and Santa Fe, America. As well as medics, midwives, scientists, lawyers, market sellers, oligarchs, crypto currency and blockchain specialists.
Dr. Leni Dothan is an artist, architect and researcher based in London. Blending her skills and knowledge, Dothan is dealing with the overlooked representations of women and especially mothers in art history and contemporary culture, as well as eco-political urgent subjects.
Barbara Rosenthal is an avant-garde artist from New York who produces idiosyncratic combinations of words, communicative sounds, and pictures. Renowned for her extensive use of photography, video, electronic and digital media, her work investigates the relationship between an artist’s psyche and the outer world.
Puck Verkade received her BFA from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and completed an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, London. Her work has been shown at various international venues. In 2021 she received the prestigious Charlotte Koehler Prize from the Prins Bernhard Culture Fund in The Netherlands.
Ana Casas Broda has completed studies of Visual Arts, History and Photography. She has published two books: Album (Mestizo 2000) and Kinderwunsch (La Fabrica 2013) that were also presented internationally as shows. Her work deals with themes such as identity, body, memory and exploration about their link to the photographic media.
Sarah Maple is an award winning multidisciplinary artist known for bold artworks that challenge notions of identity. Her work spans a variety of media such as performance, painting, collage and photography. Much of Maple's inspiration originates from her mixed religious and cultural upbringing.
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, a pioneering arts organisation dedicated to (m)others and primary care givers. Their artistic and curatorial practices are interested in feminisms, migration, and body politics.
Dr. Hannah Ballou is a comedian, performance artist, researcher, writer, and lecturer. Her work challenges configurations of the comic body by asking who is funny, when, how, why, and why not? She was a 2022 finalist for the Procreate Project's Mother Art Prize, the only international art prize awarded to women & non-binary artists with caring responsibilities. Photo: Alex Gent
Summer School themes include:
• Collaborating and making work with family members.
• Staging, restaging and performative practice on themes of gender, birth, reproduction, and familial networks.
• 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.
Bursary:
This year we will offer one free bursary place to a member of staff or a student from the University of Kent. To apply for the free place, please send a letter (no more than one page of A4) expressing your interest, and explaining why you would like to join the BRC Summer School, to Helen Knowles on helen@birthrites.org.uk. All applications must be received by 1 June 2024.
The Birth Rites Collection Summer School began back in 2019 and was led by Helen Knowles and Hermione Wiltshire from 2019-2021. We have had participants from all over the world and it is a growing network and community.
Any questions? Please email helen@birthrites.org.uk
Images of Summer School students at King’s College London, led by Helen Knowles and Hermione Wiltshire.