Birth Rites Collection

Call for Black Women with Experience of Pre-Term Birth. Collaboration with Jamaican poet Courtney Conrad.

LINK IN BIO TO BOOK A PLACE

We invite black women to share their personal experiences with pre-term birth in a creative and supportive project. You will have the opportunity to share your story in an in-person session with the poet Courtney Conrad, You will have a private space to talk to Courtney about your personal experience who will create a poem to share your story along with others who have had similar experiences. 

Whether your experience was recent or decades ago, your story matters, and we are here to listen. Your journey will inspire a unique poetic response that seeks to honour the complexity of pre-term birth and celebrate your strength. Age and the length of time since your birth experience are not factors—if you’ve lived through pre-term birth, we want to hear from you.

STORY SHARING SESSIONS
Children’s Centre, Leeds - 21.11.24

's National Centre for Preterm Birth Research, London - Date TBC

ONLINE FOCUS GROUP Online, December 2024

POETRY WORKSHOP 21.11.24 Chapeltown Children’s Centre, Leeds. 12.30pm -14.00pm

For those interested in exploring their own creative voices, we are also offering an optional poetry workshop for 4-6 black women, led by Courtney Conrad.

This project is in partnership with Tommy’s Preterm Birth Research Project, Imperial College, London and Birth Rites Collection, Peas in the Pod.

Birth Rites Collection is pleased to announce that we will be working with a poet, a composer and two artists, in order of profile pics!

COURTNEY CONRAD
ANNA PERACH
HANNAH CONWAY
SARAH SUDHOFF

We have partnered with the newly launched Tommy’s National Centre for Preterm Birth Research and Imperial College London to run a series of participatory art commissions over the next 3-5 years.

These new works will eventually become part of the Birth Rites Collection. The projects and resulting works will help to expand on the ground-breaking research that the team at Tommy’s and the five collaborating universities are carrying out.

Artists will collaborate with men and women in the community, up and down the UK, to explore important ideas connected with preterm birth.

Exciting news!

Birth Rites Collection is pleased to announce that we will be working with poet, COURTNEY CONRAD (image 1) and artist ANNA PERACH (image 4) in the new year.

Following this we will be commissioning, composer HANNAH CONWAY (image 3)and artist SARAH SUDHOFF (image 2) to collaborate with men and women in the community, up and down the UK, to explore important ideas connected with preterm birth. We have partnered with the newly launched Tommy’s National Centre for Preterm Birth Research and Imperial College London to run a series of participatory anti commissions over the next 3-5 years.

These new works will eventually become part of the Birth Rites Collection. The projects and resulting works will help to expand on the ground-breaking research that the team at Tommy’s and the five collaborating universities are carrying out.

📣 Our Summer School from 1st - 4th July is nearly fully booked.

Applications close on Thursday 20th June. Book now to secure one of the last few places.

If you can’t join us at the University of Kent, there is still plenty of room on the online Summer School. Running over the same dates, the online course will be just as diverse and inspiring as the in-person Summer School, but delivered virtually.

Midwives, academics, curators, artists,medics, health professionals, art historians, policy advisors and the generalpublic interested in childbirth through the lens of art, are all welcome. As aparticipant, you will enter the course with your own skill set and finish, witha bespoke multi-media pack of visual, textual, auditory, photographic, filmicand performative material, to be used thereafter in your own future work.

Speakers this year include and

Follow the link in bio to book 👆

📣 Deadline extended to 7 May 2024 📣

We have extended the deadline for expressions of interest in our new series of participatory art commissions exploring important ideas connected with preterm birth.

If you are an artist / artist collective and are interested in getting involved in this project, please fill out a preliminary expression of interest on our website: https://www.birthritescollection.org.uk/commissions

A budget of £5400 is available for the first commission. Ten artists will be selected to develop their proposals from the initial expression of interest and a small fee will be paid for this.

We are keen to hear from artists of black and minority ethnic background, disabled, LGBTQ and female artists.

Please share with your networks!

Tommy's

📷 The Crowning Quilt 9/9 Drawing, painting and color specifications by Judy Chicago, batik form Chicago’s drawing by Dianne Barber, San Francisco CA, embroidery and quilting by Gwen Glesmann, Washington DC. Courtesy of the artist and Birth Rites Collection.

✨ This embroidery is an example of a participatory artwork and is one of two works held in the collection by Judy Chicago, from The Birth Project 1980-1985.

*** 4 days to go before we close applications for Tommys Preterm Birth Commissions! *** Please share.

We are looking for expressions of interest for 3-5 artists to collaborate with men and women in the community, up and down the UK, to explore important ideas connected with preterm birth.The projects and resulting works will help to expand on the ground-breaking research that the team at Tommy’s and the five collaborating universities are carrying out. If you are an artist / artist collective and are interested in getting involved in this project, please fill out a preliminary expression of interest. The deadline for initial expressions of interest is 30 April 2024. A budget of £5400 is available for the first commission.

Ten artists will be selected to develop their proposals from the initial expression of interest and a small fee will be paid for this. We are keen to hear from artists of black and minority ethnic background, disabled, LGBTQ and female artists. We will be shortlisting 10 artists / artist collectives to develop their ideas into fully fledged proposals for new works.The first commission will be developed in the Kent region. Future commissions will be in other areas in the UK.

Submit an expression of interest via the link in bio.

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📣 Submit your expressions of interest to our new series of participatory art commissions before 30th April 2024.

Birth Rites Collection has partnered with the newly launched Tommy's National Centre for Preterm Birth Research and Imperial College London to run a series of participatory commissions over the next 3-5 years. These new artworks will eventually become part of the Birth Rites Collection.

We will facilitate 3-5 artists to collaborate with men and women in the community, up and down the UK, to explore important ideas connected with preterm birth.

The projects and resulting works will help to expand on the ground-breaking research that the team at Tommy’s and the five collaborating universities are carrying out.

If you are an artist / artist collective and are interested in getting involved in this project, we would love to hear from you.

Find more information and how to apply on our website 👇

Image: Sonia and Florenca - portrait from the series ‘One Day Young’ by Jenny Lewis. Courtesy of the artist and Birth Rites Collection.

Tommy's Centre for Pre-term Birth: BRC Commission — Birth Rites Collection Tommy’s National Centre for Preterm Birth ResearchWe have partnered with the newly launched Tommy’s National Centre for Preterm Birth Research and Imperial College London to run a series of participatory commissions over the next 3-5 years. These new artworks will eventually become part of the B...

The BRC attracts artists, curators, filmmakers & academics as annual guest speakers. We are delighted to announce the line up for this year’s Summer School, now open for bookings!

is an artist & curator of the Birth Rites Collection. Her collaborative, new media practice has included working with indigenous communities in Putumayo, Colombia and Santa Fe, as well as medics, midwives, scientists, lawyers, crypto currency & blockchain specialists.

is an artist, architect & researcher. Blending her skills and knowledge, Dothan works deals with the overlooked representations of women and especially mothers in art history and contemporary culture.

is a renowned avant-garde artist who produces idiosyncratic combinations of words, communicative sounds, and pictures. Her work investigates the relationship between an artist’s psyche and the outer world.

Artist 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.

has published two books: Album (Mestizo 2000) and Kinderwunsch (La Fabrica 2013), both also presented internationally as shows. Her work deals with themes of identity, body, and memory - exploring their link to the photographic media.

is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist known for bold artworks that challenge notions of identity.

(They/She) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, birth Doula and activist, mover, and community builder. She is the founding director of , a pioneering arts organisation dedicated to (m)others & primary care givers. 📸: Dyana Gravina

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? 📸: Alex Gent

Find out more and book your place via the link in our bio.

We have partnered with the newly launched National Centre for Preterm Birth Research and to run a series of participatory commissions over the next 3-5 years. These new artworks will eventually become part of the Birth Rites Collection.

Birth Rites Collection will facilitate 3-5 artists to collaborate with men and women in the community, up and down the UK, to explore important ideas connected with preterm birth.

The projects and resulting works will help to expand on the ground-breaking research that the team at Tommy’s and the five collaborating universities are carrying out.

If you are an artist / artist collective and are interested in getting involved in this project, please follow the link in our bio to fill out a preliminary expression of interest. The deadline for initial expressions of interest is 30 April 2024.

We are keen to hear from artists of black and minority ethnic background, disabled, LGBTQ and female artists. We will be shortlisting 10 artists / artist collectives to develop their ideas into fully fledged proposals for new works.

The first commission will be developed in the Kent region. A budget of £5400 is available for the first commission. Ten artists will be selected to develop their proposals from the initial expression of interest and a small fee will be paid for this. Future commissions will take place in collaboration with groups in other areas of the UK.

Image: Sonia and Florenca - portrait from the series ‘One Day Young’ by . Courtesy of the artist and Birth Rites Collection.

The Birth Rites Collection Summer School is back and bookings are now open!

Birth Rites Collection’s Summer School 2024
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 and artist , with a programme of brilliant guest speakers.

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.

Themes will 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.

The in-person course will take place at the University of Kent, Canterbury Campus over 4 days, from 1st - 4th July 2024.

This year we are also offering a tiered rate for online only access to a series of live & recorded lectures.

More information is available on our website, where you will also find a booking form. Follow the link in our bio to the Summer School webpage.

An exciting exhibition opening this weekend and an important step forward within the collective work on  ,   and   work. ‘Act of creation: on art and motherhood’, curated by  for .gallery Touring starting at  

✨ Special congratulations to some artists whom we have supported and collaborated with through conversations, our Birth Rites Collection Summer School and through the commissioning and acquisition of donations over the past 16 years     .winant
  👏🏽

The exhibition will address diverse experiences of motherhood across three themes: Creation, Maintenance and Loss.

Featuring painting, photography, sculpture, sound and film, artists in the exhibition include: Felicity Allen, Janine Antoni, Cassie Arnold, Artists Campaign to Repeal the 8th, Bobby Baker, Clare Bottomley, Elina Brotherus, Lea Cetera, Jai Chuhan, Eileen Cooper, Renee Cox, Dorothy Cross, Rineke Dijkstra, Leni Dothan, Catherine Elwes, Tracey Emin, Jessa Fairbrother, Feministo, VALIE EXPORT, Maeve Gilmore, Anna Grevenitis, Ghislaine Howard, The Hackney Flashers, Camille Henrot, Barbara Hepworth, Susan Hiller, Chantal Joffe, Claudette Johnson, Mary Kelly, Liss LaFleur, Tala Madani, Sally Mann, Wangechi Mutu, Ishbel Myerscough, Everlyn Nicodemus, Catherine Opie, Fani Parali, Celia Paul, Paula Rego, Su Richardson, Jenny Saville, Monica Sjöö, Annegret Soltau, Tabitha Soren, Heather Spears, Hannah Starkey, Emma Talbot, Barbara Walker, Caroline Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Nancy Willis, Hermione Wiltshire, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Christine Voge, Del LaGrace Volcano, Carmen Winant and Billie Zangewa.

📷 1.  ‘Mother Child machine n.7 commissioned by   for   2019 at  with  and acquired by BRC.
📷 2.  Hermione Wiltshire, 'Yoga Positions for Birth', 2008, Digital Print Installation.Commissioned by Birth Rites Exhibition for 'Birth Rites' (Manchester Museum, Glasgow Science Centre) and acquired by the collection (2008)
📷3.Cassie Arnold Mom Bra, for BRC Competition for Competition for New Works

Sonya was one of our brilliant summer school participants. Here is a short article about her time on the course! https://www.kent.ac.uk/institute-cultural-creative-industries/creative-kent/soriya-labovitch

Birth Rites Collection updated their address.

Thank you to everyone who came to the Birth Rites Collection launch at the University of Kent! We loved sharing the collection with you in our new home 💫

Keep following for news of more events and tours. We are really excited to be holding our in-person summer school in Kent this September. Places are still available if you’d like to come - follow link in bio for more information.

It's TONIGHT! We can't wait to launch the Birth Rites Collection at University of Kent tonight from 5pm (BST). There's still time to RSVP to [email protected] but if you can't join us in-person, then please Zoom in to watch the launch online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/361621960017

Birth Rites Collection Launch at the University of Kent - Live Stream Join us for the launch of the Birth Rites Collection, streamed live online from the University of Kent

There are just a few days to go until the launch of the Birth Rites Collection at the University of Kent, taking place next Monday 13th June from 5pm. During the launch we will be presenting our first newly commissioned digital object, which we are minting as an NFT - Non Fungible Token. The creation of this artwork is a part of our new experimental project to look at how we can utilise the technology of the blockchain to help to redistribute wealth back to artists who have donated work to the Birth Rites Collection, the Collection itself and others involved in the creation of the work.

Touching Matters of Care (‘Prorace’ cervical cap, 1915-20)

Nora Heidorn has appropriated and intervened in the Science Museum's 3D scan of the "Prorace" cervical cap, a barrier contraceptive from the 1920s that was trademarked and promoted by Dr Marie Stopes. The project stages the "Prorace" cap and the histories of the UK birth control movement and the eugenic feminism it speaks to, as a "Matter of Care": a complex thing that requires our careful attention. The interactivity of the 3D work invites users to become proximate to this object and to ask critical questions about it. The project was made together with creative technologist Jinia Tasnin and comes out of Nora Heidorn's PhD research at the Royal College of Art.

Round Table Discussion
Nora will discuss the creation of this new digital object and its minting as an NFT in a public roundtable at 5pm on Monday 13th June. She will be joined by BRC curator Helen Knowles, Dr. Rebecca Ogden from the School of Languages and Dr Claire L. Jones, Lecturer in the History of Medicine, University of Kent. This discussion will be followed by a drinks reception and performance of ‘Giving Birth In Beauty’ by Himali Singh Soin, performed by Nephertiti Oboshie Schandorf, and a public tour of the BRC artworks in buildings across the University of Kent Canterbury Camp

RSVP [email protected] to book a place in person.

ZOOM IN If you can’t make it in person, you can watch the live stream, via zoom, by registering on Eventbrite. Otherwise, please join us at the University of Kent.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/birth-rites-collection-launch-at-the-university-of-kent-live-stream-tickets-361621960017

It’s not long until the launch of the Birth Rites Collection at ! Works from the collection are starting to be installed across the Canterbury campus - like these by .

If you’d like to join us to celebrate the BRC launch at the University of Kent, then you can come to our public event on Monday 13th June. Follow the link in bio to find out more and RSVP via email.

🎥 Here's a brilliant example of a film created in response to a work in the Birth Rites Collection, as a part of BRC's Summer School 2021.

https://vimeo.com/614293063/b5233c6ef1

Between, Before and the End (2021), created by Suzy Roan, in response to Therese in Ecstatic Childbirth by Hermione Wiltshire, in collaboration with Birth Rites Collection Summer School.

There are still places left if you'd like to attend this year's Summer School.

Find more information and book here: https://www.birthritescollection.org.uk/summer-school

Between, Before and the End Sylvie and Nessie Responding to 'Therese in Ecstatic Childbirth' / Hermione Wiltshire

📣 Launch event 📣

We’re excited to invite you to the launch of the Birth Rites Collection, in-person at the University of Kent on Monday 13th June!

Join us from 5pm for an evening of artist talks and performances, and a curator-led tour of the Birth Rites Collection.

Find out more and RSVP via the link in our bio, or by emailing [email protected]

📣 Did you get our latest newsletter? We're celebrating the launch of the Birth Rites Collection at the University of Kent on Monday 13th June and you're invited!

Read now for full details and how to RSVP: https://bit.ly/3sgBFK8

You're invited to the Birth Rites Collection Launch at the University of Kent We’re celebrating the launch of BRC at the University of Kent on Monday 13th June, from 5pm. Join us for an evening of artist talks and performances, and a curator-led tour of the Birth Rites Collection.

Did you know you can download the 2022 Summer School brochure from our website now? Find out more about this unique programme of lectures, workshops, seminars and one-to-one tutorials. Themes for this year's course include:

- How the collection informs and unpacks different perspectives in midwifery, medicine and education, and its potential to improve practice and policy.

- Artistic and midwifery practices that address reproduction in the digital age including AI, simulation, VR, blockchain and NFT tech and, new reproductive technologies.

- Changing perspectives on the non-binary and notions of kinship.

- 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.

https://www.birthritescollection.org.uk/summer-school

Have you been on a tour of the Birth Rites Collection? Find out more about the incredible works held in the collection from curator and artist .

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “The Birth Rites collection is an absolutely awe-inspiring collection of contemporary art celebrating, critiquing and exploring many aspects of birth and new parenthood. A must see!”

Helen Knowles is holding a virtual tour of the collection online tonight at 7.30pm. There’s still time to book your ticket via the link in our bio above.

Tickets are £7 per person / free for staff and students of .

Photos courtesy of

Bookings for this year’s BRC Summer School are now open!

We will be running the 2022 Summer School in-person from our new home at the University of Kent

BRC Summer School is a unique programme of lectures, workshops, seminars and one-to-one tutorials. It will introduce you to the collection and facilitate a dialogue between you, your practice and the artworks. The course is led by Helen Knowles, BRC Curator and artist and Hermione Wiltshire, artist and Co-Head of the Photography Programme at the Royal College of Art.

The course will empower you to articulate your own responses to the collection in a supportive environment whilst exploring critical perspectives in the field of birth.

If you are a midwife, academic, curator, artist, medic, health professional, art historian or policy advisor, follow the link in our bio to book your place on a summer course that addresses aesthetics, ethics, politics and the visual discourse of birth.

Read all about this year's BRC Summer School on Art & Education. We will be running the 2022 Summer School in-person at the University of Kent.

Summer School 2022 - Announcements - Art & Education Summer School 2022 // September 5–9, 2022

NEW TOURS // Join us on our new season of virtual and in-person tours with Helen Knowles , artist and curator of the Birth Rites Collection.

Find the dates for upcoming virtual tours on our website and book your place now via eventbrite (links in bio).

In-person tours are coming to in May and June.

Image: Warm Wet Velvet by Dominika Dzikowska. 2009-2013, Lambda Print,
100 x 70 cm

Courtesy of the artist and Birth Rites Collection.