"Re-imagining Motherhood Now"

Re-Imagining Motherhood Now is an immersive public event exploring the pressures and possibilities of contemporary motherhood. Bringing together talks, performances, and interactive workshops, it will engage participants in reflecting on contemporary representations of motherhood, and their own lived experiences of mothering (or not mothering) now. Entry is free and lunch and refreshments will be provided. Toys, activities and a baby-friendly play area will be set up for participants wishing to bring their babies and young children with them.

Our opening session, “Visualising Motherhood Now,” led by visual artist Sarah Greaves, reflects on her groundbreaking 2018 Manchester Art Gallery exhibition, “The Other in Mother,” and offers a hand-on taster session of her work as a maternal mental health arts psychotherapist. In “Mothering Performance,” Dr. Lena Šimić  examines representations of the maternal in contemporary performance and, more broadly, the aesthetic and political dimensions of performing motherhood on stage and off. Musician Claire Northey and actor Lucy Follows of the Mothers Who Make arts collective explore the many stark contrasts and identity shifts that appear within early motherhood in their short original musical piece of dark comedy, “I AM A HOUSE.” Dr. Jennifer Verson reflects on her work as artistic director of Migrant Artists Mutual Aid, and activism on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, in her session on “Migrant Motherhood: Peacebuilding Across Borders." Our closing session, a conversation with the Whitworth’s Early Years Producer Lucy Turner, will discuss her role in the Whitworth’s recent community-led Still Parents exhibition and its important ongoing work of “Making Space for Maternal Grief.”

This event is part of the “Re-imagining Motherhood Now” series sponsored by a Social Responsibility Award from the School of Arts, Language and Cultures at the University of Manchester in joint partnership with the Whitworth .

Host or Publisher Dr. J. Michelle Coghlan