On Wednesday 27 May AWP was part of Making Room for Children and Art – a free symposium on artist-parent-child collaborations and other strategies for continuing a creative practice alongside caring for children – at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Organised by AWP member Assunta Ruocco, in collaboration with Bloc Projects, Making Room for Children and Art brought together artists, curators, researchers and art workers to share, discuss and develop thinking around intergenerational collaboration and the conditions that support artist-parents/carers and children in cultural institutions, studios and public spaces. Speakers included Shirley Cameron, Jo Harrison, Hettie Judah and Stryx Gallery.
A making and play space was active throughout the day, with artists and play workers to support attending families.
On Friday 1 May Hettie Judah was in conversation with Alexis Soul-Gray and Kelly Jessiman: the artist-curators behind the exhibition Declarative Language – this discussion reflects on how artists’ practices are shaped by time constraints, emotional labour and the demands of care — not as limitations, but as conditions that actively reshape artistic thinking and production.
On Thursday 26 March we co-hosted a Reading Group on Postpartum Psychosis in Art and Literature at PEER Gallery with artist and AWP member Leah Clements to coincide with her solo exhibition Apophenia.
Reflecting on shared experience of finding meaning in illness, Apophenia (2026) features a recorded conversation with Jenn Ashworth, author of ‘Notes Made While Falling’, a memoir and a cultural study of traumatised and sickened selves in fiction and film.
In the reading group, led by AWP, we discussed Ashworth’s memoir along with a selection of texts that explore portrayals of postpartum psychosis in art and literature. Among the selected authors are Claire Kilroy and Ghislaine Leung.
Leah Clements, Insomnia, South Kiosk, 2022
On Monday 23 February, 1.30-2.15pm we hosted a free online event with the Women’s Budget Group a leading feminist think-and-do tank, who gave a short presentation on Women in the Economy.
This session explored how gender shapes wealth and economic inequality. The presentation will introduce the work of the Women’s Budget Group, explain the gender wealth gap, and show how unpaid care work sits at the centre of economic injustice. We also examined the impact of austerity through an intersectional lens and discuss how policies such as a wealth tax could form part of the solution. The session was an opportunity to understand the bigger picture, learn from real-world examples, and take part in a conversation about building a fairer economy.
On Saturday 7 February we had a bumper event at
Dulwich Picture Gallery, South London
We were given free entry and curator’s introductions to
The ArtPlay Pavilion
An immersive and sensory play space for children up to 8 years
Created by HoLD Art Collective.
& We recievd access to DPG exhibition
Anna Ancher: Painting Light.
Corinne Botz, Private School Teacher [Milk Factory], 2025
On 4 December, we invited American photographer Corinne Botz to give an online presentation on her recent project Milk Factory.
Corinne was in conversation with Hettie, discussing her long-running project documenting the ubiquitous (yet usually unseen) labour of pumping milk that takes place in the American workplace. Corinne’s project has taken her from the US Capitol to women’s prisons, and has included a series of interviews with women in different professions, as well as a film and photo series.
Assunta and Lou’s Art Club, Primary, Nottingham (2025). Photo by Rebecca Beinart
On 15 November 2025 we hosted Making Room for Art and Children at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham organised by AWP member Assunta Ruocco.
Making Room for Art and Children was an afternoon of intergenerational creativity and conversation for artist parents/carers and children. Jo from AWP shared details on how the organisation operates and supports parents and carers whilst advocating for more inclusive practices in institutions. Mother daughter duo Assunta & Lou offered a relaxed art club where children of all ages and their parents/carers can make and play and share their collaborative journey. The event wass supported by CVAN East Midlands.
Chantal Joffe, Esme (First Painting), 2004, Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, curated by Hettie Judah and conceived in collaboration with Hayward Gallery Touring has now closed. It was most recently exhibited at VISUAL Carlow in Ireland, where it was joined by additional works from Irish artists and collections.
The exhibition first opened at Arnolfini, Bristol March-May 2024 before travelling to Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham June-September 2024; Millennium Gallery, Sheffield October 2024 -January 2025 and Dundee Contemporary Arts Spring 2025.
Featuring the work of more than sixty modern and contemporary artists, this exhibition will approach motherhood as a creative enterprise, albeit one at times tempered by ambivalence, exhaustion or grief. Acts of Creation will explore lived experience of motherhood, offering a complex account that engages with contemporary concerns about gender, caregiving and reproductive rights.
The exhibition will address diverse experiences of motherhood across three themes: Creation, which looks at conception, pregnancy, birth and nursing; Maintenance which explores motherhood and caregiving in the day-to-day; and Loss, which touches on miscarriage and involuntary childlessness, as well as reproductive rights. The heart of the exhibition is a series of revelatory self-portraits – a celebration of the artist as mother.
There is an catalogue published to coincide with the exhibition. Acts of Creation is an engaging, thought-provoking and richly illustrated must-read on the evolving artistic discourse on motherhood.
On Saturday 27 September Jo Harrison of AWP and guest speaker Charlotte Warne Thomas, hosted a workshop as part of the Festival of Encounters – a series of free-to-attend events hosted across Brixton and sponsored by Lambeth Council.
For their workshop Manifestos of Care and Repair Jo and Charlotte examined the use of the ‘manifesto’ within art practices. The session involved an open discussion around the value and purpose of manifestos as well as working collaboratively to create a new manifesto centering themes of care, parenting and the arts
Lana Locke, Becoming Frogphlem, 2025 (video still)
On Monday 7 July artist and Art Working Parents (AWP) member Lana Locke invited us for a drop-in workshop at Camberwell Space.
The workshop formed part of a new residency and research project by Lana A Feral Plot (Making Sculpture and Other Strategies for Survival) – based on action research in response to the climate emergency in the field of sculpture.
During the session, we watched Lana’s new video work Becoming Frogphlegm (2025) whilst sculpting with salvaged clay and participating in an informal conversation, along with Jo Harrison, examining the conflicting and often contradictory nature of producing art objects whilst living through an ecological crisis.
Lana and Jo also talked more broadly about the experience of being both an artist as well as a mother/parent/carer within an academic environment; examining how the institution impacts an artist’s capacity to produce work and what can be done to create a more supportive and inclusive space for staff and students alike.
IMGAE: Elsa James, fill still: ‘Living in the Wake of the Lust for Sugar’
On Friday 20 June artist Elsa James was in conversation with Hettie Judah discussing her solo exhibition It Should Not Be Forgotten currently on show at FirstSite Colchester and her work in Hettie’s exhibition Acts of Creation.
Elsa is one of the artists who contributed to the manifesto How Not to Exclude Artist Parents and has been a great inspiration to Hettie in her work on art and motherhood.
On Tuesday 29 April we met at The Courtauld Research Forum for a panel discussion on The Impact of Motherhood within Art Schools and Institutions in the UK.
The event opened with three presentations by Dr Kate McMillan, Izzie Kpobi-Mensah and Hettie Judah, followed by a panel discussion with Jo Harrison, Lulu Lockhart and the speakers to discuss their experiences and probe what institutional changes could be made to address these issues. The audience will also contributed to this polyvocal conversation.
The event was organised by The Art Working Parents Alliance (Jo Harrison and Hettie Judah) and Xiaojue Michelle Zhu (PhD Candidate and Associate Lecturer, The Courtauld), supported by Dr Catherine Grant (Reader in Modern and Contemporary Art and Vice-Dean for Education, The Courtauld). This event is kindly supported by the Broadly Conceived network.
On Friday 21 March we had an online talk with Sascia Bailer, curator, academic, activist and mother. Sascia is one of the leading European thinkers on caregiving and motherhood in the arts and she gave us an inspiring presentation on her PhD these and recent book Caring Insfrastructures – Transforming the Arts through Feminist Curating, which you can download for free here.
If you wish to watch the recorded version of the talk, please email artworkingparents@gmail.com
On Thursday 13 February we met at Wellcome Collection, London, for a special members event and public panel discussion exploring Access to Work, inspired by their exhibition Hard Graft:Work, Health and Rights.
When it comes to work, an accessible approach benefits us all. Join us for a panel discussion exploring the relationship between labour, art, disability, parenting and interdependent networks of care.
The conversation was be rooted in disability justice and co-produced by artist Jamila Prowse. The panel, comprising Hang Linton, Laura Lulika, Kirsteen McNish and Lou Mensah, chaired on the day by Abi Palmer (standing in for Jamila Prowse), reflected on their perspectives on creative practices, work and care.
Jamila Prowse by Katarzyna Perlak
Following our event in Southampton last December, our AWP cohort based in the South of England had a follow-up meeting on Saturday 8 February to discuss and share ideas on how to improve working conditions for parents in the art world.
The group plan to continue meeting on a regular basis across both God’s House Tower via A Space Arts Southampton and at Aspex in Portsmouth.
These meetinsg will be an opportunity to connect with other like-minded parents and carers in your area over a coffee and talk about the charms and challenges of being an art worker and a parent.
Email artworkingparents@gmail.com com for info on upcoming meetings
On Saturday 25 January we met at Turner Contemporary, Margate with artists Bill Leslie and Lucy Cran from Leap Then Look. We then visited the Clore Learning Studio to see Leap then Look’s interactive sculptures.
Leap Then Look create interactive art works, participatory projects, workshops and events. Working with people from a wide range of backgrounds, ages and cognitive differences creating vivid experiences of contemporary art in all its forms; sculpture, photography, film, performance, mark-making and installation. Their focus is on working together, inspiring playfulness, inquisitiveness and experimentation. They believe that contemporary art practice should and can be made available and accessible to everyone and that all benefit from engaging with new ways of looking, making and thinking.
Art Working Parents Alliance and Art+Care exchange ideas, get to know each other and exchange experiences. Asking questions such as how can the art world become more parent-friendly? What are the differences and similarities between Switzerland and the UK?
Email us at artworkingparents@gmail.com to watch the recording.
On Monday 9th December AWP member Liz Fraser Betts of Dot Dot Dash Coaching hosted a FREE #IamRemarkable online workshop – a Google initiative empowering women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments in the workplace and beyond, thereby breaking modesty norms and glass ceilings.
With Liz AWP members learned about research regarding self-promotion and unconscious bias, participate in group discussions and exercises, and develop the confidence and skills to promote yourself effectively.
On Saturday 23 November we met at ‘a space’ arts, in Southampton for an in person workshop to discuss and share ideas on how to improve working conditions for parents in the artworld.
Hosted by AWP founders Jo Harrison and Hettie Judah, the event focussed on the work they have been doing to give visibility to parents’ working conditions in the arts sector, followed by a conversation with the audience. This event is open to anyone working in the arts (artists and art workers) and it is a child-friendly event.
During the session we:
• Connected with other art working parents and carers in the South
• Discussed the structural issues facing parents and caregivers in
the arts
• Identified simple changes that would improve accessibility for
caregivers
