art & motherhood

wia conversation with hettie judah on art and motherhood (and other parents)

Women In Art is thrilled to present to you, through one of WIA Conversation series, the writer Hettie Judah. Hettie is the chief art critic of the British daily newspaper The i, a regular contributor to the art pages of The Guardian and a columnist for Apollo magazine. She writes for Frieze, Art Quarterly, Art Monthly, ArtReview and other publications with the word « art » in their titles, and is a contributing editor to The Plant magazine.

For too long, artists have been told that they cannot be mothers and have successful careers at the same time. In this polemical book, critic and activist Hettie Judah argues that a paradigm shift is needed in the art world to address the needs of artist mothers (and other parents: artist fathers, parents who don’t identify with the term « mother, » and parents in other sectors of the art world).

How not to exclude artist mothers

Drawing on interviews with artists from around the world, the book highlights some of the success stories that offer models for the future, from alternative support networks, to residency models, to studio complexes with on-site childcare, to galleries with family-friendly policies.

Some artists described motherhood as a way to refocus, to take their work in a new direction, and even to inspire a complete career change. Other artists choose to compartmentalize their home life and their creative life. All are disadvantaged by the art world as it is currently structured. This book argues that by making changes and becoming more sensitive to the needs of parent artists, the art world has much to gain.

practical info

Date: 16h30 (4.30 pm) on February 5, 2023
Adress: 69 Quai des Péniches, 1000, Brussels, Belgium
Duration of the event : 2h30
Price: 10€ (all tickets will serve as donation to the Biennale of Women In Art Edition Zero)

Event organized with the kind collaboration of Women & Art ASBL

© Copyright, 2023, Judie Hettah | www.hettiejudah.co.uk