Welcome to the November edition of the Centre for Arts and Wellbeing November digest, a summary of upcoming events, talks and exhibitions.

Event: Men Talking

The Centre for Arts and Wellbeing

When: Saturday 11th November 2023, 8.00pm

Where: Lantern Theatre, 8 – 10 Rock Place, Brighton, BN2 1PF

How: To book tickets visit www.lanterntheatrebrighton.co.uk

An evening of men sharing intimate stories about life, loss, hope and connection.

Exhibition: The Immobilities of gender-based violence

The Centre for Arts and Wellbeing

When: Monday 13 November 2023, 5.00 – 7.00pm

Where: Grand Parade Building (City Campus), University of Brighton.

This exhibition includes a collection of responses to stories of gender-based violence in the UK and Mexico during and after the Covid 19 pandemic. It is a rich and diverse set of artworks in the form of sculpture, textiles, fine art painting, performance poetry, creative writing, illustration, comic stories and film.

The exhibition follows on from an AHRC funded project led by Professor Lesley Murray The Immobilities of gender-based violence in the Covid 19 pandemic, which considered the range of connected spaces in which GBV takes place. The project team – based in Brighton and Mexico –  found that sensory storying is a transformative way of telling GBV and of connecting conversations across national borders.

Alongside the exhibition, throughout the week, will be a series of open roundtable events that will include the artists taking part in the exhibition and anyone interested in having a conversation about gender-based violence. Anyone can join these discussions – see details here.

Event: Madame Gandhi Talk & Q+A

The Centre for Arts and Wellbeing

When: Tuesday 24th October 2023, 2.00 – 4.00pm

Where: Sallis Benney Theatre , Grand Parade Campus

How: The event is part of a taught session and is not not open to the public. Seats will be available for any  who wish to attend.

Event: Men’s Mental Health Exhibition

The Centre for Arts and Wellbeing

When: Monday 13th November 2023, 5.00 – 7.00pm

Where: Grand Parade Building, University of Brighton

This exhibition includes a collection of responses to stories of gender-based violence in the UK and Mexico during and after the Covid 19 pandemic. It is a rich and diverse set of artworks in the form of sculpture, textiles, fine art painting, performance poetry, creative writing, illustration, comic stories and film.

The exhibition follows on from an AHRC funded project led by Professor Lesley Murray The Immobilities of gender-based violence in the Covid 19 pandemic, which considered the range of connected spaces in which GBV takes place. The project team – based in Brighton and Mexico –  found that sensory storying is a transformative way of telling GBV and of connecting conversations across national borders.

Alongside the exhibition, throughout the week, will be a series of open roundtable events that will include the artists taking part in the exhibition and anyone interested in having a conversation about gender-based violence. Anyone can join these discussions – ticket scan be booked via ticket source

Exhibition: Thought Bubble

When: Monday 6th – Sunday 12th November 2023

Where: Harrogate

PhD Student, and lecturer in the School of Art and Media, Alex Fitch is one of the judges of this year’s First Graphic Novel Competition – https://www.firstgraphicnovel.co.uk/ – alongside a trio of graphic novel editors, 2018 runner-up Sabba Khan (whose shortlisted graphic novel was published in 2021), Cartoon Museum educator Steve Marchant, and 2007 Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger.

The competition ran over the summer, inviting comic creators who haven’t previously had long form work published, to submit 15-30 pages of a graphic novel in process. The 178 entries received by 14th September were whittled down to a long list of 30 which was announced last month, and are being exhibited at one of the UK’s largest comic book festivals – Thought Bubble – which takes place in Harrogate between November 6th & 12th. At the festival this weekend, the shortlist of 7 graphic novels will be announced, and the winner will then be receive their prize at a ceremony in London in early December.

The winners (and a number of runners-up) of previous competitions have been published by Myriad Editions, while this year’s winner will be published by SelfMadeHero.

Event: Arts and Media Research and Knowledge Exchange Week 2023

When: Monday 13th – Friday 17th November 2023

Where: Grand Parade Building, University of Brighton

How: Visit the Arts and Media Research Knowledge Exchange Week site for full details

This years programme, represents some of the best current research going on in the School of Art and Media . There will be  exhibitions, presentations and workshops from MA and PhD students, colleagues in cognate disciplines from UoB and beyond, and from the University’s Design Archives, located in Grand Parade. These sessions indicate how outward looking research in the School is, and how successfully it is engaging with exterior partners and audiences. Please do look through the scheduled sessions and see what intrigues and inspires you; we really want this week to provide an opportunity for getting together, discussing our shared interests and projects, and prompting new ideas.

Event: Queer creative methods and creative methods in gender and sexuality research

Centre of Transforming Sexuality & Gender and Centre for Arts & Wellbeing

When: Wednesday 31 January 2024

Where: Ledward Centre, Brighton

The Centre of Transforming Sexuality & Gender and Centre for Arts & Wellbeing are planning a event. The event will centre queer creative methods and creative methods in gender and sexuality research. We hope you would like to get involved in shaping the programme and would like to participate in the day. We are inviting ideas around how you as PGR would like to share your experiences of or ideas for using creative methods in research with each other at the event, and ideas for workshop content on this theme. Equally, If you’d like to volunteer some workshop content or creative intervention on the day, let’s chat!

We are collaborating with SEAS Brighton [see : https://www.seasbrighton.org/] on this event, they will have a workshop at the event, and we’re also looking to invite some further practitioners, to create a programme mix of showcasing research examples, arts-based workshops and creative activities.

This event will be an opportunity to network with researchers, artists and community organisations who are interested in gender and sexualities and creative methods. We hope to make it particularly useful to PGRs working in this area or planning to work in this area – so please do get in touch with Olu, Helen or Jess to let us know what you would find useful and we’ll do our best to integrate that in the programme. We’re currently planning this as a ½ day event. Do hold the date (ie. the afternoon of 31 January) for now and we’ll be back in touch with more details on the programme when we’ve collected ideas from you the PGRs and from staff.

Call for Conference Contributions

Event: Lesbian Lives Conference 2024

When: (Applications Due 1st December 2023) Conference on 22nd – 23rd March 2024

Where: The University of Brighton

How: Please visit the Lesbian Lives Conference website to submit proposal by 1st December 2023

The theme for the 2024 Conference is Global Connections: Solidarities, Communities, Networks and Activisms. The conference aims to highlight the ongoing struggles against homophobia, transphobia and misogyny across the globe.

There will be opportunities for paid PGR student roles at the conference – more news of this to follow.