The quilt is on tour again, this time in London at the Everyday Creativity Conference he stunning Cecil Shar, hosted by Creative Lives and the AHRC funded Everyday Creativity Network at the University of Brighton. Principal Investigator Vanessa Marr presented a paper on the theme of place and homemaking, reflecting on the role home played in making this research output possible.

As she reflected: ‘Taking research into the home is a constructive and disruptive act feminist act, one that challenges notions of ‘proper’ academic research that much like women’s work, are often subject patriarchal forces. Creating a space for myself and others to undertake research at home was enabling rather than restrictive. It was liberating, practical, and possible. It allowed us to be in our own worlds and to perform both our caring and academic roles simultaneously, without judgement, creating not just a quilt, but also a route into our conscious and emotional lives. Our stories are our own, but in this context, they bear witness, intervening in systems and practices and creating in change within selves, communities and cultures where myself and the other participants have the same right to thrive, to be visible and valued, both at university and at home.’

As universities currently review and prepare submissions for the next REF (Research Education Framework) the role of this quilt to highlight the potential loss of outputs from women with caring responsibilities may well become clear. Or perhaps we have all multi-tasked our way through it? Whatever the case, sharing this quilt again brought back memories of lockdown to many of those who attended this event, and it’s clear we’ll be experiencing it ripples for many years to come.

 

I’m delighted to share that the chapter The Domestic Academic Quilt: Collaborative creation as academic research in the global pandemic, which I wrote as a personal essay reflecting on the experience of running this project will be published in the Demeter Press publication Give & Take: Motherhood and Creative Practice this month (March 2024).

About the book:

Give and Take: Motherhood and Creative Practice. Eds. Tara Carpenter Estrada, Katie Palfreyman, and Katie Palfreyman

34 chapters, 358 pages, 90plus art/photography

https://demeterpress.org/…/give-and-take-motherhood…/

Price: $44.95 Cdn; ISBN: 978-1-77258-488-2; Publication Date: March 18 2024

Give and Take offers personal narratives from artist mothers at all stages in their careers who work in multidisciplinary mediums about the “ give and take” of motherhood in the art world. The collection of essays addresses relatable topics and essential vocabulary as tools to describe phenomenon all artist mothers have experienced. Readers will easily be able to see themselves in the words of the authors.”

– Eleanor Lim-Midyett, Assistant Professor, Kansas City Art Institute

Every mother artist and their partner should read Give and Take: Motherhood and Creative Practice. Seldom is there a book that thoughtfully and thoroughly exposes the plight of mother creatives and offers not only a range of perspectives but also a breadth of ideas aimed to create threads of connection and uplift mother creatives across all disciplines and generations. As a mother artist with young children my time is consumed with my children’s immediate needs and carving out time for myself to be quiet and create is a challenge. It can also feel isolating, which can lead to creative stagnation which can then lead to parenting from a place of frustration. Reading Give and Take reminded me that I am not alone in my struggles, my creative desires are not insignificant, my frustrations are valid, my successes (no matter how little or seemingly insignificant) are to be celebrated, and that creating like parenting is a marathon not a sprint.

– Helen Hansen French, dance artist, educator, mother.

Give and Take: Mothering and Creative Practice explores the diverse ways contemporary artists navigate the unique tensions of motherhood in all its varied stages. Becoming a mother is a life-changing event that can give mothers greater perspective, drive, and inspiration for making art. But motherhood also takes time and energy from pursuing creative work. This fundamental challenge, this give and take, is explored through this book as it forefronts the art and lives of dancers, playwrights, musicians, visual artists, and creative writers. The book contains thirty-three first person narratives from practicing artists along with written analyses that place these artists’ essays within the broader context of arts writing and scholarship about motherhood. The concluding section of the book includes overarching thoughts about how artist mothers can move forward despite structural inequality and cultural bias and includes a resource guide for practical support.

 

The quilt continues its tour around the home universities of those who created it, this time at Trinity Hall College, University of Cambridge, hosted by project participant Professor Louise Haywood (March 2023).

Its visit was accompanied by a talk themed around Louise and Vanessa in conversation, followed by a workshop in the morning after to begin a new collaborative Cambridge-based quilt that Louise will piece together, exploring emergence from lockdown. Here’s the quilt mid-installation:

 

The huge 3 metre-wide physical version of the Domestic Academic Quilt is on tour! It is being hosted by Loughborough University and LU Arts from Friday 16^th September (Private View 5:30-7:30pm) to Friday 7^th October, 12-2pm (weekdays only) at the their Martin Square Gallery. Full details here 

The exhibition at Loughbourough is co-curated by PhD Student and Lecturer Penny Davis with Project Lead Vanessa Marr, Principal lecturer at the University of Brighton. They’ll be in conversation live over Instagram via Vanessa’s profile @vanemarr at 1pm on Thursday 22nd September. Please listen in to find out more about this inspiring project. There will be a short Q&A towards the end of their conversation.

If you would like to apply host the quilt in your academic or arts space, please contact Vanessa directly.

The physical version of the Domestic Academic Quilt is now on display at the University of Brighton. From 9th November, 2021 you can view the quilt at their Grand Parade site in the City Centre as part of the annual School of Art & Media Research Week.

  

It’s been a busy summer, but I’m delighted to announce that the Domestic Academic Interactive Quilt is now live, complete with beautiful hand-made panels and audio that tell our unique stories.

You can view it here

There’s also a huge physical version that will be ready for exhibition and academic presentation very soon.

A huge thank you to the wonderful participants, who made it such a rewarding experience. You are all amazing!

We’ve reached the half way point now, with most participants having taken part in the first workshop. It was split over two sessions to keep the groups small and allow for comfortable for sharing experiences. We explored potential quilt and collage based outcomes,  inspired by artists such as Miriam Shapiro, Faith Ringgold, Hannah Hoch, Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin, then responeded to a number of visual prompts and questions, which will underpin the developing panels. Above all participants were keen to share their experiences and to give and receive support to each other, whilst reflecting upon the challenges of lockdown.

We also met for a morning drop-in stitch/make together session to share work in progress and continue conversations.

Here is a ‘quilt’ screenshot sharing work in progress from one the workshops:

 

 

Thank you to everyone who applied, I am now busy organising the workshops, which start next week.

The response has been so encouraging, whilst already highlighting the amazing lengths many female academics have gone to, in order to juggle the demands of home schooling alongside busy academic schedules. You are all wonderful!

 

The Domestic Academics: Finding the time to write and care. Storying the gendered inequalities of academic research in the global pandemic

Welcome to an exciting new practice-based research project, which aims to give women academics from across the UK an opportunity to collaborate with others to share and visualise their experiences of the Covid-19 lockdown from March 2020 to March 2021.

The key practice output will be a quilt, displayed as an interactive website page with 3-minute voiceovers from the academics, accessed by clicking on respective quilt pieces. This collaborative project aims to generate new knowledge and allow measures to be identified to tackle the gender inequalities that have arisen.

The panels can be drawn, collaged, stitched or made from any type of visual and physical media. The inspiration and presentation are quilt-based, but not necessarily the making.

Because Covid-19 restrictions still apply and those participating will inevitably continue to juggle their commitments, the making of the quilt will be supported by two online workshops. Anticipated time commitment per applicant is not more than 2-3 days between May and July 2021.

The call for participants is now live, if you’d like to apply please visit my Call for Participants .

The research will be disseminated online, via a physical exhibition (when Covid restrictions permit) and through the publication of a textual output.

This project is urgently required to address the major injustice that threatens to significantly impede the developing careers of women academics with caring responsibilities. Early research statistics, reported as early as Spring 2020 in the Guardian and Inside Higher Ed,* indicate that the number of women contributing to academic Journals since the pandemic began has dropped, whereas male contributions have risen. Studies also show that mothers spend over 50% more of their time supporting home schooling and completing domestic tasks, in comparison to their male partners. By moving the work place to combine with domestic set-ups, without the opportunity for notice, prior consultation nor mitigation for the associated challenges, these women continue to experience significant mental strain and an unequal increase in their workloads. This indicates an inequality as a direct result of the COVID-19 lockdown and ongoing prevalence towards working from home.

This project aims to:

– document the impact of COVID-19 on the working lives of women academics

– inform future practices and initiatives to support women and prevent gender-based discrimination

– protect women academics roles and credibility

– protect and value women academics contribution to university research outputs and growth

– create awareness of the inequalities faced by women academics with caring responsibilities

– provide a bedrock for discussion that entices change

– uniquely engage the audience through creative narrative and visual outcomes

– create an output that is easily accessible and shareable online

– share outcomes UK wide (and worldwide)

– create an output that can be shared in a variety of contexts (e.g. conference, textual output, exhibition)

– create an output with scope for growth and increased impact

– entice policy change to ensure contracts are not detrimental to women and support acknowledgement without penalisation of reduced research output for REF 2024

The quilt will target the need for tacit knowledge of these experiences to be acknowledged and made accessible in order to entice change. By enabling experiences to be creatively expressed and performed, both visually and aurally online, this work can provide the bedrock for discussion and consultation to support the subsequent identification of the actions required to address and reconcile this inequality. This situation and the scale of its impact is unprecedented, therefore knowledge of its effect on women’s academic careers is needed, but does not yet exist. In order that this significant and valuable proportion of staff can continue to build their careers without discrimination and contribute to the successful research growth of their Universities, action must be taken swiftly.

*https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/21/early-journal-submission-data-suggest-covid-19-tanking-womens-research-productivity