Feed Zine in m(other)ing exhibition
The Feed Zine will be included as part of the m(other)ing exhibition opening at Perspective Gallery at Virginia Tech on 18th March until 16th May 2025.
m(other)ing curators Meaghan Dee and Bree McMahon describe how, oftentimes, work related to motherhood, womb-bearing bodies, and reproductive journeys, does not find a place in design research. This is for a variety of reasons: stigma related to the conversation, mainstream disinterest (or discomfort), and a lack of a clear venue or place for dissemination and discussion. But design has a role in shaping experiences, improving outcomes, and connecting communities.
Nurture exhibition
Curated by Crescent Arts, Nurture shows the art of mothers who have yet to have the opportunity to display work due to their caregiving duties. The exhibition has been developed to accompany the Feeding Chair, which is currently touring the UK, alongside the Floor Flag, an artwork developed by design researcher Sally Sutherland in response to conversations with infant feeding activists, and a soundscape by poet Charlotte Oliver, co-created with Scarborough’s community during workshops last November.
Milk Report The Flim
We are very excited to announce that tickets are now on sale for the premiere of Milk Report, a short film by artists Conway & Young, at the Scarborough Film Festival.
Adapted from an original publication of the same name, Milk Report explores the politics and economics of care through the lens of feeding a baby, and the 720 hours Young spent doing so over a 6-month period. The film focuses on the improvised, chaotic, interdependent and messy nature of reproductive labour.
Milk & Blankets
We are delighted to announce a new project in partnership with Birmingham City Council’s Public Health Division, taking place in community hubs across the city between March and June 2025.
Led by artists Ania Bas, Amelia Hawk and Joanne Masding, Milk and Blankets is a free, hands-on art project that explores the act of feeding babies and children, the emotions, techniques, preconceptions and struggles associated with it and the unsolicited advice that can be received. Through engaging, fun and relaxing art making sessions we will develop ideas, write stories and make objects that will come to life during a family picnic celebration at Midland Arts Centre on 10th June 2025, curated by Kaye Winwood.
Creative workshops in Scarborough
During November 2024, poet Charlotte Oliver will be hosting drop-in creative workshops at Scarborough Art Gallery, exploring people’s experiences of breast, chest and bottle-feeding in public. Participants will be encouraged to distil their thoughts and feelings about the subject down to a few words to write onto a breast badge, which they design and make themselves. The conversations will be used to create a soundscape, which will include poetry and accompany the Feeding Chair when it is hosted at Woodend Gallery in Spring 2025.
Feeding Futures of Leeds Manifesto
Wednesday 13th November 12 – 2pm
Leeds Art Gallery
Join us for the launch of the Feeding Futures of Leeds Manifesto.
The Manifesto calls for a more inclusive, healthy and caring Leeds City Centre, where parents can safely feed and look after their children. It was created through a series of creative workshops at Leeds Art Gallery, where members of Bosom Buddies breastfeeding peer support group and young women from the South Leeds-based Shine Project, alongside members of the public, shared their practical ideas for how the city centre could be made more welcoming for families.
New commission by Conway and Young
We are excited to announce a new commission by Bristol-based artists Conway and Young, which will be launched in early 2025 as part of the Feed project.
Conway and Young take a collaborative approach to their projects, which are motivated by art and design’s critical, social, civic and political potential. Their new artwork, Milk Report, is a short film that explores the politics and economics of care through the lens of breastfeeding.
Feeding Chair at Watershed, Bristol
During August 2024, the Feeding Chair will be hosted in Watershed’s café bar, as part of a tour of cultural venues across the UK, funded by Arts Council of England. The chair complements Watershed’s own commitments to access and inclusion, demonstrated through their provision of services and spaces that provide social infrastructure, such as their award-winning toilets, which are open for everyone to use, not just their customers.
Photo by Jon Aitken
Visible Bodies at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Between June and July 2024, Ikon Gallery in Birmingham will host the Feeding Chair, alongside a residency and series of free workshops by artist Sally Butcher, as part of our Arts Council funded touring programme, supported by Birmingham City Council Public Health and University of Central Lancashire.
During this time, Ikon's resource room will become a feeding and family space, which you are free to explore or relax in, with or without young children.
Working in the space, Sally will respond to Feed’s themes of public space and the reproductive body through the lens of her own art practice about experiences of infertility.
Feed at Birmingham Design Festival
We are delighted to announce that we will be talking about Feed as part of the fabulous Birmingham Design Festival (6th - 8th June). One of the aims of Feed is to take debates about infant feeding outside of limited discussions about parental responsibility or choice, and look at how, as a society, we can and should support the feeding of infants with human milk. So it's fantastic to be invited to talk about our work within the context of design.
Leeds Art Gallery workshops
To coincide with the inclusion of the Feeding Chair in the Found Cities, Lost Objects exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery, curated by Lubaina Himid CBE, we will be running a series of workshops to collectively create a floor flag manifesto for care and feeding, including breastfeeding, in Leeds City Centre. Drop into Leeds Art Gallery between 11am and 3pm on Wed 10th – Sat 13th April to take part.
Sally Butcher to be artist-in-residence at Ikon
Following an open call for applications, we are pleased to announce Sally Butcher as the Feed artist-in-residence at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in June 2024, as part of the Feeding Chair tour.
New essay by Lara Eggleton
As part of our Arts Council England funded Feeding Chair tour, we've partnered with online writing platform Corridor8 to commission 7 new pieces of writing about feeding, parenting and public space.
Our first text, to coincide with the Feeding Chair being shown as part of the Found Cities, Lost Objects exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery, is by Leeds-based writer, Lara Eggleton.
Found Cities, Lost Objects
As part of our Arts Council funded tour, we are delighted to have our Feeding Chair included in the 'Found Cities, Lost Objects' exhibition curated by Turner Prize-winning artist and cultural activist Lubaina Himid CBE.
Feeding Chair goes on tour
We have been awarded funding from Arts Council of England, Birmingham City Council, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow and University of Central Lancashire to take our Feeding Chair to venues across the UK between Nov 2023 and Jan 2026.