The world’s only contemporary art collection dedicated to childbirth invites you to a programme of lectures, workshops, seminars and one-to-one tutorials. This Year’s theme : Reproduction and the State.

Presentation

How do artists contest dominant narratives of birth and maternity ? Whose bodies are heard, treated and believed in maternal healthcare ? How do states instrumentalise reproduction through policy, imagery and ideology ? How can the maternal become a site of resistance and reimagining ?

Led by artist and BRC Curator Dr Helen Knowles and artist Dr Leni Dothan, the course brings you into dialogue with the collection, this year’s themes, and your own practice. You’ll leave with bespoke visual, textual, auditory, photographic, filmic or performative work to carry into your future practice.

This year, participants gain exclusive access to a curated selection of works from the collection not ordinarily available to the public, presented in a dedicated online space. 

Workshops explore the aesthetic, ethical, political and visual discourses of birth through text, film and performance. Lectures from leading artists and academics open up the following themes :

• Institutional bias in maternal healthcare — race, class, and the politics of care
• Pronatalism, border regimes, and reproductive justice
• The Collection’s impact on feminist art and the visual history of birth
• Censorship, ethics and the law around artworks on birth

How the Collection can shape practice and policy in midwifery, medicine and education Open to midwives, artists, academics, curators, medics, health professionals, art historians, policy advisors — and anyone engaged with childbirth through the lens of art. 

Our 2026 Keynote Speaker is the renowned video artist, CANDICE BREITZ. Other artists invited to speak are : Sarah Sudhoff, RAYVENN SHALEIGHA D’CLARK, Andrea Khora, Helen Knowles and Leni Dothan, with more announced soon.

Pre-program

Five-Week Course (Online) :Dates : Wednesdays, 7 :00 PM – 9 :30 PM BST July 1,8,15, 22, 29 & Saturday 18, 2 :00 PM – 5 :00 PM BST. All lectures, workshops, and discussions will take place online.

Costs

600 GBP per person 450 GBP Concession Rate.

How to Apply

Deadine : June 29th 2026

email adddress is : helen@birthrites.org.uk

No mandatory documents but you can get more information and book at : https://www.birthritescollection.org.uk/summerschool2026