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The Art Working Parents Alliance with Jo Harrison and Hettie Judah

The Art Working Parents Alliance with Jo Harrison and Hettie Judah

Join The Art Working Parents Alliance (AWP) at Spike Island to discuss and share ideas on how to improve working conditions for parents in the artworld. Hosted by AWP founders Jo Harrison and Hettie Judah, the event focuses on the work they have been doing to give visibility to parents’ working conditions in the arts sector, followed by a conversation with the audience. This event is open to anyone working in the arts (artists and art workers) and it is a child-friendly event. Please note, the event will be recorded for accessibility purposes.

The Art Working Parents Alliance (AWP)

The Art Working Parents Alliance (AWP) is a nation-wide network open to all parents working in the artworld, mothers, fathers and others. The AWP is free to join, and volunteer run. Founded in October 2022 by Jo Harrison and Hettie Judah, the alliance’s mission and activities are shaped by its members. AWP can be used in many ways – as a social network for those with young children; as a matching service for mentoring; as a hive mind to be turned to for advice and expertise; and as a campaigning group working to make the art world a better place for parents to work.

Jo Harrison
Jo Harrison is a curator and arts worker based in London whose practice focuses on gender, work and economies of care. She is Director at The Approach, London and runs ‘Repronomics’, an ACE funded research project exploring the intersection of reproduction and economics through the lens of visual arts; she also hosts an ongoing nomadic reading group with a focus on feminism, social reproduction, labour and economics. Jo was previously Curator at Almanac Projects, London, has been a visiting lecturer at Birth Rites Collection, Central Saint Martins and Slade School of Art (UCL) and recently co-founded The Arts Working Parents Alliance with Hettie Judah.

Hettie Judah
Hettie Judah is chief art critic on the British daily paper The i, a regular contributor to The Guardian’s arts pages, and a columnist for Apollo magazine. Following publication of her 2020 study on the impact of motherhood on artists’ careers, in 2021 she worked with a group of artists to draw up the manifesto How Not To Exclude Artist Parents, now available in 15 languages. A supporter of Arts Emergency she has mentored artists and students through a variety of different schemes. As a broadcaster she can be heard (and sometimes seen) on programmes including BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. Recent books include How Not To Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents) and Lapidarium: The Secret Life of Stones. She is currently working on the Hayward Touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood which will open at Arnolfini in Bristol on 8 March 2024, and a book of the same title to be published by Thames & Hudson