Films – Creative Conversations: Black Women Artists Making & Doing Symposium

IBAR is very pleased to announce the release of a collection of films that record the Creative Conversations: Black Women Artists Making & Doing Symposium, which was held at the University of Central Lancashire, 16-17 January 2020. The Symposium was organised in celebration of the many achievements of Prof. Lubaina Himid, CBE, RA

Please refer to the attached programme for more information about the event, including speaker bios and abstracts.

Download Programme

Watch artists Jade Montserrat and Lubaina introduce the symposium.

The first film shows the Welcome Address given by Prof. Alan Rice and the first Panel of the Symposium on 16th Jan, which was chaired by Dr Ella S. Mills and included the following presentations:

• • Prof. Lubaina Himid: Maupassant to May Sarton via Essex Hemphill and Toni Cade Bambara: Navigating Madness, Activating Change through painting and reading
  • Christine Eyene: Making Histories Visible: the George Hallett project
  • Marlene Smith: Bad Housekeeping: key works, key texts

The second film shows the second Panel of the Symposium on the 16th Jan, plus the Roundtable Discussion that ended the first day. This Panel, which was chaired by Dr Raphael Hoermann, included the following presentations:

• Dr Ingrid Pollard: There is the Word, The Sound of the Voice
• Evan Ifekoya: Ka is Rising; Take Root Among the Stars
• Jade Montserrat: Her body, alone, concealed, an act of rebellion

Please note that Ingrid Pollard’s introductory presentation to her audio soundpiece was filmed, but unfortunately UCLan editing errors resulted in the loss of the whole footage of her introductory presentation and audio soundpiece. Ingrid Pollard had requested that just her actual audio soundpiece not be filmed for copyright reasons.

Ingrid does appear in the film of the Roundtable Discussion that took place after the panel. This is included in this section of film.

The chair’s introductions to both Ingrid’s and Evan’s talks are also missing due to technical issues. Apologies to both Evan and Ingrid. Please refer to the attached programme to see their bios and abstracts.

The Roundtable Discussion, which was convened by Marlene Smith, included the following discussants: Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Amber Akaunu from ROOT-ed Zine, Christine Eyene, Prof. Lubaina Himid, Evan Ifekoya, Fauziya Johnson from ROOT-ed Zine, Jade Montserrat and Dr Ingrid Pollard.

The third film is a record of the third Panel of the Symposium, which took place on the 17th Jan and was chaired by Jade Montserrat. It included the following presentations:

• Dr Ella S. Mills: Claudette Johnson. Doing the Discourse: Spaces of Belonging in Black Women’s Creativity and British History of Art
• Dr Anna Arabindan-Kesson: Landscape Interrupted: Ingrid Pollard’s Photographic Practice
• Prof. Alan Rice: Black Identities and Memorialisation: Jade Montserrat’s Making Homespace in Alien Landscapes
• Dr Zoe Whitley: WE > me: sisterhood in black British contemporary art practice

The fourth film records the final Panel and Roundtable Discussion on the 17th Jan. The Panel, which was chaired by Prof. Alan Rice, included the following presentations:

• Prof. Griselda Pollock: Haunted by Voices and Challenged by Representations: Postcolonial Feminist Pedagogies between Art and Literature
• Dr Catherine Grant: A letter sent, waiting to be received: queer correspondence, feminism and Black British art
• Prof. Celeste-Marie Bernier: ‘Rituals of reclaiming lost artefacts, refusing oppression and looking for ancestors’ in Lubaina Himid’s “Heroes and Heroines” (1984)
• Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski: Respite & Resolve in the Archive: A Black Women’s Artist Retreat

The Roundtable was convened by Prof. Dorothy Price. The discussants were: Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Dr Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Prof. Celeste-Marie Bernier, Dr Catherine Grant, Dr Ella S. Mills, Prof. Griselda Pollock and Prof. Alan Rice.

The fifth film is a recording of the ‘In Conversation’ event between Prof. Lubaina Himid, CBE, RA and Prof. Jackie Kay, CBE and Scots Makar. This event took place on the evening of 16th January 2020 at the University of Central Lancashire. It was introduced by UCLan’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Graham Baldwin and hosted by Dr Zoe Whitley, who is a director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery.