In this month's Woman Up! we speak to one of Britain's leading art writers Hettie Judah.
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Hettie is currently working on a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition and on a book on art and motherhood.
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In this episode, Hettie talks to us about both her current work on issues surrounding artists with children, and her personal experience of combining her professional career, and parenting responsibilities.
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'There were artists who’d received awards for women artists that felt like they had to ‘come out’ as mothers…which is a ridiculous situation to be in. Or who were having residencies given to them and that they had to say ‘Well, I have 2 kids I can’t go away for 3 months… either I have to take my kids or I have to split this up and do it in different ways.......... Nobody is there to pick up and help these people… they’re just expected to fit around the needs of the gallery when actually it really costs the gallery or the institution nothing to say ‘well, can we shift this for a week? Could we shift this for a year? Would this event be easier for you if we did it at 11 am instead of 6 pm?’ You know, there are all these structures that we have established in the artworld and we expect everyone to just fit around them when there are really small changes that could be made to make things a lot easier for artist parents. It just takes a little bit of thought and to ask the right questions and for people to feel empowered to declare themselves openly.'
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Her most recent and upcoming books include Lapidarium (John Murray/ Penguin, 2022), How Not to Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents) (Lund Humphries, 2022), Frida Kahlo (Laurence King, 2020) and Art London (ACC Art Books, 2019).
This episode was produced in partnership with Procreate Project