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Art as Reparation: an evening with Julia Samuel MBE

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Venue: Online

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Psychotherapist and author Julia Samuel explores the reparative act of creativity in conversation with artists Fay Ballard and Judy Goldhill. Online.

Our life experiences leave in us stories that we can find a way to voice in the form of words or other creative forms such as the visual and performing arts. Our voices may be heard and acknowledged, helping us to change and to heal. 

Julia Samuel explores the reparative act of creativity in conversation with artists Fay Ballard and Judy Goldhill. How does the artistic process contribute to the mourning of loved ones and to our ability to repair and move on?  

Biography:

Julia Samuel was Psychotherapist for Paediatrics at St Mary's Hospital Paddington, the post she established in 1992, where her role for 25 years involved seeing families who have children or babies who die, and where she trained and supported the staff. In 1994 she worked to help launch and establish The Child Bereavement Charity, and as the the founder patron was involved and continues to be involved in many aspects of the charity’s work, having a key role in fundraising, strategy and training. In 2016 Julia was awarded an MBE in recognition of her services to bereaved children and in 2017 Middlesex University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate. In 2017 Julia published Grief Works which was a bestseller in the UK and has been published in 17 countries, followed by the similarly bestselling This Too Shall Pass (2020) and Every Family has a Story (2022). 

Fay Ballard is a contemporary artist whose studio practice is centred on drawing, underpinned by an interest in psychoanalysis. Her recent work was exhibited in London and Leeds in solo shows, and recently in two collaborative exhibitions with Judy Goldhill: ‘Breathe’ at the Freud Museum (2018) and ‘Travelling Companions’ at the University of Cambridge (2020-1). Fay was a visiting artist at Hammersmith Hospital (2017-18) and sits on the Imperial Health Arts committee delivering arts programmes to patients across five London hospitals. Fay speaks regularly at London art schools. Her work is held by HM The Queen, HRH The Prince of Wales, The Prince’s Foundation, Imperial Health, Royal College of Physicians, Winsor & Newton and Murray Edwards College Cambridge. www.fayballard.com

Judy Goldhill is a photographer, maker of films and artist’s books. Recent projects have examined components of place in relation to such diverse topographies as nuclear sites in the UK, private dwellings and landscapes charged with both public history and personal memory. She has held artist’s residencies in observatories of North and South America, as well as UCL. Her artist’s books have been acquired by numerous international collections, and her complete works acquired by The British Library for its Contemporary British Published Collections. Recent exhibitions are Breathe, Freud Museum London 2018, Travelling Companions  Cambridge 2020. www.judygoldhill.com  

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