Baby change-making: stories and experiences of parenting at UAL

Lethaby Gallery, 31 March 4-7pm: UAL staff, students and children welcome
Window Galleries, 30 March – 26 April: open to the public

Graphic Communication Design students Ruby Cydney Gamman and Jasmijn Toffano invite you to an exhibition and launch event around their campaign for the university environment to become more parent, baby and child friendly.

The exhibition presents over 20 stories gathered from UAL staff and students about motherhood, fatherhood, breastfeeding, and parent-related policy and environments, with visual artefacts, diverse voices and images presenting parenting experiences in powerful ways.

Children are welcome inside the gallery space on 31 March, where there will be toys, soft play and fun activity books - and a breast-feeding chair.

“It is normal for students and staff to be parents, who are part of the bricks and mortar of daily life - even at art school where we can be made to feel like outsiders. Our manifesto explains that human reproduction and infant feeding are crucial issues of gender, reproduction, social and intergenerational justice, as well as sustainable world-making.

The MP Alison Thewliss invited us to present to Parliament's APPG on Infant Feeding and Inequalities, about how our UAL recommendations can also inform future student policy in the national context. How and where humans feed, how children are included and raised, how parents are treated and accommodated are crucial issues that inform sustainable world making.  Nature reproduces and so do humans - accommodating this in a friendly and sustainable ways is an issue that should not be obscured by the focus on materiality and economics or worse about whether or not getting your tits out to breast feed your baby is regarded as "decent". 


Ruby and Jasmijn.

Please note that photography/filming will be taking place at the Lethaby event for promotional and archival purposes.