Reckitt, Helena. 2023. 'Listening and Narrating Selves: Feminist tools of teaching, curating and coappearance'. In: Feminists Pedagogy Into and Out of the Art School panel, as part of On Not Knowing: How Artists Teach. Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom 10 June 2023. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Abstract or Description

The talk focused on a recent seminar I had led in Rome, with Giulia Damiani and Gabrielle Moser, called ‘Listening and Narrating Selves: on self-narration within relational contexts,’ with MA Art and Curating students at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Rome, in April 2023.

Mining feminist approaches to listening, speaking, narration, the two-day seminar was informed by the conviction that these relational tools are not just of historical and cultural importance, but can inspire contemporary forms of collectivity and coappearance. Exploring the importance of of speaking, listening and narration within feminist collective practices, the programme drew inspiration from the collaborative and pedagogical activities of 1970s and 1980s feminist movements.

I described the various activities of the seminar, including listening to fellow students and narrating their experiences, and listening to interviews with Italian feminists and reading English translations of their words. I discussed how these exercises introduced registers of vulnerability and openness amongst students, which - they commented - were quite different to their typical experience in the art school.

Emphasising the embodied nature of speech, I characterised the seminar's key dimensions as:
- Building and increasing awareness of collectivity amongst students
- Giving value to participants' voices and experiences
- Emphasising earning through listening
- Activating earlier feminist methodologies and tools

The seminar is part of 'Transmitting Feminisms,' a curatorial research project I am developing with Giulia Damiani and Gabrielle Moser. The project seeks to build knowledge of feminisms from the 1970s and 1980s through gathering, reflecting on, and drawing creative and activist inspiration from oral histories with feminists active in earlier as well as contemporary movements.

'Transmitting Feminisms' is guided by the following research questions:
How to amplify and mobilise collective tools and political insights developed by earlier feminists, thus providing support structures for future praxis?
What aesthetic and political potentials emerge from the process of relating narratives (Cavarero 2000) of feminist experiences and struggles?
How might oral herstories sustain knowledge of overlooked movements and strengthen future collective endeavours?
Why have some forms of feminist praxis fallen out of the archive, failing to ‘jump’ between feminist ‘waves’ of activity?
How might aesthetic encounters reactivate these overlooked histories?

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Talk)
Additional Information:	The talk took place as part of the panel 'Feminist Pedagogies Into and Out of the Art School,' devised by Hilary Robinson. Other panellists were Felicity Allen, Majella Clancy, Lina Dzuverovic, Lucy Reynolds, and Hilary Robinson. I was not able to join in person and my paper was read by Felicity Allen. TALKS: Felicity Allen: Life as Manifesto: Learning from feminist frictions in the 1970s Majella Clancy: Painting Gender and Fine Art Education Lina Dzuverovic: Embracing Surprises at Every Step - And Others: The Gendered Politics and Practices of Art Collectives Lucy Reynolds: Feminist advocacies and interventions in the BA fine art thesis Helena Reckitt: Listening and Narrating Selves: Feminist tools of teaching, curating and coappearance Hilary Robinson: from I to We: creating a feminist PhD community ABSTRACT All teachers of art, we are artists and/or writers about and/or curators of contemporary art. Some of us, plus another invitee, will draw upon our varied experiences creating space for feminist pedagogies. We recognise this space as one of tension: sometimes productive and joyful, often not, and always resistant to institutional practices structured as exclusionary. We recognise the need to organise complementary spaces outside institutions. After presenting we will engage with attendees, to learn of practices and strategies of feminist pedagogies that could coalesce towards future cross-institutional activity.
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Art
Dates:	Date Event 2023 Accepted 10 June 2023 Completed
Event Location:	Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom
Date range:	10 June 2023
Item ID:	33649
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2023 08:35
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2023 08:35
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/33649

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