London, 13 October 2026. The Birth Rites Collection, the only contemporary art collection in the world dedicated to childbirth, is delighted to announce its move to new homes at Bell House, Dulwich Village and Lambeth Libraries and Archives, where it will be based from October 2026.
The move follows a four-year hosting partnership with the University of Kent, where twenty artworks from the Collection were on permanent display across four buildings on the Canterbury campus, and where BRC delivered three in person Summer Schools and four online Summer Schools between 2022 and 2026. The Collection extends its warmest thanks to Rebecca Brown, Rebecca Ogden and Professor Darren Griffin at Kent, whose time, support and generosity made the Kent chapter possible.
In between hosts, the Collection was welcomed by Hornsey Library and Hornsey Town Hall, which provided a much-needed interim home over the summer. Our thanks go to everyone who stepped forward to help look after and keep the Collection safe during this transitional period.
At Bell House Dulwich (2026 to 2027)
The Collection will present a major free exhibition titled Birthing the Pluriverse - participatory works from the Birth Rites Collection at Bell House during the Dulwich Festival (8 to 17 May 2027).
The Colombian-American anthropologist Arturo Escobar describes the pluriverse as “a world in which many worlds fit”, a phrase he borrows from the Zapatista movement. Against the Western modern insistence on a single, universal account of what is real, what counts as knowledge, and what counts as life, the pluriverse holds open the simultaneous existence of many worlds, Indigenous, feminist, communal, embodied, relational, each with their own ways of knowing and doing.
Birthing the Pluriverse takes up Escobar’s thinking to open a space in which many ways of approaching birth can sit alongside each other. Western, medical and patriarchal frames are not displaced but held in conversation with Indigenous, feminist, embodied and communal ones, letting new thoughts emerge in the space between them. By picking out participatory and collaborative works, the exhibition decentralises control over what counts as truth and invites visitors to think with, not just look at, the work. The artworks are openings of perspectival dynamics, situations to be entered rather than objects to be viewed, and creative action is put to work to resituate birth, labour and technology. The voices of women, men, medics, birth professionals, midwives and carers are drawn into a broader reality, one in which marginalised and less-heard voices and ways of thinking are given space. The exhibition embraces diverse ways of being, knowing, organising and birthing life.
Bringing together the four newly commissioned works from BRC’s three-year partnership with Tommy’s National Centre for Preterm Birth Research and Imperial College London by Sarah Sudhoff, Hannah Conway, Anna Perach and Courtney Conrad, alongside participatory works from the wider collection. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full programme of artist talks, workshops and curator’s tours across both festival weekends and the week in between, with live performances by: poet Courtney Conrad, performing her Tommy’s and Imperial commissioned poems drawn from conversations with black midwives and black women on preterm birth, and artist, Leni Dothan’s Venus, Mary, Leni & Me contract series . The BRC Summer School will run in person at Bell House during the festival week (11 to 15 May 2027), bringing an international cohort into dialogue with the exhibition, with several Summer School lectures opened up as bookable events for a wider public audience.
Alongside the exhibition, BRC is launching an ongoing programme of public film screenings at Bell House, developed in collaboration with filmmaker in residence Liam Sherriff (liamsherriff.ca). The programme will screen moving image works from the Collection on a regular basis across the hosting period beginning in January 2027.
To launch the screening programme we will present ‘Gossip’ by filmmaker Hannah Renton, who will be present for a Q and A at Bell House on the 11th December at 7.30pm. Tickets will go on sale shortly.
Viewings of the Collection at Bell House are available by appointment, with the possibility to access particular works on request. Researchers, students, curators, midwives, clinicians and anyone with an interest in the Collection are warmly welcome to get in touch with Dr Helen Knowles at [email protected] to arrange a visit.
At Lambeth Libraries and Archives (2026 to 2028)
At Lambeth Libraries and Archives, the Collection will develop a programme of public workshops exploring art, childbirth and reproductive experience, with a particular focus on social prescribing for women preparing for birth and women in the postpartum period. The workshops will use the Collection as a visual archive through which to open deeper conversations about preparation for birth, bodily autonomy and the handling of birth trauma, delivered in partnership with midwives and midwifery teams. Early discussions are underway with City College Islington about developing a package that could be rolled out more widely across community and clinical settings. Subject to dedicated fundraising, this programme offers a new model for how a contemporary art collection can serve the lived needs of women around childbirth.
About the Birth Rites Collection
The Birth Rites Collection is the only contemporary art collection in the world dedicated to childbirth. Established in 2008, it comprises 114 works by internationally recognised artists including Judy Chicago, Anna Perach, Ana Casas Broda, Himali Singh Soin, Puck Verkade, Leni Dothan and Lauren McLaughlin. Previously hosted by the University of Salford (2009 to 2017), King’s College London (2017 to 2021) and the University of Kent (2022 to 2026), the Collection curates, commissions and collects contemporary art on childbirth, presenting works in gallery and public settings that explore the politics and practice of childbirth.
About Gossip
A short film exploring the intertwined stories of care, persecution and resistance, among midwives and women accused of witchcraft is now part of the Birth Rites Collection.
Directed and co-written by Hannah Renton, Gossip unearths the untold histories of women persecuted as witches in the 16th century. Shot along the Essex coast and launched on International Women’s Day 2025, the film revisits the region’s history of witch trials and the struggles faced by women of the time. Through an evocative lens, it bridges the past and present, illuminating how women’s bodies and voices have long been sites of both knowledge and control.
“With Gossip, I wanted to tell a story of solidarity and draw a line between the witch trials and the ongoing struggle for reproductive justice and control over our bodies. Naming the film Gossip, a word that changed from meaning friendship to one of denigration and ridicule, highlights the psychological attack as well as the direct violence. The gossip we formed, of both professional actors and midwives, became not only the heart of the film you see but the entire filmmaking process.”
Gossip was acquired by the Birth Rites Collection at the end of 2025.
Hannah Renton is a writer and director from East London whose work explores tenderness, intimacy, and resilience. A graduate of the National Film and Television School, her films have screened and won awards at festivals internationally, including BFI Flare, London Short & Kiev MolodistInternational Film Festivals, as well as being shown in museums, archives, community and art spaces. Her film, Gossip, was shortlisted for a BAFTA Yugo Student Award for Best Live Action (2023) and have toured across the UK to sold-out screenings.
Booking link below to follow…
For press enquiries, images and interview requests:
Dr Helen Knowles, Director and Curator, Birth Rites Collection
[email protected]
www.birthritescollection.org.uk