Grief and Creativity Laura McDonagh, Hayley Mills-Styles, Louise Richardson and Jo Ritchie
Event details
What is the role of creativity in grief? How can it provide comfort and hope?
Join philosopher Louise Richardson of the University of York, textile artist Hayley Mills-Styles, and Jo Ritchie and Laura McDonagh of Projecting Grief, as they explore the healing power of creativity after loss.
Louise will explore some of the findings from the research project ‘Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience’, examining grief from a philosophical perspective. Meanwhile, Jo and Laura will discuss Projecting Grief, a gallery of photographic portraits and personal interviews that explores the relationship between loss, creativity and healing, and celebrates human resilience. Hayley will explain how important creativity has been in her grieving process and how it has influenced her work over the years.
You may also be interested in visiting the pop-up 'Projecting Grief' exhibition and taking part in the 'Stitched Memory Hoops' workshop (booking required) on Saturday 1 June.
Find out more about Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience.
Find out more about Projecting Grief.
Photo credit: Jo Ritchie, Projecting Grief
About the speakers
Jo Ritchie is a Leeds-based photographer specialising in portrait, editorial, lifestyle, food and interiors. She started Projecting Grief in 2019.
Laura McDonagh is a writer specialising in education, charity and the arts. She joined Projecting Grief in 2022.
Hayley Mills-Styles is a Yorkshire based textile artist specialising in embroidery. She works from her home studio by the sea in Scarborough. Using fabric and thread, she creates textile drawings and objects which tell stories. Her stories often have an autobiographical theme, exploring mental health and personal memories. Hayley works with a range of traditional textile techniques like hand embroidery, appliqué and English Patchwork, combining them with the digitally embroidered drawings using her Pfaff Creative 3.0 sewing and embroidery machine. Her work has been exhibited in museums and heritage sites across the North including Whitby Museum, Sunny Bank Mills and the Thackray Museum of Medicine.
Louise Richardson is a Senior Lecturer with the University of York’s Department of Philosophy. She was co-investigator on the AHRC funded project ‘Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience’. As part of the project, she has been writing papers on the object of grief, and grief over non-death losses (with other project team members); grief and memory (with Professor Dorothea Debus from the University of Konstanz); and absence experience in grief. She is currently working on a paper on shared grief, and has recently published (with Dr Becky Millar from the University of Cardiff) a paper on the surprising role of smell in facilitating continuing bonds with the dead.
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