Exceptional & Extraordinary – Unruly bodies and minds in the medical museum
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release: 23 March 2016
EXCEPTIONAL & EXTRAORDINARY:
UNRULY BODIES AND MINDS IN THE MEDICAL MUSEUM
Unique film, dance, performance and comedy commissions draw on museum collections to explore our problematic attitudes towards difference.
Since humans first appeared on earth no two have ever been the same. Yet somewhere along the way, certain bodies and minds came to be highly valued whilst others became viewed as problematic: as deviant and unruly, deficient and requiring adjustment towards a perceived idealised norm.
Following Mat Fraser’s astonishing and award-winning commission Cabinet of Curiosities that toured UK museums in 2015, Exceptional & Extraordinary invites four artists to explore behind the scenes of eight of the UK’s most renowned medical museums. In collaboration with experts in medical history, disability and museums – they are currently producing a series of thought provoking new commissions that examine our attitudes towards difference and aim to stimulate debate around the implications of a society that values some lives more than others. The subsequent ticketed performances and film will tour throughout June 2016 to all eight partner museums, with different groupings of the commissions so that every performance is unique to each venue and with many of the performances supported by after-show discussion panels with invited experts as well as opportunities to view and handle some of the objects that have inspired the artists.
Initiated and led by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) at the University of Leicester, Exceptional and Extraordinary is a collaborative project involving 4 artists – film-maker David Hevey, comedian Francesca Martinez, dance company Deaf Men Dancing led by Mark Smith, artist and playwright Julie McNamara – and 8 museums (the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS); the Science Museum; the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds; the Royal London Hospital Museum and Archives; Surgeons’ Hall Museums at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; Museum of the Mind; Langdon Down Museum of Learning Disability). Project advisors are Tony Heaton, SHAPE and Katherine Ott, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
More about the artists and the dates
More about Julie McNamara’s performance Hold the Hearse!
Funded through a Large Arts Award by the Wellcome Trust and a Grants for the Arts award from Arts Council England, Exceptional & Extraordinary is an ambitious project that aims to engage visitors to all the partner museums, professionals in the field of biomedicine and the broader public in a reassessment of widely held assumptions surrounding physical and mental difference, disability and contemporary (often negative and discriminatory) attitudes towards disabled people.
The commissions will offer new ways of seeing that will be used to question and stimulate public, biomedical professional and media debate around the social, cultural and ethical implications of medicalised ways of understanding difference that pervade biomedical professional practice as well as shape broader public and societal attitudes towards disability and disabled people.
‘Museums hold enormous potential to stimulate debate about important contemporary issues and, at a time when disabled people are unfairly bearing the brunt of government cuts, we believe it is important to be exploring ways of harnessing that power to ask challenging questions’. Professor Richard Sandell, Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) at the University of Leicester.
‘We are delighted to be working with such an exciting mix of artists and experts across the fields of museums, disability and biomedicine. The unique process behind the project reflects RCMG’s established commitment to collaborative practice as a powerful means to address pressing social concerns.’ Jocelyn Dodd, Director of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) at the University of Leicester
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/rcmg/projects/exceptional-an
For further information, a range of images and interviews please contact Catharine Braithwaite on 07947 644 110 or cat@we-r-lethal.com
Notes to editors:
Tour dates
7 June Julie McNamara Langdon Down Museum of Learning Disability, Normansfield
8 June Julie McNamara and David Hevey Royal College of Surgeons of England, London
13 June Julie McNamara and David Hevey Royal College of Physicians of England, London
14 June Deaf Men Dancing Thackray Medical Museum at Yorkshire Dance, Leeds
15 June David Hevey and Deaf Men Dancing Surgeons’ Hall Museums at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
17 June Julie McNamara Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham
18 June Francesca Martinez Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds
20 June Francesca Martinez and Deaf Men Dancing Royal College of Physicians, London
21 June Julie McNamara and David Hevey Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds
22 June Francesca Martinez and Deaf Men Dancing Royal College of Surgeons of England, London
23 June David Hevey Royal London Hospital Museum & Archive, London
29 June Francesca Martinez and Deaf Men Dancing The Science Museum, London
This project brings together organisations with track records in innovative public engagement and an exciting blend of expertise in medical collections, the history of medicine, disability history and representations of disability within public history settings, museum ethics and public engagement with scientific and social issues. The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS); the Science Museum; the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), Thackray Museum, Leeds; Royal London Hospital Museum and Archives; Surgeons’ Hall at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; Museum of the Mind; Langdon Down Museum of Learning Disability all hold extraordinary collections and bring rich expertise in medical history, community health, history of disability as well as a commitment to pursuing new ways of engaging audiences in debating biomedical science through the arts.
SHAPE is the disability-led arts organisation working to improve access to culture for disabled people. Visit Shape Arts
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. They support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine.
Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. It support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better.
