'Mad Talks' at Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange

‘Mad Talks’ took place on Wednesday 4 September at
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange

Mad Talks is part of DASH's public programme and spans their ‘CULTIVATION’ initiative, Future Curators Programme (FCP), systems change work and library.

Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is a partner in a national consortium of seven visual arts institutions as part of the Future Curators Programme convened and led by DASH.

Participants were invited to join Mad Talks: Slow Reading Group. Here they read together, out loud and slowly, and discussed and critiqued topics such as community, care, safety, queerness, crip theory, mental justice and Mad politics.

Our reading material was taken from texts and books recently introduced to The DASH Library.

During our session, the group read an excerpt from Moya Bailey & Izetta Autumn Mobley’s essay ‘Work in the intersections: A Black feminist disability framework’ and passages of an interview between Leah Clements, Taraneh Fazeli and K MacBride called HOLDING SPACE ACROSS CRIP TIME published online by the Serpentine Galleries. The text is part of a series of interviews between Leah and other artists, curators and art workers, for whom navigating disability and intersectional struggles within an art context is integral to their practice.

The project asks the question, ‘How do we hold space for one another through crip time?’ and involves ‘enacting relationships within a flexible and responsive timeframe’.

For the second half of the session, the group read Sara Jaspan’s ‘On Cripping’ written for Art Monthly and the introduction to Mad World, The Politics of Mental Health by Micha Frazer-Carroll.

This was an informal reading group led by DASH's Curator, Jade Foster, who has complex PTSD and other mental health conditions. The session was held in the Engine Room in The Exchange (with snacks, drinks, a quiet space, and copies of the texts provided the day of the event).

About DASH’s Curator

Jade Foster is a British curator, artist and art historian of Afro-Caribbean heritage based in Nottingham and from Sandwell in the West Midlands. They are a DASH Curator, Public Programme Curator at Primary, and Trustee / Board Member of Nottingham Contemporary (since 2020) in Nottingham.

At DASH, alongside the Artistic Director / CEO, they curate their system change work, The DASH Library, and Future Curators Programme (FCP) – a consortium and residency programme for Disabled curators within seven visual arts institutions across England (MIMA, MAC Birmingham, Wysing Arts Centre, John Hansard Gallery, Arts Catalyst, Disability Arts Online, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange). At Primary, they lead the development of exhibitions and digital commissions, focusing on brokering international collaborations – notably curating Imagining Otherwise featuring artists Ashley Holmes, Turner Prize 2024 nominee Jasleen Kaur, and Jala Wahid. Jade will be curating Maia Ruth Lee’s first UK solo exhibition, held at Primary and supported by the Bagri Foundation in Spring 2025.

As an avid public speaker, in recent years, they were a panellist for 'Time Will Tell: Future museum and contested objects' at Tate Britain and Governance Now, a flagship conference by Clore Leadership and the Cultural Governance Alliance (CGA).

Jade has an art studio at BACKLIT (Nottingham) and is a member of AWITA, the British Art Network and the Black Curators Collective.

For transparency, we shared the internal 'Mad Talk' we are doing with the Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange staff.