Crafting Life: Responding Creatively to Reproduction and Women’s Health

Crafting Life: Responding Creatively to Reproduction and Women’s Health brings together scientists, artists, writers, and musicians to explore how creative practice can illuminate and respond to research on women’s health and reproduction.

The event will unfold in three parts, each inviting audiences to experience and reflect on the intersections between art and science. Guests are invited to attend any or all of them as they wish.

Part 1 – Art and Collaboration (17:30–18:15)

Artists and scientists involved in the SciArt project will share insights from their collaborations exploring pregnancy, reproduction, and human development.

Through discussion, they will reflect on how these partnerships shaped their creative processes and the artworks featured in the accompanying exhibition (Part 3).

Part 2 – Writing Reflections (18:30–19:15)

A conversation and performance featuring Professor Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri (biologist, Fetal and Placental Physiology), Dr Frances Myatt (classicist, Department of Classics), and Lara Gisborne (singer/songwriter), accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Matt Kelly.

Together they will discuss their creative collaboration - drawing connections between Amanda’s research on pregnancy and women’s health, Frances’s study of childbirth in the ancient Roman world, and Lara’s songwriting inspired by these conversations. The session will include live performances of songs emerging from their exchange.

Part 3 – Exhibition (19:30–20:30)

The evening concludes with an exhibition of newly commissioned artworks and scientific images from the SciArt project. These works engage with themes of reproduction and reproductive health through diverse media - including textiles, sculpture, and painting.

Using art as a doorway, this exhibits invites audience members to discover developmental biology in a way that goes beyond scientific jargon, creating a space for conversations between science and real life.

The display will also feature other pieces relating to reproduction and women’s health from Cambridge collections.

Stay and browse the exhibition over drinks and nibbles and a chance to chat to the researchers.

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Visitors are invited to participate by contributing to a crowd-sourced playlist and creating their own drawings and artworks inspired by the themes of the event.

Throughout the evening, illustrator and biologist Professor Alex Cagan will produce live sketches capturing the discussions and performances, which will be showcased as part of the event.

This event is organised by Cambridge Reproduction in collaboration with the Babraham Institute.

The views and opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Cambridge Reproduction.