Each year the University of Bristol offers medical, veterinary and dental students, from Bristol and other universities, the opportunity to pause their medical degree and gain a BA in medical humanities.  Joining English and Philosophy students, these students are able to explore some of the wider issues around healthcare.  They are also encouraged to explore creative arts-based inquiry.

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This exhibition, Threading the Needle: Unravelling the Histories of Women in Medicine, comes at the end of these students' study and is built around a range of creative pieces from the students, students in Bristol Medical School, and artists in Bristol and beyond (particular thanks go to Bristol Refugee Artists Collective).  The exhibition aims to trace historical threads in the relationship between women and healthcare cross-culturally, from both patient and practitioner perspectives. By unpicking the problematic histories of the past, we can better understand and recognise how their influence lingers today. Charting this timeline allows us not only to celebrate the strides that have been made but also to reflect on the issues which persist and the work still to be done.

 

The choice to tie this exhibition together using thread draws upon a recognition of the intersection between traditional socially-constructed female roles and the spaces modern women are now able to aspire towards and succeed in. The line from needlework and women's craft to surgical suturing is but one example of where we can find the traditionally feminine in a medical world built on the historic exclusion of women. Such powerful images of continuity may help to expand the opportunities for and agency of women in the sphere of healthcare.

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These works are supplemented by reports of the students' experience in learning about the role that music, art and theatre may play in therapy, and also about how the arts might contribute to well-being within the medical community.

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The exhibition's home this year, as previously, is The Peoples Republic of Stokes Croft's 'The Space'. 

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We would like to thank all of those contributing to this exhibition and the programme this year, and to the Departments of Philosophy and English, and the CHHS for their support of this exhibition,