The Workshops

STILL PARENTS is the Whitworth’s award-winning programme to support parents who have experienced the loss of a baby in pregnancy or just after birth.

Launched in October 2019 in partnership with Sands (Stillbirth and Neo Natal Death Charity), STILL PARENTS is a series of monthly workshops. Under the guidance of professional artists the programme encourages participants to collectively explore their experiences through creativity. Making and doing is at the heart of these sessions as participants are introduced to new mediums and new skills whilst surrounded by people with shared experience.

STILL PARENTS reflects a much wider societal need, with 1 in 4 pregnancies ending in loss in the UK. With a notable absence in creative support for bereaved families the response to baby loss is usually a clinical one focussed on medical cause and physical treatment. This pioneering model of collective, creative support enables a community to be built allowing parents some control over how they navigate and express their grief, whilst also complementing the wider bereavement support services.

The project seeks to redefine what it means to be a family. These are Still Parents, who were unable to take their babies home.

The Exhibition

The STILL PARENTS exhibition is the first exhibition of its kind, creating a platform to share personal stories, open up conversations and break the wall of silence that continues to surround baby loss.

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The Whitworth’s close proximity to the Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre and Manchester’s largest maternity centre means the project is well placed. The impact extends beyond the programme and has set in motion ‘ripples’ that support wider family and friends as well as the NHS and bereavement services.

STILL PARENTS is a constituent led exhibition. Every aspect has been informed by our project participants from curation to Interpretation. The artworks that you will see on display are a combination of those chosen by our participants from the Whitworth’s collection and that have been created in our workshops or loaned by each of our participants, alongside their own words, stories and responses.

As a Constituent Museum we aim to transform the way that art is experienced and used, by using art as a tool to open up conversation, generate empathy and actively address what matters most in people’s lives – here and now.

This film below documents the journey towards making the Still Parents exhibition.

Thank you to Friends of the Whitworth and Sands for supporting the workshops, exhibition and engagement programme.

Thank you to Office of Craig Oldham for working with the group on the design & interpretation of the exhibition.

To all the artists Harriet Hall, Tabitha Moses, Emile Taylor & Chanje Kunda for their nurturing workshops.

Thank you to Belle Vue Productions for the beautiful film.

To find out more about Friends of the Whitworth visit https://www.friendsofthewhitworth.org.uk/

For baby loss support visit https://www.sands.org.uk/