New Thinking: Rediscovering women making film and sculpture

Published: Nov. 17, 2023, 4:35 p.m.

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Over 200 women sculptors have been uncovered in the research of Sophie Johnson from Bristol University. She describes some of their creations and discusses the challenges of working with the incomplete personal archives of these artists \\u2013 including Mrs Goldsmith, Patience Wright, and Catherine Andras, who created wax portrait miniatures and effigies, and Anne Seymour Damer, who carved in marble.

Kathleen Collins died in her 40s and left un-filmed screenplays and unpublished stories which Alix Beeston from Cardiff University has been researching. Collins\\u2019 finished film Losing Ground didn\\u2019t get a theatrical release when it was made in 1982 but it was restored and reissued in 2015. Now her work is finding a new audience. But how should we approach her unfinished works? Joan Passey hosts the conversation.

Producer in Cardiff: Fay Lomas

Dr Joan Passey teaches English at Bristol University and is a New Generation Thinker working with the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to share research on radio.

Sophie Johnson is a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol researching eighteenth century European women sculptors. Her research focuses on women wax modellers and their entrepreneurship. Links to her articles are available at https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/sophie-johnson

Dr Alix Beeston is a feminist writer and academic based at Cardiff University. Her most recent book is Incomplete: The Feminist Possibilities of the Unfinished Film. More details of her work are available at https://alixbeeston.com/

With special thanks to Michael Minard, who provided the song \\u2018It Might Be\\u2019 \\u2013 written by Minard and Kathleen Collins, performed by Jenny Burton, intended for use in an unfinished film project by Collins \\u2013 which we hear in the podcast.

This New Thinking episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI. You can find more conversations about new research available on the website of Radio 3\\u2019s Free Thinking programme and another collection exploring Women in the World all available as the Arts & Ideas podcast.

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