Feed presented at Maternal, Parental and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Conference

Feed curator, Elaine Speight, will give a keynote talk entitled: 'Feed: supporting public breastfeeding through art, design and culture' at the Maternal, Parental and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN) Conference at the end of April, organised by University of Lancashire.

Convened by Gill Thomson and Victoria Hall Moran, the conference aims to:
- illuminate the socio-cultural, political and economic influences upon infant and child feeding practices.
- explore the nature of relationships within families in connection with various types of nutritive and nurturing behaviour in infancy and childhood.
- increase the understanding of breastfeeding as a bio-psychosocial activity.
- enhance understanding of the complex interactions between socio-cultural, psychological and biological factors in infant and child feeding, eating and nutrition.
- focus on key initiatives that may impact upon practices related to infant and child feeding, eating and nutrition.

Elaine talk will discuss the role of art and design in challenging cultural stigmas and supporting breastfeeding in public. Presenting her work with Feed, alongside other artworks, she will explore the potential for art to challenge preconceptions and provoke new understandings of human milk and motherhood, through emotional and multi-sensory engagement. Focusing on the civic role of arts and cultural institutions, she will also ask how the cultural sector might help to reframe breastfeeding as a social, rather than individual, responsibility, and to promote the reshaping of our public realm to support, encourage and celebrate infant feeding and families.