Bewitched by @laakkuluk Williamson’s exhibition Nuliaminik Neqilik (The Flesh of Wives) @mimosahouselondon — exquisite beadwork and beautifully captivating video installations. I wanted to stay all afternoon.

Wednesday with the QML group exploring a different site rewarded us with some spring and early summer classics: dryad’s saddle, deer shield, jelly ears and coral spot 🌳🍄🍄‍🟫🌳 then onto wrangling chicken wire for some serious fungal headpieces for the June showcase💫 @unileedsculture @lsaundersart @gemma_macphadraig_mt @amelia910_

Last week at Thwaite Botanics. The spring rain meant new finds and we explored the shapes, textures and smells and colours of some cultivated fungi 🍄‍🟫🌳🍄#mycodarium

Step into ‘Mycodarium’ – a relaxed multi-disciplinary pop-up event where art, mycology and queerness collide in a celebration of growth, connection, resilience and transformation. Explore the artwork on display by @amelia910_ , @elspethrose , @gemma_macphadraig_mt and @lsaundersart , enjoy live performances by local queer creatives and engage with a playful sharing of research and discoveries… brought to life by through art, storytelling and creative experimentation. The Queer Mycology Lab project created space for dialogue between human understandings and fungal worlds – an opportunity to learn with fungi rather than simply about them – through curiosity, respect, shared discovery, and collective creativity. ‘Mycodarium’ is an opportunity to share the ways in which fungi has inspired and taught us throughout the project, and educate and inspire others on this beautifully ‘queer’ discipline. 🍄 12pm - 8pm | Saturday 27 June 2026 🍄 Pier Street Pop-Up Space, @fruitmarkethull 🍄 Art, Performance, Words, Workshops and Research - details of workshop times and performers will be shared closer to the event 🍄 Free Entry 🍄 All welcome (especially dogs!) 🍄 More info and updates at: /mycodarium

Back at beautiful Thwaite Botanics exploring fungal embodiment and the sensory drawing in the sun ☀️ it was sweet to share activities devised with @lenka_vrablikova for learning collaboration with fungi with this glorious group. Truly mycodarium. We then spent a nice long time getting to know some lovely trametes versicolour (turkey tail)through sensory drawing onsite. Thank you @lsaundersart @amelia910_ @gemma_macphadraig_mt . Not to mention thanks to @unileedsculture for support and connecting me and Lauren! 🍄📚🍄‍🟫

Last days of Plant Dreaming @leedsartgallery thanks to @veta.kil for putting together a beautiful show and showing us around. Followed by @marianna.tsionki talking on eco and hydro feminisms. Really loved the haptic and poignant intensity of @sharp_the_artist The Dancing Daffodils, a beautiful work on paper The Matriarch I by @mswatkiss , @msjanelawson spore textiles and @talbot.emma silk spaceship earth.

A magical afternoon at Thwaite Botanic Gardens walking, noticing, foraging, chatting, sharing, scheming for the Roots and Spores research project Queer Mycology Lab. We met some wonderful fungi (jelly ears, turkey tail, yellow brain not to mention crusts and rusts) despite the dry spring season. Looking forward to the next weeks working together 🍄🍄‍🟫📚🌳 @lsaundersart @gemma_macphadraig_mt @amelia910_

Colleagues are participating in panels and receiving fellowships at this year’s @forarthistory Annual Conference. Taking place from 8-10 April at the University of Cambridge, the conference brings together international research and critical debate about art, art history and visual cultures. *How British is British Surrealism?* In this panel session, Dr @annalreid (Senior Lecturer in the History of Art) presents a paper on the political aesthetics of works by the Argentine-British artist and surrealist Eileen Agar (1899-1991) made in the Canary Islands (northern Tenerife) in the 1950s. *Art History Warmed up?* Convened by Dr Elspeth Mitchell @elspethrose (Lecturer in Feminism and Visual Culture) & Dr Gill Park (Associate Professor in Contemporary Art and Curating), this panel brings feminist, decolonial and materialist perspectives to bear on questions of climate, image-making and planetary survival. *Archiving precarious histories of art* Elspeth Mitchell & other team members behind the Feminist Art Making Histories oral history archive lead a workshop to discuss the challenges of working on precarious histories of modern and contemporary art. *Association for Art History Fellowships* Association for Art History Fellowships recognise individuals who have made outstanding contributions to art history and its wider public understanding. This year’s new Fellows are campaigner for art education, Abigail Harrison Moore (Professor of Art History and Museum Studies @universityofleeds ), London-based artist, educationalist and @leedsalumni Sutapa Biswas, and independent curator and art consultant Adrian Locke. Sutapa Biswas’ fellowship was conferred on Wednesday 8 April, presented by Gill Park and Elspeth Mitchell. Abigail’s Fellowship will be presented on Friday 10 April by art historian, curator & alumni Dr Caroline McCaffrey Howarth @carolinemccaff *Follow link in bio to news pages for full story* 📷 Feminist Art Making Histories Workshop, Loughborough 2024 (photo by Hilary Robinson); Professor Abigail Harrison Moore with teachers at Art Teachers Connect 2025, University of Leeds (photo by Andy Lord).

The rush of Jan-Feb-now it is March. Unveiled Desires @richardsaltoungallery , Portugal sun, Carlton House, the overheated crush of Tracy Emin @tate (if you can bear it stay to watch ‘why I never became a dancer’) and green fingers.

What Next? Emma Hoareau: Art, beauty and following your gut for success as a freelancer 📅 Wednesday 11 March, 14:00 – 15:00 📍 Student Common Room School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies University Road University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT What does success look like when you don’t follow a set path? In this talk, @leedsalumni Emma Hoareau will share her experience of working across beauty, journalism and photography industries as a freelancer. @emmahoareau will reflect on intuition, adaptability and the rewarding process of building a creative career on your own terms. *About the speaker* During her time studying Art History & Museum Studies (2009-2012) @universityofleeds Emma Hoareau interned and freelanced for various magazines within the fashion and beauty worlds, and began sharing her own articles on her blog in 2009. After graduating she took on the position of Beauty Editor at Notion magazine, and a few years later after a move to Sydney wrote beauty for Russh in Sydney. In 2015 she started getting her first paid jobs for her blog, and in 2016, following a move back to London she was able to go full time as a content creator within the beauty world, sharing predominantly tips on skincare. In 2020 she won best Skin Influencer on the Glamour Magazine Power Awards, cementing her place as a skincare expert in the online sphere. *More information* Organised by @elspethrose as part of the 'What Next' series of events for students in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies. Follow link in our bio to events pages for full info. Image courtesy of Emma Hoareau.

Visiting artist talk with Jasleen Kaur 📅 Wednesday 4 March, 14:00 – 15:00 📍 Online (MS Teams) Join us for a visiting artist talk with Jasleen Kaur, winner of the Turner Prize 2024. The talk will reflect on recent work and ongoing research on the theme of ‘geography’: “I've been thinking a lot about geography recently, orientation and geography being about seeing and looking in particular ways. “I'm often making work about how histories are manufactured and how intimate life is marred by these wider forces. “I wanted to map a constellation of places for you, that sit within varying degrees of intimacies to me, to think about how histories and narratives are managed and manufactured, socialised and maintained.” *About the speaker* Jasleen Kaur's work explores cultural memory and political belonging. She makes with the slurry of life, interested in the social histories contained within the material things that surround us. In her practice, mass-produced, everyday objects are coded with symbols and images, questioning how the narratives we inherit circulate in discreet ways and, in turn, shape us. @_jasleen.kaur_ (b.1986 Pollokshields, Glasgow) lives and works in London, UK. She is the winner of the 2024 Turner Prize and in 2025, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by The Glasgow School of Art. Solo exhibitions include Boomerang, Hollybush Gardens, London; Was. Is. Will be., a permanent artwork for Thamesmead, London (2025); Alter Altar, Tramway, Glasgow (2023); Flesh ‘n’ Blood, Humber Street Gallery, Hull; Gut Feelings Meri Jaan, Touchstones Rochdale (2021) and Be Like Teflon, Glasgow Women’s Library (2019). In 2019 her book Be Like Teflon was co-published by Glasgow @womenslibrary and @dent_de_leone *Book your place* This talk is organised as part of the 'What Next' series in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies @universityofleeds It is primarily aimed at our students but is also open to anyone else who would like to join us. Follow link in our bio to events pages for full info about the talk and how to book your place. 📷 Jasleen Kaur, Keystone II. Photography by Eva Herzog.

Something is incubating. And that something will surface very soon. 🍄