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Melanie Stidolph

Talk: Gossiping in the gallery

Saturday 31 October, 2.30pm

Falmouth Art Gallery

Curator and Cornish Maids founder, Fran Rowse will be talking with Dr Jeanie Sinclair, feminist art historian, along with myself and myself and artist Emma Digerud-White. The talk will share insights into working in Cornwall and the network of contemporary and historical women artists – aged 16 to 76 – that the exhibition has brought together.

Fran Rowse is an award-winning Cornish photographer and curator. Working across photography, digital art, mixed media, and archival practice, her work centres on the overlooked lives and stories of women and girls in the South West of England. Rooted in lived experience as a former fisherwoman from a working-class background, her practice bridges rural communities and the art world through collaborative, socially engaged projects.

Dr Jeanie Sinclair is a feminist art historian researching gender, sexuality and modernism in Cornwall. Her work uses gossip, parties and oral histories to uncover hidden feminist and queer narratives of women’s creative work, collectivism and community. As senior lecturer at Falmouth University, she develops interdisciplinary research on archives, illustration and ceramics. In January 2027 she will deliver the annual Wilhelmina Barns-Graham lecture.

Booking link: Gossiping in the gallery – Falmouth Art Gallery