I have been facilitating conversation, collaboration, creativity, and learning in a range of roles since 2012 across arts, community, heritage, non-profit, and university settings.
See below for ongoing and upcoming projects.
Curating Visibility
Charleston
I am currently working as a guest curator researching madness in the collection and history of the Sussex museum.
Charleston was previously a home, studio, and gathering place for artists, writers, and thinkers associated with the Bloomsbury group, who lived infamously unconventional lives. One regular visitor was Virginia Woolf, whose “illness” is famous, while the difficulties and differences of others in Bloomsbury circles has been overlooked.
I am in the process of setting up a co-production group with other people who have have been labelled “mad” or “mentally ill”. We will be collaborating on a digital intervention exploring the mad heritage of the Bloomsbury group, which will launch at Charleston in spring 2026. Click here for more information.
Radical Care Reading Group
Online
Our monthly meetings are welcoming spaces for care experienced people and allies to discuss literature on care, share experiences, and build community as a foundation for future activism.
We explore a wide range of texts, from popular fictional representations of the care system to academic essays on family abolition.
We read key passages aloud during the group and invite a wide range of responses to the texts. Participation is flexible and no prior experience of reading groups is necessary.
Since the start of 2025 we have been operating as a closed group to focus on establishing a core working team.
Making Oracles
Beyond Form
Making Oracles is a four-week writing course exploring spiritual, political, historical, and practical ways of giving form to the future.
Participants will be invited to join weekly meetings on Zoom and will have access to accompanying materials and prompts, which can be accessed at any time during the course.
We will experiment with divinatory practices in writing exercises informed by a wide range of art, literature, and other cultural objects. Expect to look at paintings of ancient oracular rituals at Delphi, read about the illnesses of medieval visionary women, listen to Electronic Voice Phenomena in white noise, and play with the chance procedures of tarot. Connecting these practices to our current concerns for the future, we will make our own oracles responding to issues ranging from ageing and illness to ecology and technology.
Anxiety anticipated and welcomed. Options available for spoken/written participation and a/synchronous engagement. No preparation or homework necessary. No writing or oracular experience required. Opportunity for participants to contribute to a zine at the end of the course.
Sliding scale pricing. Date TBC 2026.
Hazel McMichael 