Tag: Lisa Creagh

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Half a Million Views and Rising

The Holding Time Project is celebrating an extraordinary milestone, with mothers’ stories reaching audiences around the world.

Originally commissioned by Improving Me, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Women’s Health and Maternity Programme, the project uses photography, film and creative storytelling to amplify women’s lived experiences of breastfeeding, birth and motherhood.

With 2,400 hours of watch time and hundreds of new subscribers, these stories demonstrate the power of creative health to challenge misconceptions, reduce isolation and connect families.

Exploring Breastfeeding Challenges in Bradford Podcast Episodes

The Bradford season of the Holding Time podcast brings together a diverse range of mothers’ stories about breastfeeding, adoption, pregnancy, free-birthing, donor milk, preterm babies and birth trauma. Co-created with mothers, local infant feeding teams and community partners, the series examines breastfeeding as part of the wider experience of motherhood and maternal wellbeing in Bradford.

Bradford Mothers’ Voices Take to the Streets in the ‘Holding Time Milk Line’

The Holding Time Milk Line celebrates Bradford mothers through an immersive walking trail of art, poetry, and storytelling. Created by artist Lisa Creagh for Baby Week Bradford, the trail links Family Hubs and green spaces, inviting families to listen, reflect, and connect with local stories of motherhood, feeding, and wellbeing.

Breastfeeding a Neurodivergent Child

I’ve come to realise why it was hard at times in my breastfeeding journey and a lot of this relating to being neurodivergent. As we see an increase in awareness around hidden disabilities, I hope other mums can feel confident to seek help if they’re finding it hard to breastfeed/parent a child with additional needs.

Stones a 5 minute film about Endometriosis…

Stones is a five-minute film by Lisa Creagh reflecting on 25 years of living with endometriosis and severe menstrual pain. Created as the first of a two-part work, the film uses personal memory to explore chronic illness, treatment, menopause and resilience. It was made in collaboration with Creagh’s daughter and acknowledges the pioneering surgery that made motherhood possible.

Ablaze in Bradford

Ablaze in Bradford explores the ideas, collaborations and creative development behind the Holding Time Project’s ambitious Bradford programme. Artist Lisa Creagh describes how an encounter with prehistoric maternal figurines in Malta inspired the monumental Holding Time Chair, a stone sculpture connecting public art with mothers’ recorded stories. Combining photographic portraits, creative writing, exhibitions and outdoor audio trails, the project brings breastfeeding and maternal wellbeing into Bradford’s parks, hospitals and communities.

Holding Time at Halton Family Hubs: Celebrating Mothers’ Voices

The Holding Time Project brought photography, poetry and creative health workshops to Halton Family Hubs across Runcorn and Widnes. Featuring breastfeeding portraits across seven venues, writing workshops led by Rachel New and an audio tour at Norton Priory’s walled garden, the programme created opportunities for mothers to share their experiences of breastfeeding and motherhood. Developed with Halton Family Hubs and Improving Me, the project celebrates mothers’ voices and explores how creative practice can support maternal wellbeing.

Motherspeak: Holding Time Storytelling and Singing at Manchester Art Gallery

Singing Mamas joined with the Holding Time Project Manchester mothers to create a warm afternoon of storytelling and chorus for the end of the writing workshops at Manchester Art Gallery.

Holding Time Launch at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool

The Holding Time Project launched in Cheshire and Merseyside at Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery on 19 November 2021, as part of Baby Week. Supported by WHAM, the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Women’s and Children’s Partnership, the event brought together photography, mothers’ interviews, poetry and creative health research. Led by artist Lisa Creagh, Holding Time explored the cultural, emotional and practical barriers to breastfeeding while celebrating the diversity of mothers’ experiences across the region.

Presentation at Warwick University Maternity Themed Clinical Trials Launch

I spoke about my project and the aims of partnering with the CTU for Coventry City of Culture. I showed the animated portraits, as well as a slideshow of stills. it was the first time I had presented the work in a meidcal setting and I found the atmosphere invigorating. It gave me new insight into how clinical trials lead the way to greater understanding of new approaches.

Presentation at BFN Conference 2019

For this event I put together a slideshow, beginning with the story of my own struggles to breastfeed, then the rationale for the Holding Time still images, how these lead to the animation and installation. Finally I talked about the project website, the breastfeeding Hubs, the YouTube Channel interviews.

Why Now?

Why do so many mothers stop breastfeeding before they want to? In this foundational 2019 article, the Holding Time Project examines breastfeeding inequalities, declining support services and the cultural attitudes that make breastfeeding difficult. Drawing on public health research and mothers’ experiences in Brighton, the article argues that breastfeeding should not be viewed solely as an individual responsibility, but as something requiring collective social, cultural and political support.

Art, Motherhood and the Cultural Invisibility of Breastfeeding

Artist Lisa Creagh joins Christiane Monarchi, founder and editor of Photomonitor, for an in-depth conversation about the origins and development of the Holding Time Project. Exploring photography, feminism, maternal time and the cultural invisibility of breastfeeding, the discussion reveals how personal experiences of motherhood inspired an ambitious collaborative artwork. From animated portraits and glass timepieces to mothers’ recorded stories, the conversation examines how art can challenge social conventions and create new ways of representing maternal experience.