New art exhibition in Crawley Museum examines the important relationship between song, movement and parenthood

For the past two years, Murmuration Arts have been meeting with parents and baby care givers in Crawley and asking them to share their experiences of becoming a parent. This included researching the songs and movements used to lull babies to sleep.

The art exhibition, which is open now and runs until May 27, highlights the struggles that many first-time parents face when looking after their first born child, and the isolation that can be experienced in this time.

The founder of Murmuration Arts Marion Duggan has curated three pieces of artwork in partnership with local artists that use song and movement to visualise the learning process of being a parent

Together, the art collective have created three pieces of art inspired by local experiences of being a parent.

The three art pieces on display:

VV Film ‘The Signing Mother’- A Visual Vernacular (VV) film inspired by interviews carried out in Crawley by Martin Glover in British Sign Language. Performed by VV poet Zoë McWhinney. VV is a unique physical theatre technique, with elements of signed poetry and mime, primarily performed by Deaf artists.

A LULLABY FOR- A large illuminated crescent moon. People are invited to sit down and hear a unique piece of music, written with local parents in creative writing workshops led by Mercedes Kemp, composed by Julie Macara with an arrangement of vocal harmonies written by Vicky Abbott.

LULLED TO SLEEP- local parents wish you sweet dreams with a mesmerising sound installation, designed by Thor McIntyre-Burnie.

Each individual exhibition piece symbolises the important stages that parents and babies go through while bonding and the practices used to enhance their relationships.

Artistic Director Marion Duggan said: “Murmuration Arts is a Brighton-based company and we make work based on people’s experiences in particular elements of their lives. With this project we’ve been talking to parents.

“I became a mother three years ago. It was such a profound experience and I really wanted to make something to mark that moment, like I’ve done with my other projects.

“This huge change that has happened in my life and I never used to sing as a child. When I had my daughter, I started to sing and I found that singing helped me when the nights were really long. I was feeling quite lonely, I missed my husband, I missed my friends and singing was a way I could connect with my child.

“I started doing lots of research into the benefits of singing for new mothers, how it relaxes the jaw, relaxes the nerves and essentially relaxes the mother, which in turn relaxes the baby. I found this out and realised that more people need to know about the connection of voice and the activation of your child.

“We started doing one-to-one interviews and then the idea of writing down our research came, which in turn informed some of our work on display at Crawley Museum.”

A large part of the exhibition centred around the way parents communicate with their children and this can be an issue if you or your child is profoundly deaf.

Artist, Researcher and Access Advisor Martin Glover said: “As an undiagnosed deaf baby who went to boarding school at an early age, I had very little exposure to ‘traditional’ lullabies.

“I acquired British Sign Language (BSL) as an infant from older deaf children, not from my immediate family. I tend to think more visually rather than thinking using linear based languages (spoken). Hence, an innate creativity of visual signed stories, including using Visual Vernacular, came to me more naturally than a traditional lullaby.

“I adopted a different way of settling my own babies, a more tactile way. I did ‘sing’ by signing to my hearing children following their pictorial books.”

See more: Crawley art project awarded Heritage Lottery Funding to exhibit their work at Crawley Museum, Crawley to receive £97,000 to deliver new deliver larger accessible toiletsIf you would like to learn more about the exhibition, please visit: https://crawleymuseums.org/exhibition/rites-of-passage/