Please see below for the programme information for Bethlem Gallery’s (be)longing conference. The day is a mix of talks, screenings and workshops from a diverse mix of artists, specialists and organisations.
From autumn 2024 - spring 2026 artist Daniel Regan has been commissioned by Bethlem Gallery as Artist Researcher in Residence to curate and deliver a public engagement programme on the theme of belonging. The programme builds upon Daniel’s long-held interest in belonging, expanding into topics such as home, family, heritage and queerness. Initiated and supported by the gallery, this conference follows a series of creative workshops and online in-conversation talks informing the works that Daniel is creating in the lead up to his solo exhibition at Bethlem Gallery in the spring of 2026.
You can read more about the project here.
25th March 2025, 10.20am - 5pm
University of the Arts London, The Hub at Eagle Wharf, 42 Bonar Road, London, SE15 5FB
You will need a ticket to attend this conference. If you do not currently have one, you can book one here.
| Time | Activity | Speakers / Facilitators | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.20am - 10.40am | Arrivals, registration & settling in. | Gallery Space | |
| 10.45am - 10.55am | Conference introduction from Sophie Leighton. | Sophie Leighton (Bethlem Gallery Director) | |
| Gallery Space | |||
| 10.55am - 11.10am | Introduction to (be)longing from Daniel Regan. Daniel will share what has already happened as part of the public programme, what is to come, and works in progress for his upcoming exhibition at Bethlem Gallery. | Daniel Regan (Artist) | Gallery Space |
| 11.10am - 12.20pm | Session: Family Estrangement & Belonging |
A film screening of Alexandra Stenberg’s film Egoist, followed by works by Daniel Regan, and a Q&A.
Due to unforeseen circumstances Becca Bland is not able to present at the event. | Alexandra Stenberg (Artist)
Daniel Regan (Chair) | Gallery Space | | 12.20pm - 1.20pm | Lunch Break | | | | 1.20pm - 2.20pm | Session: Belonging to Self & Others
A panel of 3 artists sharing their complex relationships to the self and others and how it has impacted their sense of belonging. Followed by a Q&A. | Viktoria Binges (Artist)
Michelle Rodriguez (Artist)
Africa Barreo-Alexander (Artist)
Daniel Regan (Chair) | Gallery Space | | 2.20pm - 2.30pm | Moving into workshop spaces | | | | 2.30pm - 3.30pm | 1 hour creative taster workshops. Please see your registration to check which workshop you signed up for.
Gayathiri Kamalakantha: Languages of Belonging
Jemilea Wisdom-Baako: Mapping Belonging
Sue Mayo: I Live In It!
Sama Hunt: Hazarding Ourselves
Stephen Rudder will be holding a reflective space for those who want to speak about what has come up from the day so far. |
Gayathiri Kamalakantha (Artist)
Jemilea Wisdom-Baako (Artist)
Sue Mayo (Artist)
Sama Hunt
Stephen Rudder (Psychotherapist) |
Gallery Space (1)
Gallery Space (2)
Lecture Space
Training Lab
Meeting Room | | 3.30pm - 3.40pm | Moving back into main Gallery Space | | | | 3.40pm - 4.40pm | Session: Belonging to Community
How and where do arts and health organisations belong in the wider arts ecology? What responsibility do they have to the communities that they serve and how do they continue to respond to changing needs? | Sophie Leighton (Bethlem Gallery Director)
Frances Williams (Health & Research Lead at Queercircle)
malakaï sergeant (BORN::FREE)
Daniel Regan (Chair) | Gallery Space | | 4.40pm - 5pm | Summary & checking out | Daniel Regan (Artist) | Gallery Space |
(he / him)
Daniel Regan is a visual artist & Creative Health consultant working across the sector in the UK.
For over 20 years his creative works have brokered dialogues around taboo topics such as mental health, grief, self injury, suicide and racism, through the lens of his intersectional identities as a queer and disabled person of Black and white mixed heritage.
Daniel works on commissions, produces and delivers socially engaged projects and provides consultancy in Creative Health. Daniel regularly exhibits and speaks at events across fine art, educational and clinical institutions in the UK and worldwide, alongside teaching at medical institutions. Daniel is also the founder & Director of Arts & Health Hub, a non-profit organisation supporting artists exploring health, wellbeing, and what it means to be human.
Find out more about Daniel:
(they / she)
Alexandra Stenberg is a Swedish/Bulgarian multidisciplinary artist based in London. Working at the intersection of arts and health, their practice explores mental health, trauma, and healing through photography, video, embroidery, and poetry. Rooted in personal experience, Alexandra’s work embraces the fragmented nature of human emotion, using symbolism and raw vulnerability to create spaces for reflection and connection. Since graduating from the University of the Arts London, they have worked with charities, communities, and arts organisations—facilitating and producing workshops, support hubs, and community projects aimed at fostering connection, resilience, and collective healing through creative expression.
Egoist is a moving image piece exploring the release of unhealthy attachments within a mother-daughter relationship. Through a ritual of cutting their hair, embedding it in paper, writing a letter, and burning it, the artist confronts expectations, grief, and self-liberation, transforming pain into resilience and healing.
Find out more about Alexandra:
(she / her)
Michelle Rodrigues is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, and transpersonal arts counsellor. Drawing on her mixed diasporic heritage, she explores identity, place, and belonging through storytelling and remembrance. Her practice incorporates archival records and artefacts to reconnect with exiled parts of her ancestry. By examining gaps in source materials, she creates space for new narratives to emerge. Working with personal artefacts, words, symbolic materials and processes, Michelle blends metaphor with hands-on engagement to reflect the complexities of memory and belonging. Through her art, she invites audiences to consider how creativity bridges fragmented histories and shared human experiences.
Michelle will explore belonging through the lens of invisibilised histories shaped by displacement and the erasure caused by colonisation. Reflecting on her personal search for missing pieces, she invites contemplation on archives, memory, and storytelling as acts of restoration and reclaiming selfhood in the face of historical silences and loss.
Find out more about Michelle: