Exceptional and Extraordinary: unruly bodies and minds in the medical museum . (360G-Wellcome-105182_Z_14_Z)

In medical museums, disabled people have often been the exceptions that prove the rule, presented in reductive and dehumanising ways that underpin negative ideas about what and who is deemed different, deviant, problematic. Exceptional & Extraordinary: unruly bodies and minds in the medical museum will create four emotionally impactful, provocative and high quality new artworks - comprising cabaret, live performance, film and comedy - out of a process of collaboration between critically acclaime d and high profile artists and medical historians, curators and public and media engagement specialists. The artworks will offer new ways of seeing that will be used to question and stimulate public, biomedical professional and media debate around the social, cultural and ethical implications of medicalised ways of understanding difference that pervade biomedical professional practice as well as shape broader public and societal attitudes towards disability and disabled people. This is a collaborative project initiated and led by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester with artists Mat Fraser, Francesca Martinez, Liz Crow and David Hevey, in partnership with 8 medical museums and advice and support from SHAPE, the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Smithsonian Institution.