Save Venice: The forgotten female artists being rediscovered

Who decides which artists are remembered and which are forgotten? With only a small fraction of the art in museums by women, efforts are being made, at the Venice Biennale and further afield, to change long-standing narratives.

Inside the Church of San Marziale, beside a canal in central Venice, specialist art handlers are high up on scaffolding above one of the church’s second altars, trying to tease out two canvases that have been nailed to the wall of the church for several hundred years.

The paintings, which are believed to date from the late 1720s or early 1730s, are by a woman artist called Giulia Lama. She may have been the first female artist in Venice to produce major commissions for churches. The daughter of an artist, she never married and was a mathematician and a published poet.

At the time she was dismissed by some of her male contemporaries. So much so that in 1728, an abbot and man of science, Antonio Conti, wrote: “The poor girl is persecuted by painters, but her virtues triumph over her enemies.”

According to some reports, the other artists and critics at the time focused on what they decided were her unremarkable, almost unappealing physical attributes – they asked how a woman of such prosaic appearance could produce such sophisticated paintings. More

Jacky Hunt-Broersma: The cancer survivor who ran 104 marathons in 104 days

A woman who took up running after she lost her left leg to cancer has passed the Guinness World Record for most consecutive marathons.

Jacky Hunt-Broersma, 46, has run 26.2-miles every day since mid-January, normally taking around five hours.

On Saturday, she completed her 104th consecutive marathon in as many days – an achievement she expects to be certified by Guinness World Records.

A spokesperson said certifying the record would take around three months.

Waking up on Sunday – a day off at long last – was a bizarre experience for Jacky.

“Part of me was really happy to be done,” she tells the BBC from her home in Arizona. “And the other part kept thinking I need to go running.”

Her body is also recovering from the record-chasing effort, despite having stopped. “I feel tighter than I have the whole 104 marathons,” she admits.

But Jacky – who was born and raised in South Africa, and has also lived in England and the Netherlands – is grateful. Because running has given her the confidence she was afraid she would never regain. More

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – May 2022

Mental Health Awareness Week takes place from 9 – 15 May and this year’s theme is loneliness.  With this in mind we have chosen Frankie Bridge as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Frankie is a singer, songwriter and TV personality.  She is a former member of groups S Club Juniors and The Saturdays and has appeared in various TV shows including Strictly Come Dancing, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and The Saturdays 24/7 and is a regular panellist on Loose Women.

Frankie is an ambassador for the mental health charity Mind and chose to support them after opening up about her experiences of anxiety, depression and panic attacks back in May 2012. Having initially dealt with these issues in silence, Frankie is keen to support Mind in making sure no one has to face a mental health problem alone.

Frankie has leant her support to a number of Mind’s campaigns including Time to Talk Day and Move for Mind. During Mental Health Awareness Week 2021, Frankie guest-edited the Lifestyle section of Metro Online and penned an opinion piece highlighting Mind’s ‘Join the Fight’ campaign and sharing her reasons for supporting Mind’s work.

To find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week see here

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week/resources

Find out more about Frankie here

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1421678/