CONTEMPLATION
& THE CREATIVE ARTS

A day of practice-based workshops at Kettle's Yard, dedicated to different ways of contemplating the creative arts. Led by expert facilitators, artists, and academics.

8:30-9:00 - Registration with Tea/Coffee

9:00-10:00 - Welcome and Guided Meditation

Led by the Rev. Takafumi Zenryu Kawakami (head priest of Shunkoin Temple Kyoto).

10:15-11:45 - Slow Looking: An encounter with objects and art from the Kettle's Yard collection.

Led by Jim Harris (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford) and Olivia Meehan (University of Melbourne).

12:00-13:00 - Lunch Break

13:00-14:30 - The Loudest Word Ever Screamed Was 'Quiet'!: An encounter with sound, music, and silence.

Led by Áron Levente.

14:30-15:00 - Tea/Coffee Break

15:00-16:30 - Writing the Body: An encounter with compositional practice, gesture, and poem.

Led by Bhanu Kapil (Churchill College, University of Cambridge) and Blue Pieta.

16:30-17:30 - Closing Remarks and Private Viewing

A chance for participants to enjoy a private viewing of the exhibitions at the Kettle's Yard gallery.

19:00-22:00 - Dinner at Newnham College

Reverend Takafumi Zenryu Kawakami is the 24th head priest at Shunkoin Temple in Kyoto, Japan. He travels the world leading global workshops on the topics of Zen, Buddhism, philosophy, the self and meditation at various companies and institutions such as MIT, Brown University, Eton College, Microsoft and Tedx. Read more.

Jim Harris is Teaching Curator at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, leading the Museum's academic engagement programmes across the curriculum of the University of Oxford. His research employs the technical examination of sculptural materials and surfaces, alongside archival work, to investigate issues of artistic and patronal intention and the shifting meanings of objects. Read more.

Olivia Meehan is an art historian and teaching specialist with a focus on slow looking and contemplative pedagogies. She is the Object-Based Learning Coordinator at the University of Melbourne, where she concentrates on discipline-led curriculum design to support visual intelligence, critical thinking, and communication skills. Read more.

Áron Levente (fka Áron Birtalan) is an artist, musician and a student of theology, whose work explores languages of intimacy between angel, creature and computer. They focus especially on theologies of touch, performance practice, lived spirituality, hospitality, bodies and unruly thought. Read more.

Bhanu Kapil is a poet and Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge. She is the author of six books: her most recent book, How To Wash A Heart (Liverpool University Press, 2020), was the winner of the TS Eliot Prize and a Poetry Book Society Choice. From 2000 to 2020, Kapil taught poetry, performance, fiction and contemplative practice seminars at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Read more.

Blue Pieta is an artist, dramaturg, theatre-director, and dancer exploring themes of mysticism, absurdism, and mythology, merging ancient storytelling practices with contemporary expression. They are dramaturg for Akram Khan Company’s production Thikra: Night of Remembering (2025) and the operetta Nine Songs directed by Farooq Chaudhry OBE with musical direction by Jocelyn Pook. Their art has been featured in exhibition programming by Serpentine Galleries, Courtauld Gallery, Britten Pears Arts, and staged at The Place, Battersea Arts Centre and Royal Court Theatre. Read more.

Hannah Lucas is the Newby Trust Research Fellow at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Her research lies the intersection of literary history, theology, and philosophy—focused on contemplative texts and practices from around the globe, and the relationship between the medieval and the modern. Together with Tanya, she is the co-convenor of the research network, 'contemplation: theory / practice'. Read more.

Tanya Kundu is Research Associate in Theology at the University of Cambridge. Her research lies in the intersection of Christian Theology and queer and literary theory. She is interested in questions of theological use, method and normativity, and of articulating how the field of queer theology occupies a distinct philosophical niche. Together with Hannah, she is the co-convenor of the research network 'contemplation: theory / practice'. Read more.

Olivia Meehan is an art historian and teaching specialist with a focus on slow looking and contemplative pedagogies. She is the Object-Based Learning Coordinator at the University of Melbourne, where she concentrates on discipline-led curriculum design to support visual intelligence, critical thinking and communication skills. Read more.