I do design and research in the fields of arts, culture and education. as well as developing my ongoing interest in trans/feminisms and queer theories and practice. I work as an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Graphic Design at Kingston School of Art and Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design. I also take on selected publishing, digital and consultancy projects.

Together with John Philip Sage, I run the workshop DRAMA. I am also part of Autocoscienza Writing Group, a collective working with and promoting the work of Italian feminist and writer Lea Melandri. Currently, my practice and research focus on: poetic languages and performance; precarious work; post-workerism; modes of production, reproduction and cooperation.

I am always interested in starting conversations with possible collaborators or like-minded people, practitioners or group.

Projects, events and workshop I organised or I have been involved in at some capacity:

4 July 2024

Our Power Hub at Tate Britain: How do text and language inhabit museums? [workshop]
Workshop led by Alessia Arcuri, with Elliott Higgs, Assistant Curator for Interpretation and Research, Tate.

A two-hour workshop exploring how graphic design and interpretation strategies are employed within museum spaces. Using analog and hands-on methods, the workshop experiments with how typography and layout can support, facilitate, and engage audiences in their museum experiences.

13 June 2024

Reviving feminist struggles, growing new worlds [workshop / with Autocoscienza Writing Group]

Writing workshop led by Lucia Farinati and Eleonora Bottini with Alessia Arcuri and Sara Ortolani (Autocoscienza Writing Group) at May Day Rooms. What is the role of co-narration? What feminist practices of consciousness-raising? In what way is it possible to develop new feminist practices through writing? Through practical exercises, each participant will have the opportunity to reflect on their own writing. The workshop is open to everyone, but it is particularly relevant to those working in the context of pedagogy and research, therapy, violence and abuse prevention, or self-organised initiatives concerned with feminism and writing.

15 May 2024

CEED (Central Eastern European and Diasporic) Feminisms Bibliography Design [graphic design]

“The CEED Feminisms Bibliography distils conversations and references offered by the CEED Feminisms research network, over 40 practitioners based in and beyond the UK, who participated in a British Art Network supported programme between September 2023 and April 2024 after joining the project through an open call. The impetus for the bibliography responds to an asymmetry in the translation and circulation of feminist writing coming from Central Eastern Europe, or by writers in the diaspora, with many more feminist texts travelling West to East historically; copies will be distributed to a number of libraries across the UK. Both research document and resource, the pamphlet aims to share and pass on the CEED Feminisms research network’s conversations about Central Eastern European and diasporic feminist writing and art practices, shaped by Feminist Duration Reading Group’s methodology of reading texts out loud, together. It addresses themes first identified by the research network, as well as subject matter explored in four-part event series, ranging from gendered labour and ‘East’ to ‘West’ migration, to transnational feminist solidarity in war.”

11 April 2024

DRAMA [workshop]
Erotica @ Chisenhale Dance Space. Workshop led and curated by Alessia Arcuri and John Philip Sage, with Giulia Astesani.

DRAMA: Erotica proposed methods for cruising through stories of desires and sex exploring the corporeal, sticky and insubordinate possibilities of being and thinking alongside text and words.

4 March 2024

DRAMA [workshop]
School of Alternative Histories. @ Workshop led and curated by Alessia Arcuri and John Philip Sage, as part of Estonian Academy of Fine Arts Stand-in School for Graphic – a six-week free and open educational program currently taking place in Berlin, Germany.

Things are a bit too much. Do you ever find yourself being extra? A workshop somewhere in between a reading group, a writing workshop, and a performing activity. We work with oversharing as an opportunity for connection, collaboration, and empathy; as a poetic modality; as a performative moment; and as a tool for the narration of the self. DRAMA opens up the spaces of written and visual communication while challenging the format of the reading group. It uses these elements both as points of departure and rapture, exploring non-linear and personal approaches to the production, analysis, and performance of text.

24 January 2024

Scrittura di Esperienza with Lea Melandri [graphic design and organising support, as part of Autocoscienza Writing Group]

In-person writing workshop led by Lea Melandri. Organised by ICI London and Autocoscienza Writing Group. What is the role of co-narration in feminist practices of consciousness-raising? In what way is it possible to develop new feminist practices through writing? What differences do exist between autobiographical writing and embodied affective writing?

23 January 2024

Feminist education in Italy and beyond. Lea Melandri in conversation with Maddalena Fragnito [graphic design and organising support, as part of Autocoscienza Writing Group]

ICI London and the Collective Autocoscienza Writing Group are pleased to present the first public talk by Lea Melandri in the UK. Dedicated to key lessons from her long-standing career as a writer, feminist activist, and Chair of the Free University of Women in Milan, during the talk Melandri will discuss the acclaimed film Scuola Senza Fine (School Without End) directed by Adriana Monti (1983), in conversation with Maddalena Fragnito. Melandri has been one of the first supporters of teaching for housewives through the Italian State funded ‘150-hour courses’ – a key turning point in feminist education, documented in the film. Short clips from this film will be screened during the event.