Anna Dumitriu has led numerous workshops at locations around the world, as well as online, and welcomes appropriately funded future invitations.
Forthcoming Workshops
More workshops and other participation opportunities will take place in 2024 as part of Anna Dumitriu’s forthcoming solo exhibition at the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds, watch this space.
Past Workshops
2023
Anna Dumitriu led a workshop for the University of Leeds Healthcare Associated Infections Research Group, as part of her “Fragile Microbiomes” project with her collaborator Dr Jane Freeman. These felted elements will be hand-beaded, and inoculated with DNA from the Leeds Gut Model as well as bile pigments (which are also the colours made by bruises). The piece, including these elements, will exhibited in 2024 in Dumitriu’s solo exhibition at the Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds, UK.
Anna Dumitriu led two workshops for around 120 GCSE and sixth form students at Oundle School near Cambridge, UK, on 9th (Ex Voto making and antimicrobial dyes) and 10th November (Winogradsky Column making) 2023, as part of the programme of her solo exhibition “BioArt Knowledge”.
BioCoder Dojo Timisoara ran a programme of activities including Winogradsky Column making workshops to accompany Anna Dumitriu’s solo exhibition “BioArt Revolution” in September and October 2023.
Anna Dumitriu recorded an art masterclass ” Engaging Science through BioArt” for the SILBERSALZ Institute which is part of the SILBERSALZ Festival, Germany in August 2023.
2022
Anna Dumitriu lea a free ‘drop-in’ Unruly Objects: Living Latex workshop at the V & A Museum in London, with Simone Krings and Professor Joe Keddie from the University of Surrey. The workshop explored ways of capturing carbon using cyanobacteria encapsulated into a kind of ‘living latex’ to mitigate climate change. It also investigated the possibility of conserving antiquities through the enhancement of their microbiomes, the place of BioArt within museums, and the use of blockchain technologies to store conservation data. Participants could join the Unruly Objects Lab to create their own tiny marble ‘unruly objects’ painted with ‘living latex’ and could keep their tiny sculptures or leave them with us to become part of a future work. The showcase exhibition and workshop took place on Saturday 24th September 2022 and Sunday 25th September 2022, 10:30 am – 5pm as part of the Digital Design Weekend, in the London Design Festival. Supported by the National Biofilms Innovation Centre.
Anna Dumitriu led an in-person workshop at the Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells at the Helmholz Zentrum in Munich (Germany) exploring cellular reprogramming and cell memory, as part of her art residency, on 10th August 2022.
Anna Dumitriu led an in-person workshop for the Healthcare Infection Society’s 40th anniversary event at British Medical Association House in London, on 19th and 20th May 2022.
Anna Dumitriu lead an online workshop for the Creative Reflections on Professional Practice course at Imperial College London (UK) on 22nd March 2022.
2021
Anna Dumitriu and Alex May ran an online workshop “The Unnatural, That Too is Natural: BioArt and Synthetic Biology” for HOLOLABS by Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Germany) on 4th November 2021. The workshop explored the artists collaborative art-making process, and their project “Biotechnology from the Blue Flower“. In the workshop participants learned how to 3D scan natural and synthetic forms using a process known as photogrammetry and render these forms in Blender for use as virtual or 3D printed models.
Anna Dumitriu gave a participatory online workshop for the Creative Reflections on Professional Practice course at Imperial College London (UK) on 10th March 2021. The workshop covered DIY microbiology, natural antimicrobial dyes, working with bacteria and textiles, and making a storytelling votive based on “Ex Voto” as well as an overview and discussion on her practice.
2020
Anna Dumitriu gave an online workshop for the Creative Reflections on Professional Practice course at Imperial College London (UK) on 14th May 2020.
2019
Anna Dumitriu co-led a practical and theoretical workshop with Alex May exploring the issues of working with new technologies to create artworks as part of the Co(art) – When Art Meets Technology Workshops and Hackathon Event in Timisoara, Romania between 10th – 13th October 2019. The workshop explored BioArt, meaningful art and science collaboration, 3D scanning, printing, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, and was supported by the Timisoara 2021 European City of Culture.
Anna Dumitriu ran an Ex Voto workshop in the Invisible Worlds Laboratory at Eden Project in Bodelva, Cornwall on Saturday 30th March 11am – 3pm, as part her major solo exhibition BioaArt and Bacteria opening events programme (funded by Arts Council England).
Anna Dumitriu led a workshop in collaboration with Alex May at MU Artspace in Eindhoven, Netherlands on the 8th March 2019 as part of ReShape: Mutating Systems, Bodies and Perspectives. The workshop was entitled Spindles: An Exploration of Linen and Microbiology. It explored the interwoven relationship of microbiology and linen with a focus on work of pioneering microbiologist Sergei Winogradsky. Linen is the original bio-textile, produced through the interaction of plants, spindle-shaped bacteria and engineering. Participants learned how linen is produced through a bacteriological process known as retting, how it was historically considered to cleanse the body of infectious diseases, and how these bacteria relate to contemporary superbug infections. Participants also worked with raw flax and bacteria impregnated cloth to create their own artworks using some of the techniques that Anna Dumitriu used to make her work “Pastorianum” on show in “ReShape”, and make colourful bacterial ecosystems known as Winogradsky columns that have the potential to live for many years.
Anna Dumitriu spoke at the University of Warwick and ran a workshop for Synthetic Biology PhD researchers using her “Make Do and Mend” E. coli strain as part of an event called SynBioArt19 on 30th January 2019.
2018
From 15th November to 2nd December 2018 “ArchaeaBot: A Post Climate Change Post Singularity Life-form” was on show as part of Rencontres Bandits-Mages Unstable Reality and Shifting Knowledges: Mending the Fabric of the World in Bourges, France, curated by Annick Bureaud. To accompany the exhibition Anna Dumitriu and Alex May led a practical and theoretical workshop about the ArchaeaBot project from 11am to 5pm on the 17th November 2018.
On the 18th November 2018 Anna Dumitriu led a solo BioArt and Bacteria workshop at Bandits-Mages in Bourges, France.
Anna Dumitriu led a workshop at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on 30th June 2018 as part of the National Society for Education in Art & Design National Conference Visual literacy – visual citizen. The role and necessity of art, craft and design education in the 21st century”.
Anna Dumitriu lead a workshop at Texas A & M University in College Station, USA on 6th March 2018, 12:00-3:00pm. She introduced her practice which fuses craft, sculpture and science to explore our relationship to the microbial world, technology and biomedicine. She introduced participants to ways of working hands-on with microbiology and DNA and considered the ethical and health and safety implications of this form of art practice. She explored her fascination for the history of medicine and storytelling and invited participants to contribute to a participatory artwork.
On 8th March 2018, 12:00-3:00pm at Texas A & M University in College Station USA, Anna Dumitriu and Alex May discussed how they work as individual artists and in collaboration with each on other on projects that explore life and digital technologies from whole genome sequencing and generative art, to virtual reality and robotics. They also explored their extensive collaborations with scientists and proposed methods of best practice.
Anna Dumitriu participated in the free, drop-in family day “Bugs and BioArt” at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford on 17th March 12:00-4:00pm. The event took the form of a medically inspired celebration of bacteria and BioArt with talks, hands-on BioEmbroidery activities and more. The event was part of British Science Week 2018.
2017
Anna Dumitriu taught an accredited course for third year medical students at Brighton and Sussex Medical School entitled “Creative Communication: Exploring Issues in Global Health Through Art” in Spring 2017. The group worked with the artist over an eight week period and participated in activities related to infectious diseases, health education and Podoconiosis.
As part of her Microbe Stories exhibition programme at the Blyth Gallery at Imperial College London Anna Dumitriu ran a workshop in collaboration with Dr. Elita Jauneikaite from Imperial College and Dr Nicola Fawcett from the University of Oxford to investigate how art can creatively explore the complex issues around antimicrobial resistance and new technologies in microbiology such as whole genome sequencing and synthetic biology.
Anna Dumitriu ran a 2 hour intensive workshop Imperial College for the “Creativity, Innovation and Invention” students who are from Life Sciences, Aeronautics, Maths and Physics, and “have expressed an interest in hearing about how artists and scientists interact”. The students had the opportunity to make “Life Bracelets” containing the amino acids that make humans (inspired by work with Xiang Li) and extracted DNA (based on her workshop at V & A with Nicola Fawcett for the Sequence Project).
Anna Dumitriu ran ‘bacteria votives’ workshops for her Ex Voto project at Oxford Museum of the History of Science as part of their Back From The Dead: Demystifying Antibiotics Season, and at Eden Project.
As part of the “Back From The Dead: Demystifying Antibiotics” Season at Oxford Museum of the History of Science Anna Dumitriu ran three workshops, for museum staff, for Oxford Art Teachers’ Network and for Families. The workshop involved learning about antimicrobial resistance and making a contribution for the artwork Ex Voto that features in the exhibition. She also ran a workshop for the Oxford Microbiome Network as part of their launch meeting. The workshop also involved making Winogradsky columns, working with bacteria, and making ‘bacteria votives’ as well as an artists talk.
2016
Anna Dumitriu collaborated with scientists Melissa Grant and Rachel Sammons to create a tooth grown entirely from bacteria which produce hydroxyapatite (tooth enamel) alongside this the trio ran a series of workshops were participants glazed handmade porcelain teeth with ceramic glazes containing the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease. The project “Microbe Mouth” was commissioned by The Science Gallery London as part of their “Mouthy” season.
Anna Dumitriu ran a participatory free drop in “Bacteria Votives” workshop with Dr Nicola Fawcett at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK on 30th June 2016. This creative workshop aimed to create dialogues between medical professionals and the public about infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance in a non heirarchical atmosphere and develop a new growing art installation. It was part of Antibiotics, Microbes and DNA run by Modernising Medical Microbiology where work from the Sequence Project was also showcased. Image credit Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
As part of the Hunt for New Antimicrobials project Anna Dumitriu and Professor Maggie Smith have developed a participatory phage extraction workshop where members of the public could help the scientists at York University to find novel bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) which might have new antimicrobial properties. Dumitriu also worked with visitors to share stories and make Bacteria Votives as part of a new growing participatory work. The workshop ran at York Festival of Ideas (UK) on 11th and 12th June 2016.
Anna Dumitriu led a series of workshops for participants with special educational needs from the ages of 12-30 on the theme of “Genetics and The Digital Age” at Orleans House Gallery in London as part of their “From The Outside In” project funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Anna Dumitriu lead an Infective Textiles workshop on 9th February 2016 in the “Blow Things Up” Lab (a hack-space) at the ATLAS Centre at The University of Colorado Boulder. Participants were introduced to BioArt, DIY biology techniques, health and safety, and biohacking.
2015
Anna Dumitriu lead an Infective Textiles workshop for Bioart Seoul 2015 at Gwacheon National Science Museum, Seoul, Korea from 10am to 4pm on 6th November 2015. In this workshop participants learned about Anna Dumitriu’s working process as an artist deeply embedded within the world of clinical microbiology and biomedicine. She guided participants through accessible DIY (do-it-yourself) microbiology techniques and explained how to work safely with bacteria as a creative medium. The workshop was suitable for anyone over 14 years of age. Artists, scientists, healthcare professionals, ethicists, philosophers, BioArtists and interested persons from any background are welcome. Dumitriu shared her experiences, stories and wide knowledge of microbiology from the history of the field to the latest cutting edge techniques such as whole genome sequencing creating an exciting, fun and memorable day.
Anna Dumitriu and Nicola Fawcett from The Modernising Medical Microbiology Project led a very busy DNA extraction and preparation workshop at The London Design Festival’s Digital Design Weekend at the V & A Museum on the 26th September. The workshop aimed to explain and tell stories about some of the processes used in whole genome sequencing and was accompanied by Dumitriu’s Sequence virtual reality Oculus Rift based immersive experience.
As part of the opening of Eden Project’s new permanent exhibition Invisible You: The Human Microbiome, which includes the two commissions Don’t Try This at Home and The Human Super-organism, Dumitriu led seven days of “Infective Textiles- BioArt and Bacteria” drop-in workshops, running from 21st May 2015. The workshops were for participants of all ages and visitors helped to create a new participatory bioart work and chatted together with Dumitriu about the issues explored in her new works and the techniques she used to create them. The workshops used the gardens at Eden Project as a resource, including using antimicrobial dye plants and plants used in pharmaceuticals, such as the woad seen above.
The “Winogradsky Pets” workshop took place during the Bacteria Light Lab (curated by Anna Dumitriu) as part of “On Light” at The Wellcome Collection 1st – 4th May 2015. The workshop enabled participants to create their own self sustaining bacterial ecosystems that grow in beautiful colours and continue forever if cared for. The columns can be seen as a metaphor for the gut microbiome and Dumitriu told many stories about contemporary research in microbiology.
The “Who Owns The Microbiome” workshop took place as part of the BioArt course at the University of Leiden in March 2015 led by Anna Dumitriu. It discussed emerging research in microbiology with a focus on the human microbiome and its relationship to whole genome sequencing research through the lens of her own BioArtworks and a practical hands on DIY microbiology session.
Anna Dumitriu gave a talk about her work at Bournemouth University (UK), alongside biomedical scientist Kevin Cole on 24th February 2015 which was followed by a free practical workshop on 25th February 2015.
2014
Anna Dumitriu led a workshop for adults to accompany her solo show at Art Laboratory Berlin on 30th November 2014. Image (above) courtesy of Art Laboratory Berlin.
Cinekid Festival MediaLab featured a very large scale participatory Infective Textiles workshop led by Anna Dumitriu to accompany her collaborative art installation Super-organism which was commissioned by the festival and premiered in Amsterdam between the 9th and 18th October 2014. The workshop involved around two thousand young people across a wide age range and from diverse backgrounds.
The Infective Textiles and MRSA Quilt Making drop in participatory workshop took place at the London Design Festival’s Digital Design Weekend at the V&A Museum in London. Over two hundred participants worked with artist Anna Dumitriu, biomedical scientist Kevin Cole and microbiologist Dr John Paul from the Modernising Medical Microbiology Project on 21st and 22nd September 2014 to learn about new developments in microbiology and art/science collaboration through practical hands on experiments in BioArt and textiles.
Dumitriu led a Romantic Disease Do It Together Biology workshop on 21st June 2014 in the Waag Society Open Wet Lab and FabLab/Makerspace, linked to her solo exhibition in the Theatrum Anatomicum, Amsterdam.
Dumitriu led a workshop at The Picasso Museum in Barcelona in collaboration with Pere Joan Cardona and Cristina Vilaplana de la UTE de l’Institut Germans Trias i Pujol on 14th and 15th June 2014. After the workshop Dumitriu’s installation Genius Germ, on show at the museum, was added to with contributions by the public.
A drop in Romantic Disease workshop took place at Oxford Biomedical Research Centre open day in collaboration with biomedical scientist Kevin Cole and the Modernising Medical Microbiology Project on 16th May 2014 in the West Wing of The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. The workshop involved the creation of felt lungs for the Where there’s dust there’s danger artwork and safely used the extracted DNA of killed TB in the production of the works.
The Hacker les bactéries workshop for artists, creatives and citizen scientists took place in Paris on 4th March 2014 at Espace des sciences Pierre-Gilles de Gennes – École supérieure de physique et chimie industrielles ParisTech10 rue Vauquelin 75005 Paris. The workshop is organised by Décalab, in partnership with Leonardo/Olats supported by l’ESPGG, ESPCI Paris Tech. The workshop will be followed by a “Bioart, Biodesign Journée d’études” on 6th March featuring international speakers including Anna Dumitriu, Marion Laval-Jeantet, Lucas Evers and Annick Bureaud. Agnès de Cayeux wrote a review of the workshop (in French)
The Romantic Disease: An Artistic Investigation of Tuberculosis Open Lab is an extended workshop (over 5 Saturdays from 5th February to 22nd March 2014) which took place as part of Dumitriu’s major solo exhibition at Watermans Gallery in London. Participants worked with live bacteria, dyes, stitch, and natural and clinical antibiotics.
2013
The Bacteria Field Studies workshop for young people took place at Bio-tehna at the Kapelica Gallery in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 18th October 2013. The participants learned about the bacteria in our everyday environment from the normal flora microbes that co-exist with us in our homes, the ‘field marks’ that can be observed around us (such as in ponds and streams or on the facades of buildings) and the beneficial bacteria, moulds and yeasts that help create some of the foods we love (cheese and other fermented products). The made their own Winogradsky Column ‘pets’ and created DIY agar. The event was part of Anna Dumitriu’s solo exhibion “Germ Theory: Bacterial Co-evolution and Textile Art” at Kapelica Gallery.
The Bacteria, Textiles and Fashion workshop took place at Ramsteeg 2 in Leiden, Netherlands on 21st June 2013. The workshop focussed on the symbiotic relationship of textiles/biotechnology and microbiology and was part of series of events under the theme Living Couture organised by The Centre for Arts and Genomics at the University of Leiden. (Image by Ica van Tongeren).
The Bioart and Textiles workshop took place at Genspace in New York City on 12th March 2013. The workshop focussed on helping artists to gain an understanding of working safely with bacteriology techniques using commonly available materials, inspired by pioneers of microbiology such as Sergei Winogradsky and Robert Koch.
The Mapping Bacteria workshop took place in February 2013 at Fluxmedia at Concordia University in Montreal. Participants worked with Anna Dumitriu and her collaborator Alex May to culture bacteria, experiment, make their own antibiotic quilt squares, and use footage of the bacteria they cultured to create site specific video mapped installations.
2012
As part of the DIYbio: Designing for Open Source Science event an Infective Textiles Workshop took place at The Culture Lab in Newcastle, England in May 2012 as part of the Designing Interactive Systems 2012 Conference. This short workshop introduced an international group of participants involved in DIYbio methods to some of the techniques used in Anna Dumitriu’s work.
BioArt Responses to Modernising Medical Microbiology took place at The Barn Gallery, St John’s College, University of Oxford in May 2012. On this practical and theoretical workshop participants began to learn how to work safely with bacteria as an artistic medium using commonly available supplies. They started to develop a bacteriocentric view of the world, understand the textile techniques used in the exhibition and discuss the new advances in clinical microbiology being investigated by the Modernising Medical Microbiology Project. The workshop also looked at other key artists in the field of BioArt, issues of public engagement in science, ethics, and the nature of collaborative art/science practice.
2011
The First Egyptian BioArt Workshop took place in November 2011 at The Ahmed Shawki Museum in Cairo and was funded by The British Council, curated by Yara Makawei. Workshop participants were: Anna Danial, Alaa Shahin, Eslam Hamed, Heba El Aziz, Mahmoud Hashim, Omnia Salah, Shaymaa Aziz and Yara Makawei. The workshop took place, at a time of some political unrest in the country. The workshop introduced the subject area through a series of talks on ethics, philosophy of science, art and science collaboration and health and safety. It also looked at a number of key practitioners in detail. The practical elements of the workshop stemmed from Dumitriu’s own art practice, which involves creating textile works incorporating bacteria (such as a quilt where each square is stained with MRSA bacteria in interplay with tools and techniques in the treatment and diagnosis of the disease). The artworks are then made sterile prior to exhibition.
BioArt and Textiles: The Art and Science of Linen took place in July 2011 at The Irish Linen Centre and R Space Gallery in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. Workshop participants worked with Anna Dumitriu to develop Irish Linen infective textiles inspired by the work of pioneering microbiologist Sergei Winoradsky who isolated the bacterium responsible for the retting (rotting) of flax in 1853.
The 2011 BioArt Course at The University of Leiden: Art Matters Honours Class at The University of Leiden in the Netherlands – in the Centre for Arts and Genomics April and May 2011. This course was designed enable students to begin to develop a practical and theoretical understanding of art/science collaboration.
Microbiology and Practical BioArt and Creative Communication: using installation and performance to communicate ideas in medicine were accredited courses for third year medical students, led by Anna Dumitriu at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, UK from 2008-2011. Microbiology and Practical BioArt is run in collaboration with Dr John Paul. The courses have culminated in exhibitions and symposia.
2009
Art and Science Collaborative Practice took place over ten afternoons at the University of Brighton, UK, in 2009, the course involved second year art students developing their own projects and working hands on in a microbiology lab with bacteria and bacteriophages (viruses that can infect bacteria) to develop artworks.