Women Collecting Women
Arts Retreat |12 - 14 June | Dark Skies Reserve, Southcombe Barn, Dartmoor
Women Collecting Women Weekend: Sarah-Joy Ford
June 12 - 14th 2026
Dark Skies Reserve, Southcombe Barn, Dartmoor
This is an opportunity for conscientious collectors and institutions to support the creative and intellectual legacy of acclaimed contemporary artist Sarah-Joy Ford; your chance to help counter embedded disparities in artworld acquisitions and critical attention.
Ella and Vashti invite you to an intimate women-only weekend with Ford at Southcombe Barn, Dartmoor. This weekend gathers like-minded collectors who are committed to protecting the legacies of artist-women.
Please join us for a relaxed weekend of locally sourced food, informal conversation with the artist, a behind the scenes look at her processes and practice, and time to relax and enjoy our wild wellbeing spa including a natural swimming pond and wood-fired sauna. We have sleeping spaces if you are looking to stay over; a converted Piggery and Hay Barn, nestled in 16 acres of wildflower meadows set within a Dark Skies reserve.
About Sarah-Joy Ford
Sarah-Joy’s practice has gained growing momentum and critical attention among UK collectors and institutions, driven by its freshness, intelligence and incredible skill. The work captures the current moment and is both timely and compelling.
Ford works with textiles to explore the complexities and pleasures of queer communities, histories and archives. Her practice sits at the intersection of digital and traditional, using strategies of quilting, digital embroidery, digital print, applique and hand embellishment.
We have very limited spaces so please get in touch as soon as possible. If you would like join us for the lunch on Saturday or would like to stay with us the whole weekend at Southcombe Barn please let us know as soon as possible in order for us to accommodate your food and to reserve your room in one of our sleeping spaces.
About Cassinelli Mills
Cassinelli Mills go beyond traditional artist representation, committed to supporting artist-women and non-binary artists past, present and future. We support artists with a patchwork approach, from grant applications to academic recognition, from disability access to sales. With distinguished art historian and Holberg Prize awardee Prof. Griselda Pollock as our patron we are committed to countering the canonical structural disparities artist-women face.
Cassinelli Mills is a collaboration between Vashti Cassinelli, an independent curator who runs @southcombebarn arts space in Dartmoor, and Dr Ella S. Mills, art historian, curator and artist mentor of @talking_on_corners. We support the living legacies of early-career to established artists whose practices are grounded in research and social engagement cassinellimills.com
Southcombe Barn is an arts and artist residency space based in Widecombe-in-the Moor, Dartmoor focused on working with contemporary artist-women and non-binary artists with socially engaged, sustainable and land-based practices.
