The After Sessions with Hettie Judah

For VAI Get Together 2026, Hettie Judah will host THE AFTER SESSIONS – open conversations on art, creativity, and navigating a creative life. This informal, intimate, discursive event considers how artistic careers deviate from established routes, with Hettie taking centre stage to receive questions about the art world. Can you make it without going to art school? Can you get back into the art world after years away? What does ‘success’ actually mean? Hettie will also be signing copies of her new book, How to Enter the Art World …After, which illuminates the many different ways to be an artist, regardless of life’s obstacles and interruptions.

HETTIE JUDAH is a writer and curator based in London. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian, Frieze and The Times Literary Supplement, and writes a monthly column for Apollo magazine. Her writing on art can also be found in Art Quarterly, Art Monthly, ArtReview and other publications. Recent books include Tracey Emin (Tate, 2026), The Secret Lives of Stones (Laurence King, 2025), Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood (Thames & Hudson, 2024), and How Not to Exclude Artist Mothers (and Other Parents) (Lund Humphries, 2022). Hettie was curator of the Hayward Gallery touring exhibition, ‘Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood’ which also ran at VISUAL, Carlow, until early 2026. Based on years spent talking with artists and arts professionals, her latest book, How to Enter the Art World… After (Hoxton Mini Press, 2026) is a compendium of guidelines, pointers, and tips to help readers chart their own route as an artist. She is currently working on a major book on art and women’s desire, to be published by Thames & Hudson in autumn 2027.