Kingston University academic combines art and science to highlight menopause awareness and tackle women’s health stigma

Science and art have been brought together in a series of new projects led by a Kingston University academic, challenging the stigma surrounding the menopause and women’s health through a groundbreaking body of work featured in several prestigious exhibitions this summer.

Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology Dr Francesca Arrigoni is helping to blur the lines between the arts and the sciences with work set to appear at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition and Dorich House Museum. Alongside this achievement one of her unique hand-printed letterpress books was recently purchased by the Wellcome Collection.

Illuminating the 'manuscript of menopause'

Over the last two years Dr Arrigoni has been crafting a 40-page illuminated manuscript on menopause featuring intricate gold leaf and gouache illustrations, based on research about menopause and its link with cardiovascular health. It is hoped this creative approach will raise public awareness that heart disease remains one of the leading killers of women in the UK.

"Menopause was not given the attention it should have," she said. "When a woman experiences menopause and perimenopause, you realise that there is a serious lack of information available to the public.  Women reach the age of 50 and their vascular health begins to decline, more rapidly than men of a similar age. Awareness needs raising so women can start to prepare earlier,” she added.

This theme takes centre stage in her upcoming solo exhibition, Undiminished: Rebalancing the Female Narrative of Menopause, running from 4 June to 27 July at Kingston University’s Dorich House Museum. Featuring stained-glass windows designed to evoke sacred spaces, the exhibition tackles themes of female agency, autonomy and confidence regarding aging.

As part of the installation, intended to represent the fragile nature of science and scientific discovery, she created a striking disco ball–like chandelier. This work acknowledges that, without scientific discovery, women’s health might remain in the dark ages.

Public engagement workshops and talks were also held, to coincide with Arts Council England’s Wellbeing Creativity Week, where members of the public could share their lived experiences while receiving complementary cardiovascular and hormonal health screenings from undergraduate pharmacy students for their projects.

From lockdown doodles to national recognition

Despite always having an interest in art, it was during the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown that Dr Arrigoni developed the idea of intertwining art and science.

“I felt during the pandemic, I couldn’t teach my students physiology remotely as effectively as I wanted,” she said. “I set up an overhead camera and began to draw and teach through fine art – physiology is a lot about structure-function relationships, so it worked well.” 

It was a successful experiment, with results showing students engaged with the drawing exercises scoring significantly higher on essays than their peers. Following this, Dr Arrigoni worked with the Hunterian Museum to create seminars and lectures for students and the public, while she also collaborated with the museum and The Physiology Society to showcase student work and the transformative power of education.

Recognising the profound link between tactile learning and academic success, she decided to complete a Masters in Illustration at Kingston University to better understand science of neuroaesthetics and the power of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) in education.

She then created a hand-printed letterpress book exploring the narratives and stigmas surrounding sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and how women frequently end up at the ‘sharp end’ of the medical fallout. Entitled Book of STI’s, the unique creation was purchased by the prestigious Wellcome Collection.

Immense privilege at Royal Society exhibition

In what she describes as an immense privilege of her artistic career, Dr Arrigoni’s work will also be showcased on the ground floor of the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition during the final week of June and first week of July.

Supported by a grant from the Physiological Society to examine historical narratives in science, she taught herself the largely forgotten craft of copperplate engraving. She returned to the year 1665 to study the microscopic discoveries of Robert Hooke, as published in his seminal work Micrographia.

The result is a kinetic sculpture that adopts principles of physics to achieve balance – combining etched Hooke-inspired forms, 17th-century microscopic visions and custom fine-art prints.

Discussing the impact of her work, Dr Arrigoni said: “There’s no difference between science and art and that’s how it should be. This stratification of going, 'This is arts and this is science, and never the twain shall meet', we find is very damaging to students.”

• Find out more about studying Pharmacy or Pharmacology at Kingston University.
• Find out more about Dr Francesca Arrigoni’s work.