Following its success at Storyhouse Chester and Chester Visual Arts in 2025 and its national coverage (Radio 4’s Sunday Programme, The Conversation, and Mom Egg Review), this witty collection of work comes to Bristol and includes the opportunity to meet the artist and the curator, an art trail, and interfaith discussion.

Lightman asks a timely question: why do we know so little about the lives, bodies, and domestic struggles of women from the Bible—particularly as they age? Through watercolour and oil, Lightman’s paintings revel in what is rarely depicted: the angry, damp, warm, wet, dripping, drooping realities of middle age and motherhood.

For Rev. David Stephenson, Vicar of St Paul’s and Cotham, bringing Lightman’s work to Bristol “offers a wonderful opportunity to engage with women’s embodied experience in relation to faith; and to enable stories to be heard that often aren’t given space or attention. It’s exciting, in our diverse, but too often segregated city, to bring people together around Sarah’s beautifully provocative art, and to reflect on its impact together.”

Curated by Dr. Dawn Llewelleyn.

Events

Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully: Meet the Artist and Curator

In this session, Sarah shares her inspiration and her use of religion, humour, and satire in her paintings in conversation with the show’s curator, Dr Dawn Llewellyn (Associate Professor of Religion and Gender, University of Chester)

Sunday March 15th 2026

2pm – 4pm

Tickets: (pay what you can)

Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully: Interfaith Reflections

Join artist Sarah Lightman, curator Dr Dawn Llewellyn, and panel members from a diverse range of faith identities to discuss and share their reflections on the exhibition, and the religious archetypes that shape our understandings of visibility, care, and womanhood.

Wednesday March 25th 2026

6pm – 8pm

Tickets: (pay what you can)

Contacts:

St Paul’s Church, St Paul’s Road Clifton, Bristol BS8 1LP

Other Opening Hours

March 15 2026                12.00 – 15.00 (including ‘Meet the Artist and Curator’)

March 18 2026                12.30 – 16.00 (including lunchtime concert)

March 21 2026                 12.30 – 16.00

March 22 2026                12.00 – 15.00

March 25 2026                12.30 – 20.00 (including lunchtime concert, art trail, and interfaith discussion) March 28 2026          12.30 – 16.00