2026

• January-February: Creative Expansion Group Coaching Programme begins on 10 January. For more information, visit Creative Expansion.

2025

• September: Creative Expansion, A 6-Week Group Coaching Programme for Artists, Writers and Creative Professionals begins on 29 September. For more information, visit the Creative Expansion page.
• 4 September: I am taking part in FOOD, COUNTY, ART – a discussion with Jessamyn Fiore (Co-Director of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark), and Graham Easterlow (CEO of East Durham Community Development Trust) as part of SCRAN, a programme from artists and communities engaging with Gordon Matta-Clark’s artist-led restaurant, FOOD. The talk is from 1.30-3.30pm at Castle Dene Shopping Centre, Peterlee. Tickets can be book via eventbrite.
• 12 June: I will be holding a webinar for Visual Arts Ireland on The Art of Collaborative Practice. More information and to book for the webinar or the 1-1 clinics for artists from Clare, Limerick and Tipperary. 
• May: The World of Interiors reviews More Than The Eyes — “As De Wachter makes clear, much of this gastronomic/artistic activity took place outside the museum: food, with its bathetic capacity to rot, smell and be ingested, makes squeamish the institution’s logic of preservation and display. […] What De Wachter is really hoping for is a paradigm shift. The selected works express a route towards an ‘integrated, fleshly knowledge’, where sight is dethroned in the hierarchy of the senses and Cartesian dualism is no more.”
• April: More Than The Eyes in Art Review — Chris Fite-Wassilak’s article ‘Just Eat: The Artworld’s Strange Relationship With Food’: “More Than the Eyes: Art, Food and the Senses positions food’s use in art as part of a shift away from the primacy of sight.”
• February: PRINT Magazine covers More Than The Eyes — “Set between 1960 and 2000, this savory volume addresses how artists put food at the center of the highly visual art world.”
• The Slowdown by Spencer Bailey reviews More Than The Eyes — “In her beautiful, highly stimulating new book, De Wachter explores artistic food interventions in works by artists such as Agnes Denes, Sarah Lucas, Carolee Schneemann, and Andy Warhol, delving into their oeuvres through the angle of food. Ultimately, De Wachter makes the case that, in a world where sight is prioritized above our other senses, it’s innately expansive, enlivening, and mind-expanding to work with mediums that can also be smelled, tasted, and touched.”

2024

• Thursday 12 December, 6.30-8.30pm: Book launch for More Than the Eyes: Art, Food & the Senses at Donlon Books, London. Join us to celebrate the publication of my new book!

  

• November: I will be in Manchester for two talks on 30 November. First, I will be speaking about my new book, ‘More Than the Eyes: Art, Food & the Senses’ with Lillian Wilkie at the Bound Art Book Fair, which has a special focus on art and food this year. The talk takes place at the Whitworth Art Gallery at 12 noon.

  The same day at 2:30pm, I will be taking part in a panel discussion to celebrate the launch of ‘There is nothing old under the sun’, a publication accompanying Steph Huang’s exhibition at esea contemporary, Manchester, as part of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award’s National Touring Programme. The publication includes my essay, ‘Steph Huang: Nothing Old Under the Sun’.

• I am working with Felixstowe-based arts organisation Pier Projects to deliver Pier Peers, a new Artist Development Programme for artists based in the East of England (Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire). For six months, starting in June Pier Peers will support the creative development of a diverse group of artists through group activities, individual coaching and workshops tailored to the participants’ needs. The application process is simple and the deadline is Friday 26 April at 5pm. Pier Peers is funded by Arts Council England as part of an 18-month programme of activity delivered by Pier Projects.

2023

• August: As part of the Closing Ritual for the Hayward Gallery’s exhibition, Dear Earth, I will be delivering a yoga nidra meditation inspired by the life and work of artist Agnes Denes. The event takes place on 30 August, 5-9pm. Listen to it here.
• May: I am a selector for The Other Art Fair, London Summer 2023, 29 June-2 July
• April: I am delighted to participate as a mentor in the first cohort of CCA x Jerwood = Supports Mentoring programme. The Mentoring scheme offers support and assistance to emerging artists in the Derry-Londonderry region who are navigating the challenges of a career in the arts. Mentees will benefit from insight and knowledge shared by their mentors, who will – through these supportive and constructive sessions – bring their experience, perspectives and prompts to mentees’ practices.
• February: I have qualified as a coach with Relational Dynamics 1st and now offer coaching in addition to mentoring to artists, writers and arts professionals.
• I am currently finishing up writing my new book, ‘More Than The Eyes: Art, Food and the Senses’, which will be published by Atelier Éditions.

2022

• September 2022: Selection Panellist for the 2022 Michael O’Pray Prize for new writing on innovation and experimentation in the moving image. The prize is an initiative of Film and Video Umbrella, in partnership with Art Monthly, supported by University of East London and Arts Council England. Deadline for applications is 26 September 2022.
• April 2022: Residency at Mahler & LeWitt Studios, Spoleto, Italy
• 23 March: online talk for Open Space Contemporary’s I Have Eaten It season, in collaboration with Refettorio Felix.
• Selection committee for The Other Art Fair London, 10-13 March 2022.

2021

• 23 September: in conversation with Esther Janssen to mark her exhibition ‘Silence’ at Unit London. Watch the recording here.
• 3 June, 5-6pm: ‘We don’t like each other’ – DACS Meets Wood and Harrison with Ellen Mara De Wachter. Online talk and Q&A.

2020

• 11 September, 5-6pm: in conversation with Daphne Wright to mark her exhibition ‘Daphne Wright: A Quiet Mutiny – Persists’ at Frith Street Gallery.
• 11 June, 7pm: ‘I Have Eaten It: Communal Meal’ organised by Open Space, with Laura Wilson, Huma Kabakci, Moza Almatrooshi and Gareth Bell-Jones. Watch the recording here.

2019

• 11 November: Collaboration and Mutual Care with Nora Heidorn and Jade Montserrrat at Jerwood Space, London
• 25-31 October: Cultural Skills Series 2019-20 training for artists, curators and cultural sector professionals, British Council Bahrain
• 15 March: Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt film screening at Aller Park Studios, Dartington Arts. I will be introducing the screening of Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970), and Holt and Smithson’s Mono Lake (1968-2004) as well as presenting my video ‘Suburban Odyssey: Revisiting Smithson’s Passaic‘.
• 9 February: Talk about Collaboration in Contemporary Visual Arts Practices at Art Rotterdam.

2018

• 21 November: In conversation with Holly Davey at the Hardwick Gallery, Cheltenham Spa at part of her exhibition ‘The Conversation, 31 October – 22 November 2018.
• 31 October 2018: Art as Social Practice: In conversation with Chris Kraus at Waterstones Gower Street to mark the publication of Kraus’s book ‘Social practices’.
• 27 October 2018: Keynote for the Visible Justice: Collective Imaging and Imagining symposium, London College of Communication
• 25 October 2018: Tour of ‘Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-Garde’ at Barbican Art Gallery.
• 18 October 2018: In conversation with Rachel Maclean at Chapter, Cardiff, following a screening of Maclean’s film ‘Make Me Up’.
• 16 October 2018: In conversation with Yelena Popova about her exhibition ‘Her Name is Prometheus’ at l’étrangère, London.
• 17 September 2018: ‘A&Q’ discussion about Agnès Varda and JR’s film ‘Faces Places’ at Curzon Soho, organised by Birds Eye View.
• 10 September 2018: Art Monthly’s Radio Talk Show on Resonance FM, discussing Bozar’s exhibition ‘Somewhere In Between: Contemporary Art Scenes in Europe’. Listen here.