About Healing Arts - The Healing Power of Nature in Victorian Society

Join Dr Hardeep Dhindsa and Dr Bharti Parmar for a fascinating exploration of how nature shaped ideas of healing in Victorian society. Through the symbolic and medicinal meanings attached to flowers, plants, and stones, this talk will uncover the rich visual and cultural language through which Victorians understood health, emotion and restoration.

Location: The studio, Head towards the Pre-Raphaelite galleries.

This session is part of Healing Arts Birmingham (HABrum) is a week-long, city-wide event showing how arts, culture and heritage can improve health, wellbeing and social equity.

The programme brings together community activity and professional practice from across Birmingham and the West Midlands. It showcases Birmingham's creative sector while demonstrating the evidence and methods behind creative health.

Further details

Dr Hardeep Dhindsa

Dr Hardeep Dhindsa (he/him) is the Curator of Victorian Art and the Global at Birmingham Museums Trust and specialises in the impact of the British Empire on British culture. He is interested in the relationship between natural, philosophical, and historical knowledge in the construction of British identity. Hardeep has collaborated with several cultural institutions, including The British Museum, The National Trust, and The National Gallery to develop public programmes addressing the difficult histories of empire.

Dr Bharti Parmar

Dr Bharti Parmar is an artist and Honorary Research Fellow at Birmingham University, where she is developing a project on illustrated plant encyclopaedias known as old English herbals. She will be accompanying Dr Dhinsda to speak about the codified languages at play in the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the galleries - particularly the Language of Stones and the Language of Flowers.