Posters courtesy of Feminist Archive South
As some of you may already know, we are extremely pleased to share the news that Feminist Archive South has been awarded over £50,000 by the Government Equalities Office as part of the Women’s Suffrage Centenary Grant Scheme for our 3 strand project Hatpins to Hashtags.
Read more about the project in the blog post below this one.
Feminist Archive South would like to invite you to a volunteer meeting to discuss the project on Tuesday 5th June, 7-9pm in the Associates Space at Spike Island.
Please come to the front doors at Spike and one of the FAS team will be there to let you in (the Associates space is upstairs and you need a pass to get through the doors).
The meeting will be an opportunity to hear more about Hatpins to Hashtags, share your thoughts and ideas, collectively organise and join the network of people working on the project.
Hatpins to Hashtags aims to increase knowledge of UK democracy and contribute to greater gender parity in local and national politics through three interlinked project strands: digital engagement, educational workshops and a touring exhibition. These events will celebrate the historical legacy of suffrage and the WLM and bring untold feminist narratives to light. They will also work to engage groups underrepresented in politics and civic life, particularly LGBT+ people, those from lower-socio-economic backgrounds, and those living in rural isolation, with caring responsibilities or homebound due to a disability.
If you plan to attend, drop an email to [email protected] so we know how many people to expect — and please share this email far and wide with anyone you think may be interested!
If you have any access needs, please do not hesitate to contact us. Spike Island has disabled access throughout the building and you can find a statement about accessibility on their website. If you can’t make the meeting, don’t worry — we will be organising more soon and please feel free to get in touch with any thoughts in the meantime or suggestions on the most accessible times of the day/week we can hold meetings.
Once again, we’d like to say a really big thank you to all of the brilliant volunteers who have been coming to the workshops and giving their time to digitising our collection of 1000 posters.
OTHER EVENTS COMING UP….
There are a few spaces left on the digital archiving poster workshops TOMORROW, 16th May and two more on 20th June and 18th July from 2-5pm at Special Collections in the Arts and Social Sciences Library, University of Bristol (accessible). Please email [email protected] to sign up for a workshop.
Also:
Tuesday 5th June: Translating Latin American Feminisms Workshop
A workshop exploring feminist translation strategies and the rich and varied collection of Latin American feminist magazines, posters and pamphlets. Participants will be invited to translate from Spanish and/or Portuguese to English. Led by Ellie O’Connell and Dr Katie Brown.
If you would like to write for our blog get in touch via email, Facebook or Twitter.
The Feminist Archive is delighted to announce that it has been awarded over £50,000 by the Government Equalities Office as part of the Women’s Suffrage Centenary Grant Scheme.
FAS was one of 8 standout schemes to be awarded a share of the Large Grant Fund designed to “celebrate 100 years of women’s suffrage, educate young people about its significance, and encourage more women to participate in public life so that they have an equal voice.”
As well as the Women’s Suffrage Centenary, 2018 marks the 40thanniversary of the the Feminist Archive South which was established in 1978 to document the histories of international feminist social movements active between 1960-2000. Including over 160 metres of diverse archive materials – oral histories, pamphlets, posters, the personal papers of women activists, periodicals– the archive tells the story of how activists struggled for gender equality and realised the increased participation of women in public life. Alongside our partner archive based at the University of Leeds (FAN), we hold one of the most significant collections of women’s activist histories in the UK.
The Women’s Suffrage Centenary project aims to increase knowledge of UK democracy and contribute to greater gender parity in local and national politics through three interlinked project strands: digital engagement, educational workshops and a touring exhibition. These events will celebrate the historical legacy of suffrage and the WLM and bring untold feminist narratives to light. They will also work to engage groups underrepresented in politics and civic life, particularly LGBT+ people, those from lower-socio-economic backgrounds, and those living in rural isolation, with caring responsibilities or homebound due to a disability.
The Feminist Archive would like to express our gratitude to the Government Equalities Office for funding this project and congratulate the 7 other winning projects. You can read more about the Women’s Suffrage Centenary Grant Schemeand other projects here and follow our news and project developments on Twitter and Facebook.
The materials from the Heritage Lottery Funded Sistershow Revisited project, which took place from 2010-2011, have now been catalogued and are searchable on the University of Bristol’s Archive Catalogue. They bear the reference ‘DM2606 Sistershow Revisited’.
Pat VT West & Jackie Thrupp sit together under a giant hat that was made by Jackie for the first Sistershow performance in March 1973
In the meantime, enjoy these photos that we digitised as part of the project:
The figure dressed in red satin is Alison Rook, who donated a large archive for the exhibition, and was instrumental in getting the project off the ground.
Part of Helen Taylor and Brenda Jacques tape slide project that was used to raise awareness between women/ feminist groups about the activities and ideas behind women’s liberation
One of the few photographic documents of the Sistershow performances. This is the first show, that took place at Bower Ashton. Note the degradation of the image.
We still have catalogues from the exhibition available and you can get one for a small donation.
Its the last week you can see the Bristol-based LGBT history group Outstories’ exhibition Revealing Stories, which is being displayed at MShed.
Revealing Stories is part of LGBT history month and tells the (sometimes hidden) histories of LGBT people and communities in Bristol and the South West.
It also includes a number of artefacts from the Feminist Archive South, such as the Bristol Lesbian Line Banner below, and copies of Move, the local lesbian publication from the 1970s.
The exhibition is a fantastic achievement and a valuable tool to educate people who may not know about the experience of LGBT people.
It is moving and lovingly constructed, and will no doubt help contribute to the gradual de-stigmatisation of LGBT people in Bristol, and beyond. Well done Outstories!
Go see it before it is gone!
In 2010-2011 the Heritage Lottery Funded Sistershow Revisited: Feminism in Bristol, 1973-1975.
The project used the antics of Sistershow, an anarchic theatre and arts troupe to tell the history of feminism in Bristol during 1973-1975.
There is extensive documentation of the project, which produced a three week exhibition at Centrespace Gallery, a book and a series of cultural events, on the blog. It includes photos, audio and film and is well worth a look!
The exhibition catalogue is still available from HammerOn Press.
The book and exhibition was designed by Jan Martin, who also made the fetching banner for this site.