dear sisters: activists' archives
This exhibition runs from Thursday 21 March until Sunday 1 September 2024, at the Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts.
Our exhibition presents an archive curated by the Nottingham Feminist Archive Group, a collective of local women, some of whom were active in the Women’s Liberation Movement. They embarked on a project to interview the former activists they were still in contact with and brought us their personal memories, zines, photographs, posters, papers, campaign badges and T-shirts to form the Feminist Archive (East Midlands).
They also set to work developing and preserving the collection of feminist magazines at the Nottingham Women’s Centre Library, the duplicate copies of which were kindly donated to form the basis of our new Feminist Publications Collection. By preserving these living histories, future generations are armed with the knowledge of their struggles. The fight goes on.
This exhibition has been curated by University of Nottingham Libraries, Manuscripts and Special Collections, with advice from the Nottingham Feminist Archive Group.
Exhibition themes
Six exhibition boards are on display in the Gallery. One of the boards can be downloaded or viewed online as Adobe PDF.
Further Research
Items from our collections are available to consult in the Manuscripts and Special Collections reading room on King's Meadow Campus.
Links to our catalogues, and specific collections relating to the themes featuring in the exhibition can be found below.
Films: Our series of films will be coming soon
Curator Sarah Colborne discusses the interviews which form the core of the Feminist Archive (East Midlands)
Curator Ursula Ackrill talks about magazines that gave women a public space in which to raise their voices
Nottingham Feminist Archive Group member Tina Pamplin talks about how she brought her activism into her teaching career.
Nottingham Feminist Archive Group members talks about the magazine Socialist Woman which originated in Nottingham.
From the blog
Read our blogs and Discover newsletter article about items featured in the dear sisters exhibition.
All blogs relating to the feminist collections can be found on our blog site: https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscripts/category/cataloguing-2/feminist/
Introducing the Feminist Archive (East Midlands)
An introduction to the Feminist Archive (East Midlands) and the Feminist Publications Collection at the University of Nottingham
Go to blog post
How the Feminist Archive (East Midlands) was created
Find out about the beginnings of the archive and the woman-hours invested in its creation.
Go to blog post
Audrey Beecham and the Nottingham Women's Liberation Group
Audrey Beecham (1915-1989) was a University of Nottigham lecturer, poet and feminist.
Go to article, on pages 6-7
Events
Programme of associated talks and events coming up at Lakeside Arts.
Recordings of some of these talks may be made available on this webpage shortly.
Lunchtime Talks
£3 (free concessions)
A working class woman is something to be
Tuesday 9 April, 1-2pm
Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside Arts
Dr Lisa McKenzie, who grew up in the coal-mining town of Sutton-in-Ashfield, is a self-described “working class academic”, exploring how the white working class in the UK are perceived. She will talk about her book in which she presents ten stories of the experiences of women involved in the miners’ strikes of the 1980s.
Meet the activists
Tuesday 11 June, 1-2pm
Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside Arts
A panel discussion featuring members of the Nottingham Feminist Archive Group and their interviewees, explores in depth some of the themes which emerged from the interviews with the women activists.
Black women activists
Wednesday 10 July, 1-2pm
Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside Arts
Dr Panya Banjoko, founder of the Nottingham Black Archive, talks about Black women’s activism in the UK and highlights some of the women who feature in the Archive.
Making misogyny a hate crime CANCELLED
REPLACEMENT TALK:
No More Page 3 Campaign
Wednesday 24 July, 1-2pm
Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside Arts
Nottingham nurse, Lisa Clarke, will talk about her involvement in the national campaign of 2012 to 2015, which sought an end to The Sun’s use of photographs of topless women, which it had been publishing on the third page of its tabloid newspaper since 1970.
Other events
Guided tours of the dear sisters exhibition
Free, advance booking required.
Thursday 16 May
Thursday 27 June
11am-12noon
Weston Gallery
Join us for a guided walk through the exhibition and learn about the stories behind the items on display.
Please book all of these events through www.lakesidearts.org.uk or call 0115 846 7777
Get the latest updates
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