Barking and Dagenham Council is delighted to announce the next steps in the development of the Women’s Museum, a socially engaged exhibition and community space in East London, which will give platform to the experiences of women, girls and allies from the area and beyond.
Partnering with the EFG London Jazz Festival, the new public programme commences on Saturday 18 November with a series of workshops and performances curated by Nephertiti Oboshie Schandorf including new audio and movement-based performances by artists and creative practitioners Lesley Asare and Jazreena Harlow, musician and broadcaster Dr Hannah Catherine Jones and designer Claire Mason.
In tandem with the programme comes the launch of the new visual identity for the museum, also conceived by Mason. Drawing on women-led activist movements with references to signage and banner making traditions, the large W and M from the new logo are drawn directly from historic source materials found in the borough’s local Archives. In direct visual citation, the logo is based upon letterforms that have passed through the actual hands of the women of Barking and Dagenham and is also a tribute to the legacy of all people making banners everywhere in demonstration of voice, communities and social change.
Designer Claire Mason says: “Banners are powerful, immediate and urgent graphic messages often pieced together with whatever tools and materials are to hand, be it masking tape or needle and thread. When developing the identity for the Women’s Museum it felt crucial to reference the febrile history of political activity of women within the borough of Barking and Dagenham. Working with the borough’s Archives, historic images of women in protest and the banners made by their hands are at the heart of the visual identity.”
The public programme event will also feature the unveiling of a new artwork by artist Meera Shakri Osbourne, the first in a series of commissions by contemporary artists which will form part of the inaugural exhibition at the Women’s Museum, set to open on International Women’s Day, Friday 8 March 2024. Curated by Schandorf, the show entitled An Idea of a Life has been conceived to respond to everyday histories of the women-led community who lived in nearby Barking Abbey from c.666AD to the early 16th Century. The exhibition will connect the voices of the Abbesses and nuns who ran and shaped daily life there with contemporary women, femmes and folk, finding a common ground between the past and the present to connect current lived experiences from this area of East London with those who historically made this religious site – a place of economic influence and socio-political power uncommon to women of the time – their home. The exhibition will feature additional works connected to the seasons that will develop over the course of the exhibition by Lesley Asare and local artist Sarina Mantle. It will also include ongoing archaeological research led by the Council’s Heritage Services on the history of the Abbey, funded through a Heritage Lottery grant.
Councillor Saima Ashraf, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement, said: “We’re so proud to celebrate women, past and present, who have paved and continue to pave the way with their invaluable contributions in our community and beyond. As our brand-new and very exciting Women’s Museum takes shape, please keep your eyes peeled as we’ll be sharing our journey towards the official launch on none other than International Women’s Day in March 2024.”
With final building works commencing at the Women’s Museum space by year end, please get in touch to register for exhibition updates, volunteer opportunities and upcoming carpentry workshops by email at: [email protected] or follow us @thewomensmuseum to join our journey as the museum comes to life.
