Women's Views on News |
| Women of the World festival 2013 Posted: 25 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST
The Guardian even dedicated a whole feature to the succession of cultural events surrounding women in 2013 and the women behind them. One cultural event is set to combine a multitude of speakers, discussions, workshops and events in celebration of women across the globe. The Women of the World (WOW) festival is an annual event held at the Southbank Centre in London. The festival "where women and men of all ages and backgrounds celebrate women's achievements and discuss the obstacles they face across the world" will run from 6 March to 10 March 2013. From expert debates on education, rape and race to free gigs hosting emerging female talent, the WOW festival is an un-missable opportunity to have your say, celebrate with other like-minded women and come together to make effective future changes. The program of speakers and events is yet to be fully released but the same diversity of previous years has been promised. 2012 saw the likes of comedian Kate Smurthwaite and Cosmopolitan editor Louise Court go head to head in a debate asking "Am I a Feminist? Can I Vajazzle?" which inspired a wave of audience contributors to voice their own opinions on feminism and the beauty industry. This year the festival will also be celebrating International Women's Day on 8 March and has announced that in honor of the day there will be free speed mentoring sessions for pass holders. You can purchase tickets now and view content from previous years on the Southbank Centre website.  |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2013 01:30 AM PST
An appeal launched recently aims to raise £6,000 to restore Emily Ford's paintings in All Souls’ Church in Leeds. Launched by the West Yorkshire Group of the Victorian Society, the appeal draws attention to Ford both as an overlooked yet significant artist and an important early suffragist. The All Souls paintings, which are attached to the cover of the church font, represent only a small portion of her artwork, most of which has not survived. The chair of the Group and Leeds historian Janet Douglas has argued that Ford, although overshadowed by her older sister, Isabella Ford, is an "interesting woman in her own right." Isabella has undoubtedly enjoyed the greater historical reputation as a social reformer and suffragist, but there has been a recent resurgence of interest in Emily Ford’s art work. And next year, she will feature in a major exhibition on lesser known Pre-Raphaelite artists in the Netherlands' Groninger Museum. She was trained at the Slade School of Fine Art shortly after it opened in 1871 and exhibited work in the Royal Academy and the Grosvenor Gallery. Ford’s religious art work once decorated churches throughout England, including London. The majority has not survived because of churches being demolished or changing tastes in church decoration. The series of eight panel paintings are attached to the font cover that Ford donated to All Souls in 1891 to commemorate her baptism at the age of 39. Not having been cleaned since that time, they have fallen into a very poor state of repair. Figures depicted in some of the paintings have completely disappeared. According to Douglas, the unique value of these paintings lies in their depiction of Ford’s friends and contemporary Anglican clerics. These individuals include a significant number of women of both local and national importance. Among them are the women's rights advocate Emelia Russell Gurney and Lady Mount Temple, who was a patron of D.G. Rossetti and particularly close to Ford. Ford co-founded the Leeds Suffrage Society with her sister Isabella in 1890. Later, as Vice-President of the Artists Suffrage League, she used her creative talent to design art promoting the suffragist cause, including the banners carried in their marches. The font paintings convey the importance of religion to Ford’s life and art. Born into a Quaker family, she became interested in spiritualism and psychological research as an adult. It was after her conversion to Anglicanism in 1890 that she primarily produced religious art, especially wall murals. The subjects of the font paintings are Biblical, but the heads of the figures depicted are those of her friends and contemporaries. This ties them to Ford’s life as a devout Christian, suffragist and social reformer. Executed in the Italian primitivist style, they also demonstrate her skill as a trained artist. Other surviving examples of Ford’s paintings can be viewed on the BBC website. The restoration appeal was launched on Saturday at All Souls’ Church. Donations can be made through the Victorian Society's website.  |
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