Abstract
This paper explores the purposes, mechanisms, and outcomes of the ‘Famous Women Project’. The Project used two feminist antecedents, one a 50-plate ceramic dinner service, and the other a series of pageants performed in the early twentieth century as points of orientation for generative co-production methodologies. Both antecedents have their roots in the suffrage movement, and are entwined in histories of women’s performances for feminist causes. Our co-production work was put into practise at a Tate Exchange programme held at Tate Liverpool in April 2019. The principle feminist arts projects that structured this ‘Famous Women Project’ Tate Exchange were Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant’s 1932-4 Famous Women dinner service, and the pageants of ‘Great’ and ‘Noble’ Women produced by communities of women between 1909-1939. Mirroring the radically hospitable structure of these projects, we firstly aimed to co-produce new knowledge and interpretation about these existing works through working equitably with multiple collaborators. We then attempted to use these explorations to structure the co-production of new artwork, dialogues and engagement projects responding to these works.
Presenters
Hana LeaperReader, Exhibition Studies and History of Art and Museum Studies, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom
