Women’s History Month In East London

1-31 March 2024
www.alternativearts.org.uk

Contemporary women artists, activists, writers and performers present a diverse programme of events and exhibitions celebrating women in galleries, venues, libraries and institutions across East London.

Events taking place during International Women’s Week 2-10 March are included in this programme.

ACME
44 Copperfield Road E3 4RR Mile End tube, Limehouse DLR
http://www.acme.org.uk 020 8981 8811

London-based charity Acme has been supporting artists in necessitous circumstances for over 50 years. Over this time it has provided thousands of artists with affordable studios, work/live space and a programme of artist support through residencies and awards. Acme is the single largest provider of affordable artists studios in England, supporting over 800 individual artists across 15 buildings in Greater London each year.

Here is a selection of women artists who have chosen to be part of Women’s History Month Please visit their websites:

Joan Ashworth
www.locatingsylviapankhurst.com
www.joanashworth.com
Liz Elton www.lizelton.com
Lucy Harris https://LucyHarris.net
Victoria Helena www.victoriahelena.com
Birgitta Hosea www.birgittahosea.co.uk
Rona Lee www.ronalee.org
Eleanor Moreton www.eleanormoreton.co.uk
Emily Richardson
www.emilyrichardson.org.uk
Helen Robertson www.helenrobertson.net
RubbishArtiste www.instagram.com/rubbishartiste/
Amanda Whittle
www.axisweb.org/amandawhittle/

Open Studios
The following artists are holding Open Studios for visitors:

Sun 24 March Acme Studios 44 Copperfield Road E3 4RR
Mile End tube/Limehouse DLR

Studio 8/1: EMILY RICHARDSON and LUCY HARRIS 2pm-4pm
www.emilyrichardson.org.uk lucyharris.net
Lucy Harris and Emily Richardson work across moving image, sound, photography, drawing and collage engaging with landscape, architecture and memory.

Studio 7, Floor 2: RONA LEE 2pm-5pm www.ronalee.org
Rona Lee is an artist researcher whose current practice encompasses collage, printmaking and video, working with found images as a sustainable means to explore the extractive underpinnings of contemporary environmental relations.

Studio 13, Floor 2: HELEN ROBERTSON 2pm-5pm www.helenrobertson.net
Through mixed media installations and performances Helen Robertson’s recent work explores relations across women, architecture and wider ecologies. This has included several films that respond to seminal architectural work in which women have played a significant but often unrecognised role.

Every Weekend in March 12noon-3pm
Acme Studios 15 Robinson Rd E2 9LX Bethnal Green tube.

RUBBISHARTISTE www.instagram.com/rubbishartiste/
RubbishArtiste will be making and selling magic mushrooms.

Visits by Appointment at Studio U, Acme Studios, Orsman Road N1 5RA
Hoxton Overground

VICTORIA HELENA www.victoriahelena.com info@victoriahelena.com

Victoria Helena is a multinational artist from a Polish Catholic and working class background. Victoria currently has a studio in Hackney. Her vastly unique life experience informs her work rooted in the politics of labour, grief, neuropsychology, oppression, and the abuse of power.

AREBYTE GALLERY
7 Botanic Square, Leamouth Peninsula E14 0LG Canning Town tube/East India DLR
www.arebyte.com 020 4503 2205

HOMAGE TO QUAN ÂM : Maria Than
28 March – 18 May FREE

Maria’s exhibition explores different cultural terrains through transmedia artworks. Different elements of identity and childhood memories create a captivating world that offers a fresh journey for audiences.

AUTOGRAPH
Rivington Place EC2A 3BA Shoreditch High Street Overground
https://autograph.org.uk 020 7729 9200
MONICA ALCAREZ-DUARTE: Digital Clouds Don’t

Carry Rain
Until 1 June
Wed-Fri 11am-6pm, Thurs 11am-9pm, Sat 12.30pm-6.30pm. FREE

Affirming the value of her ancestors’ indigenous knowledge, Mexican-British artist Monica Alcarez-Duarte examines western society’s obsession with speed, expansion and resource accumulation at a time when ecological disaster looms. She raises the ethical questions – Where does knowledge lie? Who and what is classified? – joining together the threads of dissociated knowledge systems.

BARBICAN CENTRE
Silk Street EC2Y 8DS Barbican/Moorgate tube www.barbican.org.uk 020 7870 2500
Barbican Art Gallery

UNRAVEL: THE POWER AND POLITICS OF TEXTILES IN ART
Until 26 May
Sat-Wed 10am-6pm, Thurs & Fri 10am-8pm. Tkts 020 7870 2500

This exhibition shines a light on artists from the 1960s to today who have explored the transformative and subversive potential of textiles, harnessing the medium to ask charged questions about power, who holds it, and how can it be challenged and reclaimed? With over 100 artworks by 50 international practitioners including Faith Ringgold, Tracey Emin, Cecilia Vicuna, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Judy Chicago, Louise Bourgeois, Sheila Hicks, Violeta Parra, Hannah Ryggen, Angela Su.

Barbican Cinema
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL
14-22 March at the Barbican Centre & Rich Mix https://ff.hrw.org/london

Screenings at the Barbican Centre:
Thurs 14 March 6pm MEDIHA
Sat 16 March 6pm A REVOLUTION ON CANVAS
Wed 20 March 6.15pm AFTER THE FIRE
Fri 22 March 6.15pm SUMMER QAMP

BISHOPSGATE INSTITUTE
230 Bishopsgate, Spitalfields EC2M 4QH Liverpool Street tube/rail
www.bishopsgate.org.uk 020 7392 9200

ARCHIVE TOUR Feminist & Women’s History
Wed 6 March 6.30pm-8pm Book Tkts £11/£5concs
Join Colleen Goldspink, Library & Digital Archives Manager, to hear about feminist activists and organisations on a tour of the Women’s and Feminists History Collection. Learn the story of the suffragette who was so excited by the cause she bought the WSPU tea set twice, the remarkable woman who put up Gandhi in the East End, Britain’s first ever female firefighter, and the Berwickshire Granarchists.

SWING PATROL’S Meet Our Scene
Sat 16 March 7pm-1am 18+ Tkts £23/£20 in advance/£26 on door

Swing Patrol loves to get all their dancers together in one place and if you have not been out social dancing yet, this is the perfect time to get started. It is a wonderful night out for the Swing Patrol community with both live music and vintage sounds from DJs. There will be a taster class at the start of the night, so you can learn some moves for the dance floor, plus dancing until 1am.

BLOW THE FUSE
Celebrate International Women’s Day
St Mathias Hall, Wordsworth Rd N16 8DD Dalston Kingsland Overground
SEA CHANGE + JAN ALLAIN
Fri 8 March. Doors 7.30pm, Music 8.30pm, Bar.

Book Tkts www.blowthefuse.com

Join Sea Change for an uplifting of Latin, Bossa Nova, Afro-Cuban and Rock grooves. Plus Jan Allain in a rare UK live appearance promising a dive through blues, jazz and country ballads with trusty guitar, wild harmonica, rich vocals and humour. Musical collaboration with Deirdre Cartwright – guitar, Diane McLoughlin – sax, Alison Rayner – bass, Jessica Palin – congas / percussion.

BRADY ARTS CENTRE
192-196 Hanbury Street E1 5HU Whitechapel/Aldgate East tube
www.towerhamlets.org.uk 020 7364 7000

WOMEN’S SPRING OPEN EXHIBITION
8-28 March Mon-Fri 9am-7pm Sat 10am-4pm FREE
Mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, wives and aunties! This exhibition is a celebration of the talent and creativity of women of all ages who live, work or study in Tower Hamlets. The Brady Arts Centre showcases a range of skills as part of Women’s History Month and takes pride in the diverse output from across the generations. This includes visual and applied arts.

A TEAM ARTS EDUCATION Mothers, Daughters, and Sons Workshop
Sat 16 March, 11am-4pm FREE

Mothers, Daughters & Sons, Aunts, Sisters, Nieces and Nephews are invited to explore the theme ‘Inspire’ and make artworks that will form part of an exciting project by sharing and learning traditional craft skills, creating a positive sense of community and belonging through visual storytelling. Participants may bring along fabric or samples they are working on. Your artwork can be left or taken away.

Please register in advance with Sarbjit Natt as places are limited.
Email ateamartseducation@gmail.com 07956 377537

EASTSIDE COMMUNITY HERITAGE
www.hidden-histories.org 020 8553 3116
Celebrating Women’s History Month with two heritage walks in Newham based on oral histories from our community archive (collected over the past 25 years).

WOMEN’S HERITAGE TRAIL 1: Forest Gate to Barking Road
Sat 16 March. Meet at 11am. Walk one and a half hours. FREE
Meeting Point: Outside Forest Gate Station E7 0NF

Final Stop: Newham Bookshop, 743-745 Barking Road E13 9ER
Listen to the oral histories from some of the women who have lived and worked in the borough of Newham, as part of this guided tour. Our final stop, at Newham Bookshop, offers us an opportunity to go inside and have some refreshments, and explore the digital archive in more detail.

WOMEN’S HISTORY TRAIL 2: Stratford to SubCo
Wed 27 March. Meet at 11.30am. Walk one and a half hours. FREE

Meeting Point: Outside Old Town Hall, 29 The Broadway E15 4BQ Nearest tube – Stratford
Final Stop: SubCo Trust, 49 Plashet Road E13 0QA

Listen to the oral histories from some of the women who have lived and worked in the borough of Newham, as part of this guided tour. Our final stop at the SubCo Trust, is an important site for Women’s History in Newham and offers us the opportunity to go inside, have some refreshments and explore the digital archive in more detail.

EAST END WOMEN’S MUSEUM
www.eastendwomensmuseum.org

A public history project recording, sharing and celebrating women’s stories and voices from East London history and the present day. We are working towards opening in a permanent home in Barking but in the meantime we are a ‘kitchen table’ museum who also put on events, exhibitions and make resources available for women’s groups, schools and colleges to use.

OXFORD HOUSE
Derbyshire Street E2 6HG Bethnal Green tube
www.oxfordhouse.org.uk 020 7739 9001

Film Screening: ROCKS
Wed 6 March 6.45pm Adults £4/ Under 18s Free

A special screening in our atmospheric chapel of the award-winning film Rocks (2019). Filmed in East London and featuring an extraordinary cast of young actors, the story follows the journey of a determined teenage girl and explores the joy, resilience and spirit of girlhood. Director Sarah Gavron Certificate 12A

OXFORD HOUSE WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH POP-UP
Thurs 21 March 12noon FREE

Drop in to our Café for an informal session with our Heritage Team. We’ll be showcasing treasures from our archive and leading snappy talks about women’s history at Oxford House.

RAGGED SCHOOL MUSEUM
46-50 Copperfield Road E3 4RR Mile End tube. Limehouse DLR

https://raggedschoolmuseum.org 020 8980 6405
GRAND UNION ORCHESTRA Family Workshop
Sat 23 March 1.30pm-4.30pm FREE

Join Grand Union Orchestra Musicians on a journey into music from Bangladesh, Africa, the Caribbean, and the East End. Learn about their instruments, sing their songs, discover how their music travelled to London from across the world. No skills or experience necessary. Bring an instrument if you can play one or a song from your childhood.

RICH MIX
35-47 Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch E1 6LA Shoreditch High St overground
www.richmix.org.uk 020 7846 7045

ARAB WOMEN ARTISTS NOW FESTIVAL
1-31 March Tkts boxoffice@richmix.org.uk 020 7619 7498

AWAN presented by Arts Canteen is the UK’s only exclusively Arab female-led festival showcasing Arab female talent from both the UK and diaspora featuring music, spoken word, visual arts, theatre, literature, talks, performance, comedy, commissions and workshops.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL
14–22 March at the Rich Mix and Barbican Centre https://ff.hrw.org/london
The Festival presents films highlighting the best in human rights storytelling. Audience members can take part in Q&As after screenings.

Screenings at Rich Mix:-
Fri 15 March 8.30pm WE ARE GUARDIANS
Sun 17 March 3pm LAND OF MY DREAMS
6pm COCONUT HEAD GENERATION
Mon 18 March 6.15pm INSHALLAH A BOY
Tues 19 March 6.15pm POWER ALLEY
Thurs 21 March 6.15pm TREE OF VIOLENCE

ROMAN ROAD SQUARE MARKET E2 0RN
Bethnal Green tube www.Afribeana.com

EXHIBITION AFRIBEANAFEST
Sat 2 March 12noon-5pm FREE

More than just a market/mini food festival, it’s a celebration of culture, community and creativity showcasing the best small and large black owned businesses.