Events

Opening Night

Beyond Faith opened on June 13 2019 – with 300 guests. The exhibition run was extended twice due to its success with over 200,000 visitors counted in total. A further 950 visitors engaged in the education and learning programme attached to the exhibition.

Talks

Saskia Warren is giving a paper, titled #YourAverageMuslim: work-based activism of Muslim women in British fashion and media, at the Everyday Creativity Conference, Morgan Centre, University of Manchester, 10 July 2018 – 11July 2018

Saskia Warren presented a paper titled Placing faith in creative labour: Muslim women and digital media work in Britain at the British Sociological Association (BSA) conference, British Muslim Identities: British Muslims of the West, University of Nottingham, 20 June 2018

Saskia Warren presented a paper titled Uncomfortable intimacy and the limits of feminism? On the everyday experiences of British Muslim women working in media and fashion in the session Political Geographies of Discomfort Feminism and Uncomfortable Intimacy, Association of American Geographers (AAG), New Orleans, 10 April 2018

Research

Interviews, focus groups and workshops are involving artists and young people to gather insights into working lives and potential career pathways. Research will be undertaken in Greater Manchester and Leeds-Bradford.

Invited Workshop, The Whitworth, 19 July 2018: 10 artists will be taking part in a workshop to discuss their daily routines and experiences. In particular the workshop will focus on any shared experiences relating to gender and issues of faith, whether participants are practising or not.  Coming out of the workshop will be ideas for the forthcoming exhibition and events, along with information shared on the light-touch application and commissioning process.

Focus Groups: – Oldham Library, Oldham; – Hamara Centre, Beeston, Leeds; – Muslim Heritage Centre, Manchester; – The Whitworth, Manchester; – Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester.

Exhibition

The project culminates in an exhibition and large-scale evening event at The Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Road, Manchester, where the work of Muslim women artists will be showcased (Summer 2019; more details to follow).

A long list of potential artists has been built in the opening stages of the research. Those profiled artists are connected to Greater Manchester or Leeds-Bradford – creative hubs of the so-called ‘Northern Powerhouse’. This means artists may have been born locally, lived, trained or worked here. In some way these regions are important to their development and narrative as makers.

The final five artists will be commissioned by a panel of educators, artists and curators in July 2018. Watch this space!

Network and Policy

The important contributions made by Muslim women to culture and the economy is highlighted in this project, and will inform policies and decisions of governments, charities and arts bodies to implement strategies to ensure more inclusive pathways and opportunities for those women from religious and ethnic minority backgrounds to contribute to the UK cultural and creative economy.