Have you got suffragette stories or souvenirs for Represent! Voices 100 Years On?
| 27th January 2018
The People’s History Museum (PHM) is calling for submissions for its exhibition Represent! Voices 100 Years On – to mark the centenary of the Representation of the People Act (1918) and remember the suffragettes.
Throughout Year of the Woman 2018, PHM will explore the legacy of this historical milestone, which gave voting rights to all men and some women, and it wants as many people as possible to be involved, beginning with the opportunity to make a submission to its exhibition.
Opening on 2 June, the Heritage Lottery Fund supported exhibition will take the form of a feminist zine that not only tells how the right to vote was won, but will also look at representation today and what it means to individuals.
Represent! Voices 100 Years On will ask challenging questions about how far we’ve come in the last one hundred years and whether people feel they are represented. It will do this by working with groups including Girl Gang Manchester, 42nd Street and the Proud Trust to produce and curate the content.
Jenny Mabbott, Head of Collections at the People’s History Museum, said: “2018 presents us with the opportunity to reflect on this breakthrough for equality and look at where we have come in the last 100 years.
“Having an understanding of the stories and sacrifices of those in the past gives us a greater insight into the ongoing fights for representation and equality. 2018 at the People’s History Museum will be about participation, starting these conversations and letting people’s voices be heard.”
Anyone can submit an object, photograph, artwork, memento, banner or piece of campaign material from the past or present that depicts their story of representation, or that of their family. The selected objects will sit alongside parts of PHM’s collection that will include the Manchester suffragette banner, a copy of the Representation of the People Act and key suffrage pieces.
To produce the feminist zine styled exhibition all of the submissions will be reviewed by a community-led editorial panel. Helping to make up this panel are partners including Women’s March Manchester, the Women’s Equality Party, Safety4Sisters and Greater Manchester Coalition for Disabled People.
Represent! Voices 100 Years On exhibition (Saturday 2 June 2018 to Sunday 3 February 2019), will compliment the museum’s current exhibits dedicated to telling the story of the fight for votes for women, which include a recreation of suffragette Hannah Mitchell’s kitchen.
On public display for 2018 is a banner collection dedicated to telling the story of how people have fought for representation and the Wonder Women 2018 radical feminist festival will take place across the city of Manchester throughout March and is programmed by PHM.
For further information on making a submission email PHM’s programme team at represent@phm.org.uk andto find out more about the museum visit www.phm.org.uk.
Like this? You may also like these stories:
Pankhurst Centre should be “a place of resistance… and raging against patriarchy”
Who do you think is the most legendary Mancunian? Here’s YOUR chance to vote!
