Woman Up‪!‬ Amy Dignam and Susan Merrick

In this Woman Up! On Tour episode we went to Brighton and spent time at the incredible Quiet Down There studio talking to thee inspiring women Lucy Jeffries, AFLO.the poet  and Alina Hazadeh. 
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Quiet Down There offers people routes to expressing and developing their own creativity – outside of the traditional structures of the arts. They work in markets, charity shops, laundrettes and other spaces where people already are. They are ambitious for the communities that they collaborate with and work alongside artists to hone and develop their socially engaged practice.
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AFLO. the poet is an award-winning Brighton-based spoken word artist, activist and academic who embraces creative expression to disrupt the status quo and inspire social change. AFLO. uses poetry as a vehicle to address hard-hitting topics, particularly racism and mental health, primarily speaking from her lived experiences. AFLO. has performed at various protests, festivals and events. AFLO. is one of Brighton Dome's in-house artists for 23/24 and is a significant force directing change in Brighton's creative scenes.
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Lucy is an intersectional feminist, mum, producer, law student & cocktail drinker. She grew up in Bristol where she formed her community-organising roots and have lived in Brighton for the last 20 years. She co-founded Quiet Down There in 2016.
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Alinah is an artist, writer, performer and cultural activist of British Iranian heritage. She uses text, textile, audio, and live practices to create poetic narratives that activate spaces, amplifying untold or overlooked stories. She is inaugural writer-in-residence at Seven Sisters Country Park & Sussex Heritage Coast, commissioned by the South Downs National Park Authority, and led We See You Now (2019–22), a decolonial landscape and literature programme which has produced We Hear You Now, a new spoken word audio series on Listening Points across the landscape and online until 2028.

In this episode recorded at Artlink in Hull we spoke to Jemma Brown, Sam Metz and Lydia Shearsmith.
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Jemma is a creative producer and a specialist working with diverse communities to plan and produce current, relevant, and inclusive artwork to engage and enlighten. She holds a First Class BA Honours in Contemporary Fine Art Practice, is an Arts and Graphics Teacher (QTLS status),  and Freelance Artist.
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Sam is an artist who researches, creates and reflects on the concept of what they refer to as choreographic objects. Sam has collaborated with the performance artist David Clarkson to create body-based live art, and has been a member of Guerrilla Art Lab, a queer, feminist, live art, performance collective since 2016.
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Lydia is an artist who is primarily concerned with exploring photography as a medium and as a subject matter. Her varied processes allow her to expand image-making into physical space, challenging common definitions of photography.
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 Artlink is an arts and educational charity working with under-represented people to improve prospects and deliver positive social impacts. They do this through participatory arts projects, exhibitions, events, and learning programmes - working with a range of communities. Since 1982, Artlink Hull has been involved in the development of community, participatory and socially-engaged work.

Sangini is a Black and minorities women led community arts project that is committed to ending gender based violence. They seek to improve the quality of Black and minoritised and socially excluded women's lives by increasing their physical, mental and spiritual health through artistic, heritage, crafts and social activities that helps women recover from experiences of gender based violence whilst promoting cultural diversity.
Sangini seek to reach BME, disadvantaged and excluded women in innovative and creative ways whilst providing opportunities for tackling inequalities. Their previous projects have had a positive impact in encouraging women from different communities to engage in educational, creative and participatory activities by providing support and encouragement thereby removing the social and cultural barriers.
https://www.sangini.co.uk/about

Padma Rao, Director, Sangini is based in the North East of England, is also a contemporary visual artist practicing painting and contemporary drawing, a visiting lecturer, arts facilitator and a published poet. 
 Padma has over 20 years’ experience in the arts, heritage, community development, equalities and women’s issues. Padma has an art studio Makaan in South Shields, UK where she has shown works of art by artists based locally, nationally and internationally. A published poet, Padma has a background of working in the radio both at the BBC Radio Newcastle, as well as in India. 
 In her role at Sangini, Padma leads on the strategic development of Sangini’s programme of work that includes developing partnerships and sustainability and representation of Black women’s voices at local, regional and national networks.   
 Padma is passionate about the role and status of marginalised women in our current society and by exploring these issues through her work, both as an artist as well as in her role at Sangini, she aims to create a platform for the wider discussions around creativity, equality, feminism, identity and displacement of Black women. 

Nasim Akhtar is an artist living near Durham. She loves the textures of different fabrics and make textile art and patchwork quilts. She's been sewing since she was very young. She uses watercolours and acrylics to make abstract images as well as using digital manipulation to finish a piece of art. Her art work is displayed at EDAN Art Gallery in Seaham. Art ran alongside a 30 year career in Probation Services, in particular working to develop on services for women who commit crime. Writing poems and short stories helped her to record reflections and events. She has a manuscript inspired by her father’s journey to the UK which shaped his family, including her. Nasim is also a member of Easignton Writers and a  local book club. 
 

New episode of Woman Up! On Tour!
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Recorded at the Newbridge project I. Newcastle we spoke with disabled artist and drag king, incredible Lasy Kitt 
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Kitt works on long term, collaborative
projects driven by insatiable curiosity about how art can be useful. Projects are usually punctuated by the creation of large-scale, vibrant installations / sites for exchange made from recycled paper,
reused plastics and raw clay, which Kitt calls shrines.
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Kitt uses crafting, performance, joy and research to create objects, interactions and events, with the wild ambition of dismantling and mischievously re-crafting spaces and systems they find discriminatory, obsolete or just quite dull.
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Kitt is a trustee for Crafts Council and founding member of disabled artist led art rabble “kin collective” (North East Culture Awards “Newcomer of the Year” winner 2022).
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Kitt’s work has been longlisted for the 2023 Aesthetica Art Prize, shown at Atlanta Contemporary (USA), Saatchi Gallery (UK), National Centre on Restorative Justice (USA) and commissioned by Craftspace (“Drag Declares Emergency” 2022-23), Arts&Heritage (“This, our hive of voices” 2020-22) and BALTIC (‘Open. Bloom. Flourish. Nourish’, 2021).
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Kitt is currently working with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (UK), AXISWEB (UK) and Centre for Artistic Activism (USA) on “(en)SHRINE”, an ACE and AHRC funded project exploring collaborative making as a catalyst for organizational development.
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Thank you @acegrams for making all this possible! 

In this episode we went to Rogue Artists Studios in Manchester and spoke to ecxeptional artists Laura Yuile and Anna FC Smith
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Laura’s multidisciplinary practice explores the entanglements between domestic and urban space through matters of community, sustainability, and obsolescence, and the effects of globalisation and technological development. She exhibits internationally and alongside gallery-based exhibitions and events, she has organised a number of projects that filter into the everyday, commercial spaces that her work is engaged with. These have included Comfort Zones - a series of symposia on the subject of comfort zones held in the showrooms of various IKEA stores through the UK and China and a bus tour to a landfill site for Global Shadow Local Mist (2014). ASSET ARREST is an ongoing project and podcast series that addresses issues of financialized housing and real estate and their impact upon communities.
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Anna explores social history, folk culture and ritual through historical and anthropological research. Creating sculpture, installation, performance, and group actions her works emerge as multi-dimensional symbolic collages spanning eras, and forms of material culture. Touching on politics and performative space, she examines power and community, juxtaposing the ‘low culture’ and irreverence of communal tradition with the pageantry and ceremony of governance. Seeking links contemporary society has to its predecessors, she sees history and ritual as means to interpret the present.

Woman up! On Tour - Manchester Art Gallery 
New Episode Alert! 🎧 We're thrilled to bring you an extraordinary peek into the art world of Manchester!
🗣️ Join us on this captivating podcast episode as we sit down with the remarkable senior curator Natasha Howes and sensational artists, Susie MacMurray and Mary Griffiths!
🗣️ Get ready to be immersed in their artistic journeys, creative visions, and the stories behind their awe-inspiring work. From the curator's curation process to the artists' inspirations, this episode is a treasure trove of art insights!
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Natasha Howes is the senior curator of Manchester Art Gallery.
Mary Griffiths’ practice begins with drawing and the close observation of urban, rural and industrial ecologies and architectures. These rapid figurative drawings are developed in the studio in graphite, ink, monoprints, paint and digital media. Her works are held in public and private collections including Arts Council Collection, The Turnpike and The Whitworth. One of her work (Weather) is currently showing at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. 
An engagement with materials and with the body is at the heart of MacMurray’s practice. Her role is one of an alchemist: combining material, form and context in deceptively simple ways to stimulate both physical and cultural associations within those who encounter her work. Working in installation and sculpture she has gained a reputation for poetic site-specific interventions in historic spaces. Susie has an international exhibition profile, showing regularly in the USA and Europe as well as the UK.