Hundreds visit inaugural feminist art exhibition

Hundreds of people flocked to Newnham Curatorial Collective’s inaugural feminist art show, ‘A Revolutionary at Heart: Experiments in the Female Gaze,’ which was held in the Old Labs.

The opening night reception featured a speech from Sue Owen (NC 1973), President of the Newnham Associates and Permanent Secretary for Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Professor Dame Carol Black, Newnham’s Principal.

Visitors enjoyed refreshments and a variety of musical performances as well as the exhibition which featured a small library consisting of women’s art books and feminist zines.
The exhibition also included art of diverse media, all by Newnham students, loosely based on the theme ‘the female gaze’.

These were displayed with items from the College’s Archive and Rare Books Collection, including seventeenth-century works by Mary Astell and Judith Drake.

The organisers said: “The title of our show comes from Newnham’s own history. In a 1901 diary entry remembering her time as an undergraduate at Newnham, Margaret Corbett Ashby wrote that ‘Looking back now I see that I was a revolutionary at heart’.

“A burgeoning advocate for women’s rights both within the Newnham and the wider University community, Ashby’s comment speaks to our aim of feminist activism through directly supporting the Newnham community.”

The reception was held on Thursday, April 21 and approximately 400 people viewed the exhibit until it closed on Sunday, April 24.

Photograph credit: Addye Susnick