Staff and students from Manchester School of Art collaborate with Stockport’s Hat Works on significant research project and exhibition

A group of staff and students from Manchester School of Art have collaborated on a research project and exhibition to celebrate the contribution of women to the town of Stockport.

Women + Archives, Stockport: Untold Stories runs at the newly reopened Hat Works Museum and reflects the contribution of women to Stockport as a town of culture and telling the untold stories of Stockport’s female residents, artists and historical figures.

This exhibition draws to a close a series of workshops and events, hosted by Women + Archives as part of Stockport Town of Culture. A showcase of the work produced during the workshops, the exhibition will document collaborative and creative responses to Stockport today. The workshops and events in the series bring together Greater Manchester residents to respond to Stockport through the modern landscape of the town and archival materials from Hat Works Museum.

These creative responses, documentary photography and personal stories, form a living archive of sorts, capturing Stockport today and celebrating the town as a place of heritage and of contemporary culture.

Hosted to coincide with International Women’s Day 2024, this exhibition reflects the contribution of women to Stockport as a town of culture and evidences the untold stories of Stockport’s female residents, artists and historical figures.

Bethany Turner-Pemberton, PhD student and Women + Archives Co-Founder, said: “Developing Women + Archives as a collaboration between us at Manchester School of Art and Hat Works Museum in Stockport has really shown impact that these organisations can have on the local area. The collaboration has provided access to workshops and events that otherwise wouldn’t have been available to such a diverse group of participants. Seeing the mix of attendees and being able to create space for them to be creative and come together has been brilliant, we can really see the difference the collaboration has made to people in Stockport and beyond”

Women + Archives is a group of people working across a range of creative practices at Manchester Metropolitan University and Greater Manchester Museums. Formed in 2022 at Hat Works Museum, the group looks for ways to showcase how museum collections and archives can be used to reframe the past to ensure all voices are present and heard.

Ian Whadcock, Reader in Design said: “The Untold Stories project came as a timely opportunity for the Women + Archives collective to develop and curate a programme of workshop-based events building on a symposium of the same name held on International Women’s Day in March 2023. The resulting series of workshops and public engagement activities enabled a rich cross disciplinary platform for communities to explore and engage with over a six month period. The website acts as a powerful testimony to the generosity and commitment of all the individual voices who came together to share and deliver this vision for Stockport.”

One piece of work involved in the exhibition has also been nominated for a prestigious V&A Illustration award. Maisy Summer, an alumna of the School of Art and part of the Women + Archives collective, created an animation which explores the history of socialist, suffragette & birth control activist Elsie Plant from Stockport. The animation is showcased on the factory floor of the museum next to the display of Elsie’s office filled with her notes, books, hat boxes & more.

Women + Archives, Stockport: Untold Stories is open from 8th – 24th March 2024 at Hat Works in Stockport. Find opening times and further information here.

The exhibition features the work of; Adetoro Adineran Kane, Alessandra Mostyn, Beth Turner-Pemberton, Bronwen Simpson, Elle Brotherhood, Felicity Shillingford, Helen Clapcott, Maisy Summer, Simone Ridyard and Suzie Cloves.

Find out more about Women and Archives here: www.womenandarchives.org

All photography in this article by Elle Brotherhood.