Edinburgh Libraries are celebrating International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month with a public mural project!
You’ll have noticed how few public monuments to women there are in Edinburgh, despite the tireless efforts of local groups such as the Elsie Inglis Campaign. Yet there are literally hundreds of notable women, past and present, whose contributions to our shared history and our city deserve greater recognition. At Central Library, we’ve decided to redress the balance by creating out own public monument to Edinburgh’s female pioneers and trailblazers. We put out a call to local women’s groups, charities, and organisations such as the National Library of Scotland, and asked for nominations for our mural. We asked local academics and campaigners to help us uncover the lives and stories of many of Edinburgh’s unsung heroines, and we did some digging into the Library’s own resources.
Particularly useful was a book by local author and activist Sara Sheridan, ‘Where are the Women? A Guide to an Imagined Scotland’ (2021) which describes an alternative cultural landscape, where streets, buildings, monuments and landmarks are all dedicated to women. Sara’s immense amount of research added many names to our list.
Borrow Where are the Women? via Libby
Sara kindly took the time to speak to us about a few of her favourite figures from Edinburgh’s history. Watch the video (subtitles available) here:
The mural project – what is it?
We have taken inspiration from a wonderful project which has been running in the USA since 2016. “Work in Progress” seeks to shine a spotlight on female pioneers across many fields and was devised by artists Jann Haworth and Liberty Blake. See a detail here, courtesy of Granary Arts, Utah:
Edinburgh Libraries have been granted permission to create our own version, and this is where you can help!
We are aiming to produce stencilled portraits of as many women as possible from our nomination list. Some of these are already being produced by students at participating Edinburgh high schools, and we invite Edinburgh residents to come to the Library and help us create more!
The workshops – what will we do?
Participants will come into Central Library on one of several dates for an afternoon’s guided stencilling session. No artistic experience is necessary, and the process will be fully explained. There will be over 100 head-and-shoulders images of nominated women ready printed, for people to select, cut, and stencil – resulting in beautiful, unique portraits. Library staff will then gather and collate all the portraits, using them to create a ‘crowd-scene’ mural. We aim to have this finished and ready to exhibit at Central Library and online by early May. Some linked activities, such as live talks, will also follow.
Who would you choose….?
If you would like to take part, please book a place at one of our Saturday afternoon workshops.
Please note, due to the use of sharp tools, this event is offered to over-18s only and due to Covid precautions, each event is limited to 15 participants.
Workshops will take place on Saturday 12, 19 and 26 March, with some potential for further sessions to be added.
Book for workshop on Saturday 12 March
Tales of One City 
Reblogged this on Edinburgh Library and Information Services Agency.
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I hope Leith Councillor Barbara Woodburn is included. One of Scotlands longest serving councillor , only 1 man in front of her, and often overlooked for her husband Arthur Woodburn.
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Thank you for your comment. Barbara clearly deserves a place on the Edinburgh Women’s Mural, but was unfortunately not nominated in time for the stencil workshops. If we run further events in the future her name will be included.
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