On Wednesday 19th February, I joined Morag Smith (National Lifelong Learning Development Worker at Glasgow Women’s Library) at an Illuminated Letters workshop at the West College Scotland campus in Greenock.
The GWL Illuminated Letters project, in conjunction with Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) and inspired by the work of artist Niki de Saint Phalle, invites women from around the world to write illuminated letters of thanks and recognition to their heroines, which will be included in exhibitions at GoMA and the Library itself from International Women’s Day on Saturday 8th March (you can find out more about the project here). Over the last few months, Illuminated Letters workshops have been taking place all over Scotland, from Glasgow to Skye, and women worldwide have also been submitting their own personal works of art by post and in person.
At Wednesday’s workshop, Morag and I had the great privilege of working with the Act Student Group, a group of young people in their mid to late teens, who came along to learn more about GWL and the women on its shelves. Morag introduced the workshop with a short quiz, which encouraged participants to think about the role of women in history more generally while also offering some specific examples of inspiring and interesting women. This really warmed up the group and made for lively debate! We then invited the group to use the materials provided to compose their own illuminated letters to the women who have meant something to them – famous or not.
We were delighted to see so many young people engage so fully with the workshop, and we now have a fantastic selection of their illuminated letters – including messages to women like Marilyn Monroe, Whitney Houston and Anne Frank – which we can add to the upcoming exhibition. Finding out which women interest and inspire this group of young people was a great pleasure, and we were also able to share some knowledge about some inspirational women who, sadly, are not so well-known.
Huge thanks to all of those from West College Scotland who took part on Wednesday – we hope you will visit the Illuminated Letters exhibition and take pride in having contributed a piece of your very own to the historical record!
Rebecca Jones
