Provocations, Dilemmas, Breakthroughs

Framed prints of Scotsmen in the stores at McMillan Library. The prints, which are old-fashioned fading prints of men in kilts, are propped up on metal shelves full of papers. — Framed prints of Scotsmen in the stores at McMillan Library, Nairobi, 22 October 2019

Feminist leaders assembling for gathering, Feminist Governance: A Nairobi perspective. Seven women, mostly women of colour, sit and stand talking together on a balcony with trees beyond. — Feminist leaders assembling for gathering, Feminist Governance: A Nairobi perspective, Ikigai, Nairobi, October 2019

Cropped photograph of underlined part of text from Laura Evans, in Feminisms and Museums, Vol. 2 which reads ‘‘Embodied theory, also known as somatic learning, is an educational ontology that “integrates, as an existential whole, the experiential history of individuals with their current experience” (Seller- Young, 1998 as cited in Kerka, 2002). Embodied leaning, a theory rooted in the feminist expectations that research “should have an emotional component, a feeling component, that comes from the knower’s sense of purpose, sense of connection to the material, and the particular context” (maher, 1987:96), is experiential because it involves the senses, perception, feelings, emotions, and the actions/reactions of the mind and body (Kerka, 2002).’ — An underlined quote from Laura Evans, in Feminisms and Museums, Vol. 2, a text that was significant in Adele’s research into Feminist Leadership.

Detail of stitched work with the words ‘Be Tough on Ideas but gentle on people’ and “Assume you are wrong’, in Refashioning Identity exhibition University of Puget Sound and the Collins Memorial Library, Tacoma, November 2019

A photograph of a handwritten page from Adele’s Clore Fellowship notebook with text that reads ‘What creates conditions for risk?’ Accompanied by a diagram that is highlighted, of three interlinked circles titled ‘Three pillars’. Within the three individual circles the text ‘leader behaviour, processes, trusting relationships’ is written — An excerpt from Adele’s first notebook on the Clore Leadership Fellowship which highlights a significant thought in the research

Artworks by Randolpho Lamanier, 2018. Several colourful banners hang in an high-ceilinged room. The central banner, featuring stylised plants in green, pink and blue, reads 'Toma posse primeira Presidenta Negra do Brasil 2027' ('First Black President of Brazil takes office 2027') — Randolpho Lamanier, Profecias (Prophecies) 2018, Arte Democracia Utopia exhibition, Museo de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janiero, November 2019.

Women dancing in a circle on Praca Maua, in front of the Museo do Amanha, (Museum of Tomorrow), during Wow Festival, 17 November 2018

A photograph of a handwritten page from Adele’s Clore Fellowship notebook with highlighted text that reads ‘ - Learning that I can manage intense doubts, imposter syndrome, challenge, learning and survive where I am not elder/ leader / - Learning to hold very divergent thoughts, feelings and ideas. / - That I could form a support neutral ‘go too’ / - That I am starting to more clearly see my own agency and identity distinct from GWL.’ — An excerpt from Adele’s first notebook on the Clore Leadership Fellowship

Photo of a video screen featuring a balding, grey-bearded white man gesturing as he speaks. The subtitles on the screen read 'It is always working on a theme'. — Image of male scientist (one of the many I discovered – I found no women) in the Museo do Amanha, (Museum of Tomorrow), Rio de Janeiro.

Street artwork memorialising murdered politician, feminist, lesbian activist Marielle Franco. A large photo of Marielle Franco with a vivid smile has been pasted on a wall; text aound the photo reads 'Escuta as mulheres' ('Listen to women'). — Street artwork memorialising murdered politician, feminist, lesbian activist Marielle Franco outside Aparelha Luzia, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 19 November 2018

Photograph of underlined text which reads, ‘Art is not neutral. It either upholds or disrupts the status quo, advancing or regressing justice. We are living now inside the imagination of people who thought economic disparity and environmental destruction were acceptable costs for their power. It is our right and responsibility to write ourselves into the future. All organizing is science fiction. If you are shaping the future, you are a futurist. And visionary fiction is a way to practice the future in our minds, alone and together.’ — An underlined quote from Adrienne Maree Brown’s, Emergent Strategies, a text that was significant in Adele’s research into Feminist Leadership.

Detail of book covers, women and leadership display on shelf at Waterstones Glasgow: white, blonde, pink and power themed.

Photograph of underlined text which reads, ‘ Feminism: the dynamism of making connections. And yet a movement requires we find places to gather, meeting places. A movement comes into existence to transform what is in existence. A movement needs to take place somewhere. A movement is not just or only a movement; there is something that needs to be kept still, given a place, if we are moved to trandsform what is.’ — An underlined quote from Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life, a text that was significant in Adele’s Clore research into Feminist Leadership.

Posters with the statement ‘Everybody’s got a right to live’ from the Poor People’s campaign, drying having been screen printed in the Interference Archives, Brooklyn, New York, 30 March 2019

Detail of work by Ellen Gallagher, DeLuxe, 2004-5, images with plasticine. The work features black and white photos of black women taken from vintage adverts, which have then had their eyes covered in white plasticine and their hair (and sometimes faces) covered in yellow plasticine. — Detail of work by Ellen Gallagher, DeLuxe, 2004-5, images with plasticine, seen at Tate Modern, London, 9th February 2019

A photograph of a handwritten page from Adele’s Clore Fellowship notebook with highlighted text that reads, ‘Bedrock = listening. Are you okay with conflict? Need to be able to handle robust conversations and [be] challenged on your thoughts?’ — An excerpt from Adele’s fourth notebook on the Clore Leadership Fellowship which highlights a significant thought in her research

Detail of London tube maps designed by Linder. The map covers have collages of women's mouths, an iconic element of Linder's work; the text of the maps is the standard Transport for London format, and they're in an aging grey plastic display — Detail of tube maps designed by Linder, London, 10 February 2019

A photograph of a handwritten page from Adele’s Clore Fellowship notebook with highlighted text that reads, ‘ Tell me about one instance or innovation where you resisted convention and implemented change using feminist approaches?’ — An excerpt from Adele’s sixth notebook on the Clore Leadership Fellowship which asks a significant question in the research

Colourful street art work entitled New York Public Library, seen near New York Public Library. The woman holds an open book; one of the children has a skipping rope; all of them are smiling. — Street Art work depicting a woman reading with two children entitled New York Public Library, near New York Public Library, Saturday 16th March 2019

he Women’s Center for Creative Work team pictured outside their premises in Los Angeles, 19th March 2019 — The Women’s Center for Creative Work team pictured outside their premises in Los Angeles, 19th March 2019

Photograph of underlined text which reads, ‘As I noted then, however she speaks, the one who speaks as a feminist is usually heard as causing the argument. Another dinner ruined. Institutions also have tables around which bodies gather. Some more than others are at home in these gatherings. The diversity practitioner can be heard as the obstacle to the conversational space before she even says anything: she too poses a problem because she keeps exposing a problem. Another meeting ruined.’ — An underlined quote from Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life, a text that was significant in Adele’s Clore research into Feminist Leadership.

Barbara Kruger (reinstalled) wall work, Untitled (Questions) (1990/2018). On a large building, in white, bold, sans serif capitals on a red background, the 9 questions are: ‘Who is beyond the law? Who is bought and sold? Who is free to choose? Who does the time? Who follows orders? Who salutes the longest? Who prays loudest? Who laughs last?' — Barbara Kruger (reinstalled) wall work, Untitled (Questions) (1990/2018). North exterior wall, Museum of Contemporary Art, at the Geffen, Los Angeles, 22 March 2019.

Detail of Zoe Leonard artwork, I want a president, 1992. The poem starts "I want a dyke for president. I want a person with aids for president and I want a fag for vice president and I want someone with no health insurance and I want someone who grew up in a place where the earth is so saturated with toxic waste that they didn't have a choice about getting leukemia." — Detail of Zoe Leonard artwork, I want a president, 1992, shown at Zoe Leonard: Survey, Museum of Contemporary Art at the Geffen, Los Angeles, 22 March 2019.

Photograph of underlined text which reads, ‘If libraries of all the stories that have been told,there are ghost libraries of all the stories that have not. The ghosts outnumber the books by some imaginable vast sum. Even those who have been audible have often earned the privilege through strategic silences or the inability to hear certain voices, including their own. The struggle of liberation has been in part to create the conditions for the formerly silenced speak and be heard.’ — An underlined quote from Rebecca Solnit, The Mother of All Questions – Further Feminisms, a text that was significant in Adele’s Clore research into Feminist Leadership.

Interior of National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C., 24th March, 2019. There are photos of black activists on the walls, and a large caption in bold white capitals on a black background that reads 'I shook up the world!' — Interior of National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C., 24th March, 2019

A photograph of a handwritten page from Adele’s Clore Fellowship notebook with a highlighted diagram of two interlinked circles that read, ‘Question 1: How can you live your values in an institution?’ And ‘ Question 2: How do you hold the spaces to account?’ — A page from Adele’s eighth notebook on the Clore Leadership Fellowship which highlights a significant thought in the research

We hold these truths to be self-evident, a mural by Zoe Buckman and Natalie Frank. The mural includes quotes from famous men about women including: ‘Some girls they rape so easy' (Roger Rivard), 'I moved on her like a bitch... and when you are a star, they let you do it, grab ‘em by the pussy' (Donald Trump) and ‘If it’s a legitimate rape the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down’ (Todd Akin) — We hold these truths to be self-evident, a mural by Zoe Buckman and Natalie Frank on the façade of the Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington D.C., 24 March 2019

Art activist adding pieces of fabric to a work outside the White House, Washington, representing the 13 thousand children killed by guns in the period between the murder of children at Sandy Hook and March 2019. A long line of scraps of fabric, mostly in shades of red, stretches into the distance, where the White House can be seen. — Art activist adding pieces of fabric to a work outside the White House, Washington, representing the 13 thousand children killed by guns in the period between the murder of children at Sandy Hook and March 2019.

Photograph of underlined text which reads,‘ Changes in modern labour have in another way weakened both the desire and the capacity to cooperate with those who differ. In principle, every modern organization is in favour of cooperation; in practice, the structure of modern organizations inhibits it - a fact recognised in managerial discussions of the ‘silo effect’, the isolation of individuals and departments in different units, people and groups who share little and who indeed hoard information valuable to others. Changes in the time people spend working together increase this isolation.’ — An underlined quote from Richard Sennett, Together – The Ritual, Pleasures & Politics of Cooperation, a text that was significant in Adele’s Clore research into Feminist Leadership.

Detail of Barbara Kruger artwork Belief and Doubt, 2012, (You want it, You Buy it, You forget it) next to museum shop display. 'You want it, You Buy it, You forget it' runs in bold, white capitals on a red background up an escalator; sections of further slogans can be seen on the walls beyond. — Detail of Barbara Kruger artwork Belief and Doubt, 2012, (You want it, You Buy it, You forget it) next to museum shop display, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., 25 March 2019

A photograph of a double page handwritten notebook entry from Adele’s Clore Fellowship notebook with three highlighted texts that read, firstly ‘On Compliant, Sara Ahmed. Vertical career progression is limiting – and gets thinner as you move up - alternatives’; second: “‘Culture is a left wing hobby’ Culture minister in Netherlands. We are not being taken seriously - ‘When I retire I’ll do Art history’, ‘I can do that - how hard can it be?’. Look at your Boards - from business and corporate - they feel fully qualified - do any of us sit on their boards?”; The third highlighted text reads “Managing creativity” - How do you do this? Hugely exposed cultural sector - lightning rod for dissent - we are ‘hobbies’ but prominent. Criticism is focused on arts –” — Two pages from Adele’s first notebook on the Clore Leadership Fellowship which highlights a significant thought in the research

My Calling card #2, Adrian Piper. The card, the same size as a business card, reads 'Dear Friend, I am not here to pick anyone up, or to be picked up. I am here alone because I want to be here, ALONE. This card is not intended as part of an extended flirtation. Thank you for respecting my privacy. — My Calling card #2, Adrian Piper, photographed in the stores of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., 26 March 2019

A sample of the Provocations, Dilemmas, Breakthroughs, as well as Influential Texts and Images captured and developed through the Clore Fellowship and Post Fellowship Research period are shared here.