Women Making Waves

This March, I was lucky enough to be asked to be one of the presenters at the National Maritime Museum's Women Making Waves event. Women Making Waves was a day to come together to reflect on female artists and activists and their relationship to the sea. During the day the presenters and attendees discussed how the sea affects our creative work, along with how we manage our careers as explorers and artists.

For the event, I gave a presentation about my involvement in The Arctic Circle residency in June 2017 and tried to speak as honestly as I could about the effect the trip had on me personally, my creative practice as well how it has effected my career since I returned.

It was fascinating to hear from the wonderfully electric range of speakers including: Anne Baker from eXXpedition, artist Maria Amidu and photographers Suki Dhanda and Juno Calypso, learning about their diverse artistic and expeditionary work and discovering what connected us a women and people fascinated by the sea. 

The day organically became more and more focused on two major themes: the role and exposure of female artists/scientists and our human impact on the environment. Although at times discussions became quite intense and were focused around seemingly bleak topics, there was an incredible sense of camaraderie, inspiration and power throughout the day. At the end of the event, the chair for the day- Maria Amidu led us through a great task of creating a word jumble pledge card to capture what we were taking away from day. After everyone had shared their pledge, it was clear that there was a resounding sense of hope felt between us.

To follow up from this event, I will be leading a participatory movement workshop as a part of the National Maritime Museum's World Oceans Day festival on June the 9th 2018.