Beyond the 100: Processions

About the Processions banner

On Sunday 10th June 2018 a group of Corby women and girls processed a banner created with Made With Many (formerly Made In Corby) in a mass participation artwork in London to celebrate 100 years of votes for women.

In 1918, the Representation of the People Act gave the first British women the right to vote and stand for public office. One hundred years on, women and girls across the UK will marked this historic moment as part of a living portrait of women in the 21st century in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London with women wearing either green, white or violet, the colours of the suffragette movement. This vast artwork was based on an original idea by creative director Darrell Vydelingum, produced by Artichoke and commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary.

Over 100,000 women all over the UK took part in PROCESSIONS which included 100 arts organisations who were commissioned to created featured banners for the procession, where female artists were paired with groups of women and girls to help share their voices through text and textiles.

^{Processions (2018) photo by Kate Dyer}

For our commission in Corby, we hosted an 8-week series of workshops with artists Carole Miles and Phiona Richards (aka The Eloquent Fold) to enable local women and girls to try their hand at creating a unique textile banner to process along the route in London. We had participants from age 15 to 86, including women of many nationalities, mothers and daughters, and the first female trade union representative at Corby Steelworks!

Based at Swan Gardens, the group designed and made their own traditional textile banner, mirroring the women who came together on the streets a hundred years ago to make their voices visible. Each week, new textile skills were learnt and ideas for the banner were exchanged, as well as stories, with the younger members of the group learning a lot about the fight for women’s rights and all about the rights that have been gained in older members’ living memory. The main slogan ‘Women Together Will Change The World’ (suggested by the youngest member and agreed upon by the group after careful thought and consideration), was emblazoned amongst a sea of violets – a symbol of the suffragette movement. The banner also features a raven, the emblem of Corby and the Suffragette motto ‘Deeds Not Words’, which is also the motto of the Corby’s Coat of Arms, granted in 1958. Individual rosettes were also made to wear at the procession, featuring each participant’s own words in English, German and Polish, reflecting the diversity of the group.

After 8 weeks of generating ideas, designing, sewing and creating a banner, the group headed to the capital for a very exciting day of parading through the busy streets of London for PROCESSIONS – it is estimated that around 30,000 people were in attendance in London that day. Thank you to all of those women who processed the Corby banner in London and became a part of history, including the Corby Votes & Voices group who sang original Suffragette songs throughout the day, led by artist and women’s rights activist Paula Boulton.