Suffrage and the Arts: Visual Culture, Politics and Enterprise

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Suffrage and the Arts re-establishes the central role that artistic women and menfrom jewellers, portrait painters, embroiderers, through to retailers of artistic productsplayed in the suffrage campaign in the British Isles. As political individuals, they were foot soldiers who helped sustain the momentum of the movement and as designers, makers and sellers they spread the message of the campaign to new local, national and international audiences, mediating how suffrage activism was understood by society at large. Published to coincide with the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which granted the vote to women over the age of thirty meeting a property qualification, this edited collection offers a range of new perspectives and readings of the outpouring of creative responses to the campaign. Contributors, who include historians, art historians, curators, museum professionals and suffrage experts, call upon the historiographical developments of the last thirty years, alongside new archival discoveries, to showcase the vibrancy of ongoing research in this area. Throughout, chapters investigate the wider socio-cultural backdrop to suffrage and the womens movement, the difficult choices that were made between professional, artistic aspirations and political commitment, and how institutional and informal networks influenced creative expression and participation in feminist politics. From shining light on the use of portraiture to bolster the cultural cachet of the militant Womens Social and Political Union, uncovering the links between Victorian interior design, enterprise and suffrage, through to questioning the supposed conservativism of womens art institutions during the campaign and in the inter-war era, Suffrage and the Arts is a timely and important collection which will contribute to a number of scholarly fields.

Reviews

This insightful edited collection extends and enhances our understanding of the relationships between artistic endeavour, commercial enterprise and political activism ... An invaluable contribution to understandings of visual and material culture and art and business history, as well as to suffrage and women's studies. * History Today *
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which has been beautifully produced. In a series of engaging chapters the authors contribute significantly to our knowledge about the suffrage movement covering aspects of the campaign that have been often overlooked. It also gives a voice to the many women artists who are often lost in political histories or histories on womens art. * Women's History Review *
[The book's] careful curation presents an insightful study of the multiform ways in which art and politics intersected in the suffrage campaign, both harmoniously and problematically, giving a holistic and rounded impression of the intricate landscape that suffrage artists had to navigate. Furthermore, after celebrating the centenary of the Representation of the People Act last year, it once again places art and artists at the centre of a reinvigorated scholarship on British women and politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. * Twentieth Century British History *
A fascinating collection of engaging and informative essays that extend our knowledge about the centrality of the arts to the women's suffrage movement. * June Purvis, Emerita Professor of Women's and Gender History at the University of Portsmouth, UK *
This collection transforms our understanding of artistic contributions to the womens suffrage campaign by detailing the experiences of artists, consumers, campaigners and propagandists. A genuinely pioneering work, it illuminates how women balanced their professional lives as artists with their feminist activism, as well as bringing to life the variety of visual culture designed and made during this period across Britain and Ireland. This innovative and timely collection should find a wide and appreciative audience. * Senia Paseta, Professor of Modern History at St Hugh's College, University of Oxford, UK *

Author Bio

Miranda Garrett is based at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. In addition, she is a freelance museum professional and has previously worked at the Society of Antiquaries of London, Historic Royal Palaces and Leighton House Museum, all in the UK. Zo Thomas is Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the Wider World at the University of Birmingham, UK.