#hiddenfootprints

We are thrilled to announce a revival of the Hidden Footprints project once again at Merchant City Festival 2018. 

Following its success at last year’s festival, it is an exciting prospect to revisit a project that brings together a diverse range of women from across Glasgow to develop a promenade performance that roams through the streets of Merchant City. This promenade performance directed by Jen Edgar and performed by The Women’s Creative Company will explore female narratives hidden within spaces in the Merchant City. A walking tour with a difference, the audience will have the rare chance to listen in on lively conversations, hear protests re-enacted and the sharing of stories and narrative on the fascinating historical women who lived, worked in and visited our city. 

As we learned in the development of last year’s performance, the stories of women who have shaped and made an impact - big or small - to our city are often silenced or overlooked. The performers shine a spotlight on the often nameless and unrecorded women from our past and present, bringing our streets and their hidden histories to life. Combining historical fact with personal reflections, we follow in the footsteps of the women who went before us. 

In February, we held a wonderful event at Glasgow Women’s Library to launch the audio version of last year’s performances and lead short creative sessions that put Glasgow Women's Heritage at the heart of each exploration. We feel the performances at last year’s festival truly resonated with audiences. One person who joined us on the promenade performance in particular felt Hidden Footprints made a big impact:

“This was amazing! Many thanks to all who were involved. You animated a needed message with vitality on the streets of Glasgow - it was full of colour, full of life, full of vigour! You sowed the seeds of liberation and also celebrated a neglected part of humanity - WOMAN.”

The Women’s Creative Company exists so that women of all ages and cultures from across Glasgow can come together and share their experiences, ideas and creative energy. The free practical and playful weekly workshops provide a safe space where women can express passions and concerns through creative exploration, where friendships are built and exciting performance work is made.

Sharing little-known tales from the past alongside contemporary musings on the spaces and people of Merchant City, Hidden Footprints is an imaginative, charming and thought-provoking exploration of what these streets mean to us and what they represented to the women before us. 

Click here for tickets and further information about the performances.  Our meeting point is the City Halls in Merchant City. Performances on Sat 11 Aug run at 12.00, 2.30 and 4.30pm; performances on Sun 12 Aug run at 12.00 and 2.30pm.

This month the Women’s Creative Company were invited to a tour of the collections at Glasgow Women’s Library. The group braved the cold December weather to be welcomed into the warm and inviting space at this true national treasure dedicated to empowering women and women’s heritage. Thanks to our guide for the day Krizstina, who gave us hot tea and biscuits and talked us through the impressive history of the library, a story of resilience and dedication, much like the many women it celebrates. 

The lending library is free to join and as well as a vast collection of lending books, the library stores a large array of historical and contemporary archives and artifacts. Krizstina laid out a selection of artifacts and told us the important stories behind each piece, then we were given a quick tour of the back room archives before being left alone to explore. 

Rummaging through back issues of Spare Rib magazine we were deeply impressed with how relevant many of the issues being discussed in the articles, going back as far as the 70s, were still relevant today. We questioned how much progress has been made and how much is still to be achieved. 

As 2018 draws to a close, we would like to thank our funders Heritage Lottery Fund and Glasgow City Council for supporting the Hidden Footprints project. The group and team have been hard at work creating an audio version of our performance, to be shared in the new year, which focuses on the hidden histories and untold stories of women in our city. 

Having focused on the Merchant City area as part of the performance, we are delighted to extend our reach even further, investigating contemporary and historical women’s heritage from a wider city and national landscape.  

i already set up a queue and got 4 gorgeous blogsitters. be nice to them!