Bolton  

In Bolton, Tandem Theatre partnered with Bolton Council Youth Services to work with one of their young women’s groups.

The group’s aim is to engage the young women in an array of activities to develop young people into adults. Activities ranged from exploring fun light-hearted topics to more issue based projects that aim to inform and challenge perceptions. The Game Changers programme fitted perfectly with this existing group. Both the project workers and youth leaders were impressed by the young women increasing their maturity, independence and their engagement in vocational education through taking part in Game Changers.

“I committed to the group am now back in education and am not getting into trouble as much.” Bolton participant.

LEARNING FROM THE PAST

The group received guided tours at Archives + at Manchester Central Library where they handled the women’s suffrage collection, The People’s History Museum to see the wider context of women’s suffrage, Bolton Museum and Art Gallery to learn of the local suffrage movement and Farnworth library to learn more specifically about their suffragist significant figure.

RECREATING THE PAST

In the arts and crafts workshops the group recreated suffragist materials such as a protest banner, rosettes, sashes, leaflets, booklets and badges. For more information on how suffragists used these materials click here.

The group researched Mary Barnes and decorated a giant jigsaw piece shaped as the Bolton borough with cross-stitch they had done based on the issues Barnes was most passionate about. For information about Mary Barnes click here.

The group recreated the 1908 Manchester Women’s Suffrage Demonstration 1908 by marching down Lark Hill Place (a replica Victorian street at Salford Museum and Art Gallery) in costume wearing their sashes and displaying their banner.

The group recreated the 1908 Manchester Women’s Suffrage Demonstration 1908 by marching down Lark Hill Place (a replica Victorian street at Salford Museum and Art Gallery) in costume wearing their sashes and displaying their banner.

APPLYING THE PAST TO TODAY

The group then applied what they had learnt about the suffragist campaign methods and applied it to today. Focusing on current issues the group felt most impacted them; they developed their own campaign through taking part in a series of workshops such as debating, marketing, music, spoken word, corporate sponsorship and T-shirt printing. For more information about these methods of campaigning click here.

These set of sessions also provided content for the groups to share at the recreation of the 1912 Women’s Suffrage Bazaar. 

ASSOCIATE LEAD ARTIST - Alex Butler

Butler established Moho Crafts in 2017, delivering a wide variety of crafts at workshops, private events, corporate functions and as a part of community projects. She does lots of textile based crafts, especially crochet, but loves get involved in printing, sculpting, woodwork, pretty much anything really! She loves working with people, helping them to explore their own creativity.