As we get ready to say goodbye to the Women in Revolt! exhibition, Amy tells us what she will miss most about the exhibition, her hopes for its legacy and shares her experiences in the gallery spaces.

Over the past three months, Whitworth Art Gallery has been home to Women in Revolt! A powerful, riotous, unapologetic exhibition celebrating women’s protest art and activism in the UK between 1970-1990. Curator Linsey Young first brought WiR! to London audiences at Tate Britain in 2023. Young wanted to create an exhibition that celebrated a post-war generation of women. Women who were not only artists, but also working-class, activists, single parents, housewives, punks, troublemakers, and those continually ignored and underestimated by mainstream society. Young specifically didn’t want to create a ‘Girlboss feminist show’, but rather one that was hard, honest and full of humour. However, most of all she wanted to create an exhibition that her late mother, a single parent let down by the dismantling of the welfare state, would have loved. Having witnessed plenty of mums enthusiastically guiding their children through the exhibition, I’m convinced that she’s succeeded.

After spending a year in London, WiR! travelled to the National Gallery of Scotland for 8 months, before its final stop at Whitworth Art Gallery. Having missed the show when it was in London, I was excited to hear it would be landing in Manchester for its final three months. After getting to know the work of so many ‘revolting women’ at the heart of the show, I feel saddened that this is its final stop. The exhibition has introduced me to incredible artists such as Sutapa Biswas, Bobby Baker, Ingrid Pollard, Margaret Harrison and many other radical women whose work has evoked everything in me from intense rage to pure delight.

I will miss is the glorious sight of the iconic badge wall when the special exhibition doors are opened every morning. As you can see above, the entrance to WiR! is full of brilliant political slogans. There’s the humorous ‘DON’T DO IT DI!’ badges produced by popular feminist magazine Spare Rib before Princess Diana’s wedding in 1981. And my personal favourite ‘IT BEGINS WHILE YOU SINK IN HIS ARMS AND ENDS WITH YOUR ARMS IN HIS SINK’. I’ve loved seeing people pose together in front of the wall, showing friends their favourite badges and engaging in conversations about women’s rights before they’ve even crossed the exhibition threshold. I will miss seeing visitors grin at Jill Posener’s infamous billboard graffiti ‘If this lady were a car she’d run you down’, and watching people absorb the raucous three-minute screams of Gina Birch.

However, the thing I will miss most about WiR! are the conversations I’ve had with visitors on the gallery floor. After a while of being on the Visitor Team, you start to sense when someone is fizzing with thoughts they want to share about a piece of artwork. As a result, I’ve been lucky enough to chat with some amazing women who shared their stories of living, protesting and creating art throughout the 70s and 80s.

I’ve met women who danced on the roof of the army base at Greenham Common; organisers of the Crossroads Women Centre in London that began as a squat in 1975, and is still running today; I’ve met organisers of the RECLAIM THE NIGHT marches in Leeds; women from New Orleans who described being tear gassed during the ACT UP movements in America in the late 1980s; lesbians who fought against Section 28, and are still fighting for the rights of all LGBTQ+ people today; and many other incredible women with equally remarkable stories to tell. I’ve listened to women reflect on how hopeful things felt during the 70s and 80s, and how disheartening it feels that so much of the work in Women in Revolt! still feels relevant to women’s experiences of navigating the world today. I’ve also had someone simply remark ‘This is f*cking brilliant!’ before eagerly disappearing into the next room with the energy of an excited child on a school trip.

While I’m gutted this is the last stop for Women in Revolt! I’m grateful to have learnt so much about the women’s liberation movements in the UK through the work of so many courageous women. Many of the artists featured in the exhibition were censored and / or excluded from mainstream galleries, so to see their work hanging in major galleries across the UK has marked an important moment for contemporary women’s art. While the gallery doors may be closing for now, I’m hopeful the legacy of Women in Revolt! will be a lasting one.

If you’re also not ready to say goodbye WiR!, the Tate and curator Linsey Young have produced an excellent podcast series to accompany the exhibition which you can listen to for free on Spotify. A member of our Visitor Team has also created a brilliant playlist inspired by the exhibition titled ‘The Whitworth – WIR’ which you can also enjoy for free on Spotify.

– Amy